From BB 9650 to Droid 2?

[Pete7874]

I'm still within the 30-day exchange period and am contemplating switching from Bold 9650 to Droid 2. I used to own MyTouch 4G for a little while, and ever since I returned it to T-M, I kind of miss all the cool things it could do. What I did not like was the pathetic battery life.

But first and foremost, the phone is a business tool for me. I need to be able to receive and send work emails (via Exchange Server) and I've heard some people having problems with it in that respect. Is this a fixable issue?

Secondly, should I expect the D2 (world edition) battery life to be as bad as MT4G? Does the extended battery make the phone even bigger? It's already rather big to begin with...

I've also read some reviews expressing issues with voice quality on this phone.

All in all, am I crazy for wanting to return BB 9650 and getting D2 instead? The BB OS seems kind of dated and limited now, and the web browser is a joke. However, when it comes to call quality, emailing, and battery life, it does well.

Any suggestions will be welcome.

Thanks!

 

[Smitty_82]

The D2 would definently be an upgrade from any BB. I've used the D2 and have no complaints about sound quality and the battery life is not bad. You won't get as good battery life as BB, but that goes with the territory. As far as exchange it should work fine for you, I have exchange on my DX for my grad school and works fine with stock, other use the app Touchdown and have no issues.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

I would try it out and see if you like it. It depends on your overall needs out of the phone. BB is hard to beat when it comes to handling email but I've found apps like K9mail or Touchdown to handle emails just as well as BB.

 

[Nozzles Brewin]

From someone who came from the 9650 to the droid 2 I highly reccomend the droid, without a question

 

[mattydipps#AC]

i just switched from the 9650 to the droid 2 today and i feel the 9650 is more concentrated for "business execs" who like plain and simple layouts the droid is more for people who love their phones and what their phones can do IMO the droid has way better layout then the bb and way better apps.... and it only took me 2 hours to realize i havent been enjoying my phone for the last 3 years

 

[Jaredshoes]

Also look into the droid pro it has a nice keyboard and is supposed to be buisness oriented yes sad to say this but android OS Is kinda hard on battery

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk

 

[Pete7874]

Thanks all. Sounds like everyone is advocating the move to D2. I might just have to get the extended battery/door.

 

[adidas81]

I'd definitely recommend the D2G as well as the extended battery. Having been a former owner of a BB 9650, I have to say that BB feels like an old Apple computer from the early 90s compared to the Droid. For business/email purposes, BB might have the field locked down, but for entertainment and fun in a phone the D2G wins by a landslide.

 

[Pete7874]

For business/email purposes, BB might have the field locked down, but for entertainment and fun in a phone the D2G wins by a landslide.

Right, but that was actually my original question: Can the D2G be as good of a business phone as the BB, and then some? My primary application for this phone will be business use, but it'll also serve as a personal phone.

 

[John Yester]

I have been using my Droid 2 for work and personal use for the past two weeks and I am glad I switched.

 

[markm]

I came from a BB Curve (via a brief excursion to a Palm Pre Plus) and I find the Droid 2 is way more capable than my Curve was business wise. Here's my personal business use thoughts and I'm sure if you ask 100 people, you'll get 110 opinions:
1) Curve only synced email not contacts/calendar unless I joined my company BES. Droid 2 syncs all three, but it does depend on what your Exchange administrator allows. I personally have had no issues with the out of box tools with the exception of...
2) When the Exchange server goes down, the Droid seems much less capable of handling outages and all of Exchange content goes away. This has happened twice to me in 3 months. It then comes back when the server is back. I synced my contacts over to my GMail account so I at least have all the contacts and their photos, ring tones, etc even when Exchange goes down
3) Droid 2 does not sort contacts by company nor pay any attention to how Outlook is set to display them -- I added pictures of the company logos for each person and purchased an app called Call Informer that pops up the company and title for any caller in my address book when they call
4) Web browsing is WAAAAAY better and I can even log into the sites I work with on my clients and see the real (non-mobile) web versions
5) Sound profiles -- the BB had more abilities to have different profiles, but you can get free apps to automatically silence your phone at certain times (standing meetings for example) or to automatically unsilence your phone after a certain duration (after impromptu quick (90 min) meeting with your boss)
6) Agenda display -- On my BB, I had a display where it had my agenda right on the front screen. I downloaded an app called Android Agenda that does a superb job of displaying appts in a huge variety of sizes, details, and looks and with 7 home screens you can slice and dice screens however you want to.

I'd give the Droid 2 a definite up vote for business use. Probably the biggest surprise I've had was how little I use the physical keyboard. Unless I'm typing a long email, most of the time I find it is easier to use the on-screen keyboard with Sywpe than to slide out the keyboard and peck away. Definitely a personal decision.

 

[RiverRunsByIt]

I came from a BB 9659 and have been happy so far. I have the extended batt and it lasts longer than my BB did. The bump isn't too bad. In fact I kind of like it when holding the phone. Call quality is about the same in my opinion.

The native exchange support is good. Touchdown provides a pretty good experience if you need a bit more features.

I really like the option of using the slider keyboard when needing to bang out a long email. Not as nice as the BB, but the browser and Apps by far make up for it.

 

[Pete7874]

Update: I ended up picking up the D2G last night. It's OK I guess. So far the battery life is terrible. I don't know if it'll get better after a few charges. I fully charged it in the evening, then unplugged it from the charger at 1 am and did not touch it until 9 am this morning (8 hours). Now the battery is down to 40%.

Battery usage reports the following stats:
37% phone idle
28% cell standby
15% android system

I'd hate to think what would happen if I actually tried to use it during that time to make a phone call or check email.


Another question: doesn't the phone come with some bedside clock app out of the box? Is there a good free one you can recommend?

 

[Cyber Warrior]

Update: I ended up picking up the D2G last night. It's OK I guess. So far the battery life is terrible. I don't know if it'll get better after a few charges. I fully charged it in the evening, then unplugged it from the charger at 1 am and did not touch it until 9 am this morning (8 hours). Now the battery is down to 40%.

Battery usage reports the following stats:
37% phone idle
28% cell standby
15% android system

I'd hate to think what would happen if I actually tried to use it during that time to make a phone call or check email.


Another question: doesn't the phone come with some bedside clock app out of the box? Is there a good free one you can recommend?

Give it a few days. Your probably draining the battery quickly from setting things up. Same happened to me the first few days. As for the app, that's the exact name of it.... "Bedside" in the market.

 

[Pete7874]

Give it a few days. Your probably draining the battery quickly from setting things up.

I was doing nothing. I was sleeping and the phone was just laying there for 8 hours. I haven't touched it once.

 

[Cyber Warrior]

I was doing nothing. I was sleeping and the phone was just laying there for 8 hours. I haven't touched it once.

There are dozens of threads on how to improve your battery life but ill try to name as many as I can. Also when you first get the phone, try to charge it for a good 8-12 hours the first 4 days.
Lower your screen brightness or set it to auto

Lower the time for the screen to turn off

Lower the update intervals for Widgets and Apps. If they are constantly updating themselves in the background, it could drain your battery fast.

If you decide to get into rooting, you can uninstall all the crap you don't need that came with the phone. Custom Roms will also help increase battery life.