CrackBerry.com on Android - Round Robin

[Kevin Michaluk]

Howdy Android Users!

So the Smartphone Round Robin has officially kicked off, and Round 1 has me putting Android through it's paces.

Going back to last year's Round Robin, I was pretty happy about aspects of the T-Mobile G1 and especially the Android platform. I liked the Google homescreen user experience and overall found the device to be pretty stable, which was impressive for an operating system in early stages.

For devices, I'm using the Droid and the Hero. So I want to know from you all:

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?
2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?
3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?
4. what are the must have apps? how does the device do with running them all?
5. how do you go about loading up the device with media (music, movies, etc.)
6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.

and let me know anything else you think I need to know!

Mucho thanks!!

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Howdy Android Users!

So the Smartphone Round Robin has officially kicked off, and Round 1 has me putting Android through it's paces.

Going back to last year's Round Robin, I was pretty happy about aspects of the T-Mobile G1 and especially the Android platform. I liked the Google homescreen user experience and overall found the device to be pretty stable, which was impressive for an operating system in early stages.

For devices, I'm using the Droid and the Hero. So I want to know from you all:

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?
2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?
3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?
4. what are the must have apps? how does the device do with running them all?
5. how do you go about loading up the device with media (music, movies, etc.)
6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.

and let me know anything else you think I need to know!

Mucho thanks!!

KEVIN! I've missed ya man, I won't lie, I'm a former BlackBerry Storm owner, but I still have much love for the BB Platform. Anyway...I am using a Motorola Droid, so here goes...

1) Hardware is fantastic. The Droid simply feels solid, and the sliding mechanism on the hardware keyboard is flawless IMO. Although some have issues with the keyboard, I find it easy to use once you get used to it.

2) I'm going to split this up into two parts. First, I'll talk prior to the 2.0.1 software update.

2.0: The battery was pretty decent for me. I could get through an entire day with moderately heavy use and end with about 20 or 30% battery life. This includes 30-45 minutes of web browsing, just over an hour or so of total talk time, at least a hundred texts, and a half or dozen emails sent.

2.0.1: VAST improvement in battery life. Under virtually the same exact amount of use as before, I am now coming home at the end of the day/night with about 60% of battery life remaining, sometimes 70%.

3) I switched from a BlackBerry Storm 9530. As many here have previously stated, one of the things I miss more than anything else is BBM. I had several friends who used BBM almost religiously, so making the switch to Android and no longer being able to use BBM was a tough decision.

There's no doubt that RIM has Push Email down to a science, and although the Droid does a pretty good job at Email, it's just not quite the same. Although my primary email account is Gmail, I do find that Android doesn't do as good of a job with my other email accounts (such as my military, and school emails) as my Storm did.

However, one thing I love about the switch is reliability and the look and feel. I was beginning to feel that the BlackBerry platform was outdated and in need of a refresh. With Android, especially on the Droid itself, it feels sleek, modern and reliable. I can't tell you how many times I've thought to myself "just do a battery pull", but then remembered that this was not a BlackBerry.

4) Although the Droid does a pretty darn good job of memory management, one of the first apps I would recommend to someone who is new to Android is either Advanced Task Manager (Paid App) or TasKiller (Free). They both do an excellent job of monitoring what apps and processes are running on your device, and make it fairly simple to kill running apps on the fly.

Other apps, at least to me, that are a must have are Barcode Scanner, Beautiful Widgets, and PicSay Photo Editor. Many also recommend Chompsms and Handcent. The Droid seems to run off of these apps seamlessly. When you tap the app you want, it seems to open almost instantly. I've found very little if any delay or lag when running multiple apps at once.

5) This is something that I may differ from other users in. I don't really load up a ton of music or media on my Droid. I have however transferred several songs to my Droid to be used as ringtones or alarms by mounting the SD card when connected to my PC.

6) Good ol' Demographics. I am male, 21 years old, MOSTLY use it for personal use, however I do use it to stay connected to my military Email when I am on the go. I am a student as well, and also use the Droid to sync up with my school's email address, and it works quite well.

 

[hatch.duffy]

Hey there Kevin! Former 9530 owner but still have it on one of my lines.

