Former Blackberry User with Nexus 6P - several questions

[vhl71]

As the title says, I've an opportunity to trade my beloved BlackBerry Passport Silver Edition for the nexus 5x. While I love the passport and bb10 OS, I'm concerned about the longevity of BB10. No one knows how long it'll be supported. It might be on its last leg.

I don't particularly like android - had the galaxy s3 when it came out and then switched to bb10. Bought the BlackBerry Priv and returned it coz of android. But with the vanilla android on nexus 5x I'm considering it.

My main requirement is a stable and fully functional email client like the one BlackBerry has. Does the Gmail client on nexus 5x support exchange email account in addition to the Gmail?

How's the battery life??

Any comments for a BlackBerry user who's considering a move to android??

 

[PapaGary]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

Any comments for a BlackBerry user who's considering a move to android??

Yes: DON'T DO IT!

As a dyed in the wool Android fan I would have to say that I don't think BlackBerry is going to abandon their users overnight. Their dipping a toe into the Android world may inject enough capital to keep the BBOS afloat. I wouldn't jump ship so soon.

(My wife says she will give up her BlackBerry when they pry her cold dead hands off the keyboard.)

 

[mclaser]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

Outlook/Exchange was my biggest concern switching to Android many moons ago. I was told about TouchDown, tried it, and have been using it ever since, with apparently near-full Outlook support (i needed sub-inbox folder support). I think they got bought by Symantec a couple years ago so I don't know their exact current game plan, but I'm currently using out on my 5x with
OL2013 with no issues.

 

[vhl71]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

Outlook/Exchange was my biggest concern switching to Android many moons ago. I was told about TouchDown, tried it, and have been using it ever since, with apparently near-full Outlook support (i needed sub-inbox folder support). I think they got bought by Symantec a couple years ago so I don't know their exact current game plan, but I'm currently using out on my 5x with
OL2013 with no issues.

This is my biggest issue with android, I spent countless hours trying for that elusive email app with no luck.

With nexus 5x, can u check the Gmail App and see whether you can add an exchange account? I have a nexus tablet and the Gmail App does support adding exchange and imap accounts. This is a deal breaker for me if it doesn't support it.

 

[mclaser]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

If I go Add Account one if the options is Exchange. No idea how well it works as I'm using TouchDown without issue and don't really want to open a new can of worms!

 

[vhl71]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

That's good. It means it does support exchange and it works quite well on my tablet. Syncs all folders and search works quite well also.

 

[Jonneh]

Re: Switch from BlackBerry Passport SE??

I don't particularly like android - had the galaxy s3 when it came out and then switched to bb10. Bought the BlackBerry Priv and returned it coz of android. But with the vanilla android on nexus 5x I'm considering it.

Well, if I recall correctly, the Priv runs a mostly-stock version of Android with a few extras here and there; it's one of the reasons it was so well-received.
With this in mind, if you're LIKING the 5x's OS and NOT LIKING the Priv's, you're really only liking 6.0 Marshmallow and disliking 5._ Lollipop.
Basically, you like the latest version of Android, but not the older version.

However, aesthetically, the difference between Lollipop and Marshmallow is minuscule. So it's confusing why you say you'd not like one over the other, unless you're talking purely about how well it performs, and not talking about its looks.

 

[vhl71]

Do not disturb feature

Does the do not feature work like bed side mode in BlackBerry 10? When you go to bed, you invoke do not disturb mode and it's active still the next alarm goes off. After that this mode automatically gets disabled. Does it work the same way with marshmallow?

Also does this version have any inbuilt profiles function? Vibrate, silent etc which, I can quickly activate.

 

[Lefank]

Re: Do not disturb feature

Yes. It actually gives you a few options to control but I set it to stay on until my alarm goes off. This was added in the latest update I believe.

Lefank

 

[vhl71]

Email App on nexus 6p

Does the nexus marshmallow come with a separate email app in addition to the Gmail? If it's just gmail how good is it? I see it supports exchange account now.

Can someone check whether we can search emails on server, folder sync etc?? Can we attach multiple files from drop box while composing an email?

 

[LeoRex]

Re: Email App on nexus 6p

GMail is the only email app included out of the box. As for how good is it, that's a matter of personal taste. Some love it, some hate it. But that's the same for all email clients.

As far as searching... Gmail ONLY stores the messages 'on the server'. There are no locally stored folders or files.

 

[vhl71]

Re: Email App on nexus 6p

GMail is the only email app included out of the box. As for how good is it, that's a matter of personal taste. Some love it, some hate it. But that's the same for all email clients.

