From BB to Android? Few questions first...

[AllAboutAlyssa]

So, I've been thinking about ditching my BlackBerry and joining the Android family. But I have a few questions first that I'm hoping I can get answers/opinions from. Thanks in advance!

Now, before you tell me to search the forums, I have. I've browsed through all of the Eris threads (reading the ones that captured my interest) and started on page one of AndroidCentral, again browsing and reading most articles up to the most current. I've read the entire VZW Eris guide. I've pored over reviews, watched videos, etc etc etc... So I do apologize if anything I ask here has been asked already. After all of that reading, I can only retain so much haha

Before I list my questions, here's a little about me: I'm with Verizon. Have owned BlackBerries for some time now (Storm1, Curve 8330, and Tour). Toyed around with the idea of an iPhone, but got the iTouch and I'm fine with that.
Really only interested in the Eris at the moment. I'm not planning on switching from VZW and the DROID isn't what I want. Hate the keyboard, love Sense UI and the Eris seems right for me. Also, definitely not a fan of the N1. Yes, I know VZW is going to carry it. No thanks. So please don't try to talk me into something else right now.

Questions:
1. Battery Life-Anyone an ex-Tourist that can make a comparison? I do plan on buying the extended Seidio 1750 battery, though. Opinions on that would be welcome. Extra life without the added bulk? Genius!

2. I, having girly-girl moments, frequently have acrylic nails. Any girls here have trouble with the keyboard? I can manage on my iTouch but the Storm1 was near impossible. Or just general comparisons/opinions/raves/complaints are welcome.

3. Trackball quality. Let's just say I wish everyday that my Tour had the trackpad. How does the Android trackball measure up against the BB's?

4. One thing I love about my BB is being able to customize it with wallpapers/themes to suit my mood (again, a girly-girl thing ). I like the Sense on the Eris, big selling point, but do Androids have 'themes'? Is this an advantage of rooting (still shaky on that definition, btw).

5. Does not having a flash become a huge issue? I'm not crazy with the cameras on phones, I don't use it daily, but I DO use it enough to care.

6. Is the browser really THAT inferior to the DROID? I understand the DRIOD runs 2.0 vs the Eris' 1.5, so I understand that is going to have an impact as well.

7. How does the calendar compare to that of the BB's? Sort of a broad question, but everyone always manages to have an opinion anyway.

8. I am loving the upcoming Desire. Haven't looked around enough to know if there is a rumored carrier for it yet. Anyone know? I'm impatient, but I'd be willing to wait (maybe).

9. Will 2.1 REALLY make a lot of changes? Opinions and straight facts are both welcome for this. I understand that it's not technically out yet, but remember, I own a Tour on VZW. Waiting (for 5.0) is something I'm good at, so time isn't an issue.

10. How are these syncing up to Macs? I love DM for my BB on my Mac and it makes life 5 million times easier. Any Mac/Android users care to share on this?

11. Almost-off-topic-but-not-quite: I love following blogs by BB users (Nancy Drew, Emarsha, Ashabees, BBBM, etc). Any of these available for Android fanatics? I know of Droid-life. That's about it haha

That's all I can think of now. I apologize for any informational/grammatical/spelling/run-on errors, it's been a long day at work. (but I'm off tomorrow!!)

 

[greengoo]

I'll add just the one's I feel safe answering:

3) I love the trackball. It responds both to fast, jerky movements, and slow, methodical ones equally well. My favorite feature: it "throbs" white when you have a message. Very cool.

4) Tons of wallpapers available easily both online and through Apps. What I like better is all you need to do is set a .jpeg to the right resolution and bam it's good to go, anything you want. Also, there is an abundance of apps for base customization readily available. 2.1 should be bringing the new "active" wallpapers to Eris (correct me if I'm wrong on that one people) so that'll be cool too.

5. I've found the camera works well in most light situations, so I haven't really missed the flash. That said, I'm sure someone else is more qualified to answer that who is super into phone photography.

9. As far as I'm aware 2.1 will speed up the phone slightly, fix a few bugs, add a couple new features, brush your teeth, do your laundry and cure mother ****ing cancer.

 

[doogald]

5. Does not having a flash become a huge issue? I'm not crazy with the cameras on phones, I don't use it daily, but I DO use it enough to care.

Photos are very grainy in low light, IMHO.

6. Is the browser really THAT inferior to the DROID? I understand the DRIOD runs 2.0 vs the Eris' 1.5, so I understand that is going to have an impact as well.

I think that the browser is fine. More than fine, having come from a Windows Mobile 6 Standard phone, which had a truly piece of junk that they call a browser. In short, it gives me everything I need when I am away from my computer.