Just to add to the post above, the customization is amazing. There are apps called Home Alternative apps. Some of the most noted are Home++, PandaHome, aHome, dxTop, and GDE. Most of these allow you to choose how many homescreens you want to show (I think PandaHome you can show up to 9 homescreens.) The ability to add widgets make things quick and easy to access. Also with these home alt apps, you can essentially create your own themes on the fly. You can download icon packs and font packs and essentially skin things the way that you want.

The main thing I miss about BB is BBM, although Google Talk is an ok alternative since most of my BBM contacts have gmail accounts as well.

Adding to the post above, I have never had to do a battery pull. I did once the day I got it just to see how long it takes to reboot (under 1 min), and in actuality you don't have to do a battery pull. You can completely shut the phone down by holding down the power button.

Task Killers are ok apps to use, but even without one, Android does a great job at managing memory on its own. It will free up memory from idle apps as needed. What the task killers will enable you to do is set certain apps on an ignore list so that they never close until you decide for them to.

That's about all I have to add. Don't worry I am still a frequent crackberry.com visitor! Looking forward to the OpenGL API!

*EDIT* also wanted to add that the out of the box Exchange support was a big plus for me. My company does not have BES because they supply WinMo phones (which I absolutely was not going to carry) which means I was getting emails 5-7 minutes after they would normally hit my inbox since I had to set it up through Outlook Web Access.

Aside from Exchange however, I don't think the Gmail is true push,although there have been some instances where I have tested and gotten the messages immediately.

RIM rules email hands down

 

[hookbill]

Howdy Android Users!

So the Smartphone Round Robin has officially kicked off, and Round 1 has me putting Android through it's paces.

Going back to last year's Round Robin, I was pretty happy about aspects of the T-Mobile G1 and especially the Android platform. I liked the Google homescreen user experience and overall found the device to be pretty stable, which was impressive for an operating system in early stages.

For devices, I'm using the Droid and the Hero. So I want to know from you all:

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?
2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?
3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?
4. what are the must have apps? how does the device do with running them all?
5. how do you go about loading up the device with media (music, movies, etc.)
6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.

and let me know anything else you think I need to know!

Mucho thanks!!

Hardware feels a bit heavy but other then that it's comfortable.
Battery life is compatible to Blackberry Storm 2.
Faster browser then blackberry. I like the touch screen better. No need to worry about memory.
Apps I like are backgrounds, google voice, Spare Parts, Barcode Scanner (much better then BBM) wave secure, seesmic (twitter), ringroid (mp3 ringtones).
Pictures and music I use Double Twist. I don't do movies so I don't know.

I'm just a consumer who loves smart phones and the Droid rocks.

One other thing the only thing I miss about the Storm vs the Droid is my blue tooth voice call but I'm resolving that by getting a Blue Ant Q1.

 

[atlas9171]

Have to admit

As a Tour owner I've been seriously considering trying the Droid out, it's definitely tempting me. Just to throw out some demographics. I'm male, 38, would use it mainly as a consumer user

 

[o14]

Hey, I'm a 21 year old university student, and I've tried out my friends' Hero and I have to say the hardware is fairly impressive, built very solidly. I'm not a fan of the keyboard, but I imagine Hero supporters would say that I just need to get used to it!

 

[soccernamlak]

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?

Hardware is solid, very comfortable, and I think it's like many smartphones: becomes easier to use the more you use it.

2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?

I charge every few days, but I'm a moderately heavy user.

3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?

BBM and BIS were wonderful.

6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.


21 year old male that's a student in college

 

[the one and only M]

1. The Droid is solid. After using it for a while, the Tour seems alot smaller than before.
2. With heavy use, I can make it through the day. The longest I've went without a charge is two.
3. No battery pulls so far!
6. 18 year old student

 

[cafe_civet]

Check out Google Goggles!!

 

[techshoe#WN]

In terms of apps, I would say twidroid or swift or seesmic for Twitter.
And check out Google Goggles and let us know how it works. Some people love it, some people don't lol.

 

[Magellan]

Data sync

I am a 43 year old CPA using a G1 and having constant connection to Exchange and Google information and having ot always synced has been very handy indeed. I am just getting into the Social networking and it seems to be very timely in updates. I currently only use facebook, twitter and linked in apps.