As far as searching... Gmail ONLY stores the messages 'on the server'. There are no locally stored folders or files.

I meant searching for emails on server. When u setup your mail for say 7 days or 3 months it only syncs for that period. If u want search for an emails older than that u need an option to search on server.

 

[vhl71]

File Manager integration with email

Just played with nexus 6p at a store. Pretty disappointed with the file manager integration with email. I couldn't attach multiple files from dropbox while composing emails. It opens the Downloader and shows dropbox but it only attaches one file at a time (even that failed saying can't attach empty file after repeated attempts)

Can anyone confirm this? I remember you could do the same if you've your files in Google drive!! It's a shame that u couldn't do this simple thing on the greatest phone!!

 

[vhl71]

Re: File Manager integration with email

No one??

 

[vhl71]

Should I switch to the 6P??

Been a BlackBerry user for a long time. Currently using the Passport SE. While I love the bb10 OS, I'm wondering about how long the OS will last. Should I switch to nexus 6p? I'm not a big fan of android. But with plain android version I might be OK. Mainly I use the phone for emails, texts and talk. Not a big fan of apps. I would still miss the BlackBerry Hub and the fantastic email client of BlackBerry. Is this worth considering??

 

[sydneycooper1979]

Re: Should I switch??

Hello! The 6P is a great device! Are you not interested in the Blackberry Priv? That's a great phone that has a little bit of both OS in it.

 

[vhl71]

Re: Should I switch??

Hello! The 6P is a great device! Are you not interested in the Blackberry Priv? That's a great phone that has a little bit of both OS in it.

Bought the Priv and returned it in a week. Didn't like android and the slide out keyboard. Plus I was missing the bb10 features too much. That's my main concern with nexus as well. Not a big fan of android.

 

[anon(847090)]

Re: Should I switch??

I follow blackberry very closely and i feel like blackberry wont release any more BB10 devices. They use to release one every few months and the last BB announced was on March 2015
They will stick with 1 or 2 android devices/year going forward and might drop devices if the revenue falls further. looking at last weeks revenue they will drop next Q.

The above result(uncertainty) is the only reason i am hesitant to recommend Priv. if you want to get in to Android the best way is to get a Nexus.

 

[jbbrown79]

Re: Should I switch??

You mentioned a couple of times that you're not a big fan of Android - what is it that you don't like?

 

[bjrosen]

Re: Should I switch??

Two questions, 1) How wedded to Blackberry's services are your, 2) Do you believe Blackberry has a future in the handset business?

As stated above Blackberry does have an Android phone, it costs about $200 more than the Nexus 6P and it's specs aren't quite as good. However it has a physical keyboard and it's a Blackberry. The BB10 OS is dead so you can take that off the table. The Priv is Blackberry's last shot at staying in the phone business. There isn't a lot of margin in phones so you have to sell a lot of them to make any money. I don't see how Blackberry can possibly sell enough Privs to make the investment in further development worthwhile so I'd bet they will be out of the phone business by next summer and they will focus on providing their services on other Android and Apple phones. If you are a true believer then you might want to take a chance on a Priv, otherwise it's time to move on.

Everyone in this forum will tell you that the 6P is the way to go, but obviously you'll get a different story from Samsung or Apple users. Here are the arguments for the 6P,

Nexus phones get their updates directly from Google. There is no carrier or manufacturer bloatware installed and the carriers can't interfere with updates. Google supports Nexus phones for much longer than other Android manufacturers because Google doesn't make it's money on the hardware, it makes it on services/advertising so a two year old Android phone is worth just as much to them as a new one. Samsung and the other Android vendors need you to upgrade as often as possible, one way to do that is to stop providing OS updates to older phones. They also don't have an interest in providing timely OS updates because that's a cost to them, it doesn't generate any new sales. This argument applies to both the Nexus 5X and the 6P.

The arguments for the 6P are,

1) The screen, it's 2K AMOLED. It's as good as it gets.
2) Speakers are loud. When you are using the phone for navigation this is really important because you can hear the directions clearly without having to attach to a bluetooth speaker.
3) The CPU is top of the line at the moment. Most flagship phones are using the same 810 processor but the performance on the 6P is snappier because it isn't crippled by manufacturers proprietary interfaces.
4) The camera is excellent. Some other flag ships might have slightly better camera's, but the difference isn't great enough to tolerate the dreadful UIs that they layer on top of Android or the slower updates.