10. How are these syncing up to Macs? I love DM for my BB on my Mac and it makes life 5 million times easier. Any Mac/Android users care to share on this?

I don't really sync it with my Mac, I sync my Mac with Google. BusySync or Spanning Sync are worth every penny that they charge; you can sync up any and all of your calendars and you address book with Google Calendar and Gmail contacts. Now, I can enter an appointment on my phone, on iCal, or on Google Calendar on the web, and it will be updated almost immediately (rather instantly on the phone, when I enter on other places; I use Spanning Sync and it checks for updates from Google Calendar every 15 minutes, though it pushes changes to iCal and Address Book immediately.)

When you do plug in the phone, it will (by default, though you can change this) automatically open iPhoto to import photos as well. You can also easily drag and drop files to and from the SD card when you connect.

 

[JerseyFF]

1. Battery life- The Seidio 1750 is a must. It gives you the ability to make it through an average day, without charging your phone being in the back of your head all day.

3. Trackball- I have no experience with a BB so I cant compare, but I have not run into any flaws with the trackball.

4. Themes- The Market is full of low-cost options for putting in place themes on your Eris. aHome, being one of the more common ones with hundreds of themes available.

5. Flash- I have taken 200+ pictures with my Eris since I got it in November. I have not run into too much trouble with not having a flash. I moved to the Eris from a Boulder, which had an LED flash and honestly, the thing was a waste, I took better pictures with ambient light rather then using the short-range flash that was on it anyway. I found myself using it as a flashlight a lot more then as a camera flash.

6. Browser- I honestly cant say much to the stock browser because I didn't use it much more than the first month. Dolphin browser solves all your browsing needs with tabs, multi-touch and much more in-depth features that I haven't had much time to experiment with yet.

8. Desire- AT&T (link)

 

[TJohnsonmp01]

I also can't answer all your questions but I will give you my phone history and my review of the Eris so far. I went from Storm 1 to Tour to Storm 2 to the Eris. I have now had the Eris for a lil over a week and for the most part I do LOVE it. It is leaps and bounds over BBerries in my opinion. The browser alone blows away the BBerries IMO...I didn't ever download things to make bberries faster I'm talking about the browsers stock out the box, hands down Eris is better. It is a very smooth phone and I love the keyboard, I have found I can type in either portrait or landscape on it. With my storms I could only type well when it was in landscape mode. You can customize it anyway you like and really make it your own. Plus with the different scenes you can set different ones (work, play, weekend, social etc) you can easily change themes etc depending on your mood.

The only thing I truly miss about my bberries is the custom profile settings (being able to set different ringtone per contact per notification ie...you call i have a certain ringtone and then when you text a diff ringtone..haven't figured how to do that on Eris yet) and having a flash for the camera. I also don't like that I can't silence a SMS when it comes thru. On my bberry if someone came up to me and started talking and I got an SMS I could simply press any side button on the phone and it would silence. This is not the case with the Eris. You either have to press the volume button all the way down or open the messge. I emailed HTC for a better and more efficient way and they simply said put the phone on silent. I'm not an idiot so I was pretty pissed with that response. For the most part I do want my phone to sound when I get notifications but there are times when it is rude and needs to be silenced. I do use my camera often and will probably trade my Eris in for the Incredible or Nexus One just for that reason alone. If this phone had a flash It would be PERFECT. OH I do miss the DM for bberry as well I found it very easy to move pics and things around. I don't use Outlook so the HTC Sync is useless to me so still adjusting on moving info between CPU and Cell. I do love Google tho and use it for my contacts and calender and have no problems. On my bberries I was only able to see past dates 4 weeks prior or 24 weeks in advance. So far I have not seen any of those limits on my Eris. I have my work schedule for the next year on my Google calendar and can see all the dates.

Sorry this is so long and I was rambling. But I do hope I brought some things to your attention that you may not have considered prior. All of the statements above are MY opinion only so please don't flame me if you don't agree or have had a diff experience LOL.

 

[hakoreh]

1. Battery Life-Anyone an ex-Tourist that can make a comparison? I do plan on buying the extended Seidio 1750 battery, though. Opinions on that would be welcome. Extra life without the added bulk? Genius!
if you're out from 9 to 6 and you have a charger handy or a USB cable to keep the battery charged, you don't have to worry about the battery so much. If not you need the extended battery and there isn't any added bulk with the 1750. The 3500 will add bulk though.