 

[anon(2088)]

No more track ball issues!!!
I miss my Bold 9000 keyboard and push email for all accounts, but other than that I'm loving the Droid. Cut/Copy and Paste was tricky for me to get used to because I came from a non-touch screen device, but practice makes perfect... One thing I really miss is being able to edit a ROM before installing and removing all the bloated software. If you can't remove the software, you could at least hide it.

Apps to try:
* Speed Forge 3D demo
* Abduction!
* Google Goggles
* Barcode Scanner
* shopSavvy
* tv.com
* Documents to go
* Pandora
* Frozen Bubble
* Trap
* Jewels

 

[braddyg]

1. I've used the Eris (Hero) a few times and I really like it, but the screen seems small compared to my BB Storm. The Droid seems amazing, but I've only played with it a little in the store.

2. The Eris has decent battery life, usually makes it through a day with a little juice left but could be better.

3. I love the notification options on the Droid - customization options are nearly non-existent for the Storm in this area, and I've had problems with both 3rd-party apps I tried for this. The physical keyboard on the Droid is a little awkward, but I think that with a little use it would be a vast improvement over the 10-15 second lag I get on the Storm when typing a text/email.

4. Google Maps Navigation. Period. I would give up just about every other app in a trade for GMN.

5. I haven't loaded any music/videos on Android yet, so I can't really speak to this much. I can say that the music player on the Droid is pretty ugly, but the Storm only gets a slight advantage there.

6. 30 year-old professional male, don't own an Android device (yet!) but my brother has the Eris and I've been drooling over the Droid for a couple of months now. I've also played around with Android a little on my modded HTC Touch Vogue and really like the overall feel of the UI.

 

[Skeek]

As an aging Storm user, I love the Storm's rather large fonts (compared to WM, for example). But I desperately miss having a real keyboard--I find it takes too much attention to type well--I used to be able to bang out messages in meetings without even looking at my phone. I won't get into the stability issues on the Storm. How do the font sizes compare on the Droid? Is it comparable?

 

[briankeith513]

Hey Kevin. I'm a huuuge blackberry fan, and I was given the Motorola Droid to review and keep. I had recently purchased the Storm2, and already had the Bold and Tour and Storm1, and had been using the 9700 Bold. My favorite berry of them all is the Storm2, hands down, with the 9700, then 9630 coming close.

I didn't think I'd like the Motorola Droid, however, I was very wrong!

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?
The hardware is very high quality. The keyboard is not as good as a blackberry's, but it is useable. I'd prefer if it didn't have the lip/chin that extends at the bottom, but overall, its very good on the hardware side.

2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?
The battery life is, ok. However, for my usage, its really no better or no worse than berries that I've used. I can go through the day with heavy usage, but must charge by evening time, sometimes, it lasts til late at night. I'd always like a better battery.
3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?
I like that the Droid has a much better browser with no download caps so far, much faster browser. I also like how it renders html emails much better than blackberries, and doesn't truncate emails. I also like how the phone's ui is just faster than any berry to date, including the 9700 and the 9550. I like how gmail looks and works like a first-class replica of the desktop gmail, with better search than blackberry, and 2way sync. I also like how, I don't have to do a battery pull every other day, and when I reboot my phone, it doesn't take 5 minutes like it does on a berry, it only takes slightly over 1 minute. The openness, flashiness of the ui, and more and better apps also makes it more fun to use.

I miss all of the email options from blackberries, and the synchonization with outlook and other things of blackberry, and the copy n paste options from blackberries.

Other than that, the Motorola Droid is the best phone that I've ever used. The second best, would probably be the Storm2 9550.

4. what are the must have apps? how does the device do with running them all?
The must have apps are twidroid pro, flixter, dockrunner, beautiful widgets, weather channel, sports tap, feedr, and just too many others to name. It does just fine with the apps running, doesn't really slow down the device very often.

5. how do you go about loading up the device with media (music, movies, etc.)
Adding media is a simple drop n drag, with the phone connected to a pc via the data cable.

6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.
I'm using it as a 30 yr old male consumer.

 

[BADST39_Rattler]

From the looks of it, a Droid would be a great improvement from my Curve. I would miss BBM, but guess my friends would have to switch to Google Talk. I did play with my friends Droid and think it is a very cool phone.

 

[royk]

I'm a BB user but I've been acquainting myself with the Droid lately and here's what I think:

1. The hardware is great. Capacitive touchscreen navigation is so intuitive and easy; going back to the BB trackball feels like a marked devolution.
2. I don't own one but I've used one for a couple hours on end, and battery life is decent. From my experience, it's okay, not great, not terrible.
3. Android is so much more open and customizable. I love the widgets on the Hero. Not only is it pretty to look at it, everything's a lot more fluid and accessible than when I'm on my BB. It's also so well integrated that the device doesn't feel like a glorified app launcher, like the iPhone. A hard full QWERTY keyboard is pretty important to me, which is why the Droid is attractive to me (I just wish it was multi-touch enabled!), but soft keyboards have slowly started to grow on me.
4. Haven't tried it myself, but Beautiful Widgets for the Droid seems pretty awesome. You get the pretty widgets from the Hero on the Droid's beautiful screen.
5. Haven't gotten around to loading the device up with media yet.
6. I'm a freelancer that comes across most of my work through the internet and e-mail, so having that at my fingertips is pretty imperative. I've been using a Curve for the last two years and the BB's limitations in general have really started to become apparent as Android has gotten stronger.

 

[rodhnc]

Palm Pre user, but that Droid looks cool. I wonder though if I'll ever be happy with a less-hackable device though, having been spoiled by WebOS Home Brew apps?

 

[onlineaddy]

1. Droid HW is excellent.
2. Comparable
3. Better touchscreen, worse physical keyboard
4. social networks, IM, mail, music (Pandora, etc.)
5. copy & paste
6. both business and personal use

 

[Sunofabob]

Hey Kevin! Hey Android Users!

Howdy Android Users!

So the Smartphone Round Robin has officially kicked off, and Round 1 has me putting Android through it's paces.

Going back to last year's Round Robin, I was pretty happy about aspects of the T-Mobile G1 and especially the Android platform. I liked the Google homescreen user experience and overall found the device to be pretty stable, which was impressive for an operating system in early stages.

For devices, I'm using the Droid and the Hero. So I want to know from you all:

1. how do you find the hardware (comfort of use, ease of use)?
2. how do you find the battery life (everyday light/normal use, heavy use)?
3. if you we're a BB user and switched up to give Android a test, what do you like and not like about it?
4. what are the must have apps? how does the device do with running them all?
5. how do you go about loading up the device with media (music, movies, etc.)
6. with all that, i want to know your background - are you in business (using it for professional use), a consumer, a student, young, old, male, female, etc.

and let me know anything else you think I need to know!

Mucho thanks!!

I am a BB 8900 user(soon to be 9700)

I haven't gotten the chance to really explore the Android world but from the ARchos 5, Cliq, My Touch, and G1 I have become familiar with, plus my Best Friend, younger sister, ex-girlfriend, etc, have the G1 so I can speak on a few things.

The My touch is so smooth to the touch. I like the way it feels and looks, and how you can attach skins to it with ease. The G1, not so much. With that said, I can say that Androids without the physical keyboard are more pleasing to the hand.

Most of us know that the G1 sucks on battery life but the other Androids make up for that. The best way to keep a G1 juiced throughout the day is by turning off the 3G and using it lightly, also by getting the advanced task killer to you can stop apps from running when they don't need to be. There's no such thing as heavy use on a G1 but I know that the My Touch and Cliq can handle a few hours of hard usage without bending to the battery life death gods.

What I love most about Android devices is the ability to have widgets and truly personal interface. My younger sister has all 3 of her home screen filled with picture, app shortcuts and widgets. I don't like the bulk of most Android devices but I can't say that they don't have one that would fit me.

I say, you need the Advanced Task Killer, Chomp SMS, some type of GPS and ringdroid, seesmic.

Media, it is as simple as drag and drop to the media card.

Honestly, if I was banned from using a BB for 3 months, my only choice would be an android, preferably a My Touch 3G or Eris. I'm used to physical qwerty but they just look good and feel even better. Again, Androids are my second love(not cheating on BB but everyone admires something else) but, I'm not trading my BB for anything but a BB.

I am a 19 year old male, I use my 8900 for business and personal use. I have 5 email addresses, I own a blog site (co-own another) and I need to be able to receive multiple emails for different reasons to contact a lot of people. I have over 120 BBM contacts and I use it as a direct contact method for easy help when people need it for OS upgrades/apps...so I need a device that is fast with email, multi-tasks and great on battery. BB's are the best.