3. Trackball quality. Let's just say I wish everyday that my Tour had the trackpad. How does the Android trackball measure up against the BB's?

i know how you feel about the Tour's trackball. I came from a Tour but you won't really use the trackball all that much, at least I don't. But it is very responsive and lights up on messages so say you don't hear the tone but you see the trackball light up you know you got a message.

4. One thing I love about my BB is being able to customize it with wallpapers/themes to suit my mood (again, a girly-girl thing ). I like the Sense on the Eris, big selling point, but do Androids have 'themes'? Is this an advantage of rooting (still shaky on that definition, btw).

There are apps that allow you to download wallpapers based on categories and free too. The themes you are referring to on a BB I don't think you can but I'm not sure, never looked.

5. Does not having a flash become a huge issue? I'm not crazy with the cameras on phones, I don't use it daily, but I DO use it enough to care.

I don't have an issue

6. Is the browser really THAT inferior to the DROID? I understand the DRIOD runs 2.0 vs the Eris' 1.5, so I understand that is going to have an impact as well.

There are a few alternatives you can download which work alongside if not superior to the Droid IMO

7. How does the calendar compare to that of the BB's? Sort of a broad question, but everyone always manages to have an opinion anyway.

The calendar uses Google Calendar as your calendar and syncs easily with any changes made on the PC with no software needed.

8. I am loving the upcoming Desire. Haven't looked around enough to know if there is a rumored carrier for it yet. Anyone know? I'm impatient, but I'd be willing to wait (maybe).

dunno but the Incredible is supposed to come out to VZW soon

 

[AllAboutAlyssa]

Yay, came on just now to find a bunch of responses! Thanks everyone who answered for taking the time to sift through my millions of questions

TJohnsonmp01- thanks for letting me know about the SMS silencing problem. Thats probably the only - I'd find and it would frustrate me if I discovered it after buying lol On the other hand, if that's going to be my major complaint, this phone is looking more and more worth it, regardless of the price.

One other question, if anyone sees this one waaaayyyy down here. Is the Eris capable of ring+vibe at the same time? BB's cant do that w/o an app, so I was just curious. Seems like such a simple thing too...

 

[doogald]

TJohnsonmp01- thanks for letting me know about the SMS silencing problem. Thats probably the only - I'd find and it would frustrate me if I discovered it after buying lol On the other hand, if that's going to be my major complaint, this phone is looking more and more worth it, regardless of the price.

I use just normal, short tones for SMS messages ringtones, so this doesn't bother me. That said, I was under the impression that pressing the down volume key silenced the ringtone on a call, so I'd think it would work with a message ringtone alert.

Also, for calling, if you get a call, you can silence the ringer with the down volume, with the "end call" red button, or just by placing the phone face-down somewhere, like on a table.

One other question, if anyone sees this one waaaayyyy down here. Is the Eris capable of ring+vibe at the same time? BB's cant do that w/o an app, so I was just curious. Seems like such a simple thing too...

You sure can. Though I must say - the Eris vibe is not very strong. I have missed it on occasion while it was in my coat pocket.

 

[TJohnsonmp01]

Glad I could help You can continously press the volume down to FINALLY get the ringer to silence but I sometimes need it ASAP n bberry provided a better option than the Eris does. Not a big deal but it would be nice. I'm a police officer so I have ringtones that are loud and long so I can hear them when I'm working and listening to my police radio. I did find an app called flip and shake that allows some alternative options so I'm adjusting to the Droid way instead of the Berry way at this point LOL. I am very excited about the new Android phones that are in the works tho. I am telling you I was so hesitant to leave Bberry because they were reliable. But man o man what a welcomed change the Android OS has been. I wish I would have came aboard sooner LOL. My department made it so we couldn't get our work emails on cell phones anymore so I didn't really need my bberry anymore and I am beyond thrilled to be a DROID now, I hope you fall in LOVE with one of these great phones too!!!

 

[grainysand]

Why not go for the top-of-the-line phones and get the N1? The Hero is nice and all, but it's over half a year old now, and really the screen's rather tiny. The N1 should be available to Verizon toward the end of March, so getting the Hero now seems like a terrible waste. It's got flash, blah blah, better hardware, etc.

One thing I love about my BB is being able to customize it with wallpapers/themes to suit my mood (again, a girly-girl thing ). I like the Sense on the Eris, big selling point, but do Androids have 'themes'? Is this an advantage of rooting (still shaky on that definition, btw).

Can you stop with the "LOOK AT ME I'M A GIRL" thing? It's embarrassing to see (and considering that the majority of developers, i.e. people who work on themes, are male...). But apart from that, there're a lot of home replacement apps that let you theme your device into the next week even without rooting. Google up "SweeterHome 2."