Initial Impressions from a CrackBerry Addict

[li2327]

I came from a Tour and Storm 2 to the Droid and currently on the Droid Eris. I know that's a step backwards. But I liked the Eris size the most. Either way I'm enjoying Android so much more than my bb OS. There's so much available with very little hard work needed. I'm also someone that was an avid bbm user. I was still able to chat with most of my friends on gtalk and yahoo messenger so no loose there. I hardly ever go to my pc for anything. My daughters both have android phones as well. Keep up the good work Android.

 

[edgemaster191]

Having owned a BlackBerry Tour before my Evo there are a few things i miss.

My Tour was hands down the best keyboard i've ever used on a smartphone. i could type away on it for hours and rarely - if ever - make a mistake.

The other big thing i loved was the fact that my Tour would get a signal almost anywhere, i've been in places with both my Evo and Pre where signal strength would be so weak i couldn't make a phone call or send a Text but my Tour had no problem at all doing either.

Battery life was a big one as well, i could use my Tour non-stop for two days on a battery charge with the stock battery on OS 5. my Pre i could go two days of moderate use with the 2600mah extended battery and my Evo i have the 3500mah battery and i can barely get 18-22 hours out of it with the same usage.

i also loved the customizable LED notifications, BerryBuzz is a great little program.

Don't get me wrong, i love my Evo and everything android has to offer, if i didn't i wouldn't have kept it.

i do believe that i could easily settle back in with a blackberry in the coming year once they get devices with OS6 out in the world (yes they have the torch but there is no way i will go to AT&T) and who knows, maybe Windows Phone 7 will bring something to the table as well..

i am a firm believer that whatever device you use is based largely on personal preference. not everyone NEEDS a 4.3 inch display with 8mp camera. some people want a better keyboard, some people want easy messaging.

i am not a "fanboy" by any means, i don't have a devotion to one platform/device/company. i am in that never ending search for the "perfect device" that fits my personal needs and i'm going to have fun searching

 

[sasha]

Well I was a faithful BB user most recently the Tour, so faithful that I almost had a panic attack when it was time to switch to the EVO..LOL I do miss my BBM messenger but not like I thought I would, and Berrybuzz was a great led notification. But I am so happy I have evolved the things I can do with my Evo is endless compared to my Tour!

 

[stoneworrior]

If this says anything I went from a Palm device to a 7100i, that hooked me on blackberry and then went to a 8310, then a 8350i, 8330 and finally a Tour. I was pissed when Blackberry pulled the release of the Tour 2 just to rename it. Little did I know just a few short weeks later I would read a article about a new 4G phone coming out on Sprint. Blackberry changing the release date of the Tour 2/ Bold gave me time to find something way better than Blackberry and that is the Android OS. I thought the problem for me would be the lack of a physical keyboard, but swype has made that a non issue and now I blaze through emails and text faster than I could with the Berry. Push email and keyboard is what kept me with Blackberry but my EVO does those things better than Blackberry now thanks to gmail and swype. I have changed back and forth between so many OS builds that having all of my settings, contacts and google listen downloads just "Show up" blows my old Blackberry out of the water. RIM is dead to me.

 

[strick1226]

Wow--really nice to see all the comments from other BB users. Thanks for the input!

I think the biggest thing I miss is the super-custom levels of notifications for alerts specific to individual contacts. On the BB I could have SMS messages from different contacts have different, specific-to-the-contact tones.

Beyond that, the lack of "Phone Calls Only" profile seems really odd in Froyo, but I'm working around it. Wish there was at least an option to create custom Sound profiles on the EVO.

The more I read about the 9800 Torch the more I realize I definitely made the right decision for me.

Searching for an EVO for my wife now

 

[jwebste9]

Glad to read your insight on the transition, i also am switching from BB. I read the forums for weeks before deciding, but when i found out the storm2 was not getting os6 and when os6 was release for the torch it looked more like a theme than anything.

My droid(original) arrives today and i cant wait to begin the testing and hopefully make it last since im not due for an upgrade till 2012 and i have a feeling android will be even stronger by then. wish i could say the same about rim

 

[ron87]

Had the 8300 and the 9630. Glad I made the switch. Not going back to BB. The web browsing and all the little extras on my EVO made me mad about what Ive been missing.

 

[c1971ace]

I agree with pretty much what everyone has said....now that im on my vaca in Disney i realize even more that this phone is better suited to me than any of my BB's would ever be.....

 

[bucko21]

Ok here's my story... Was a Nextel user for 10 years, wanted email and texting, bought the 8350i the day it was released. Didn't get my first text message on it until 2 months later because I had to keep cycling the phone to get text messages, 2 months later they updated the software and I had to cycle the phone once a week to get text messages. 2 months later they updated the OS again and I finally didn't have to cycle the phone. I used it for over a year waiting for the Tour 2 to come out, read all the blogs saying October then November, then December, then February then they pulled it. Changed the name. Just then the EVO was announced. I was worried about battery life, a guy at work can't go more then 4 hours without having to charge his phone.. Then the announcement of a release date for the EVO came and a release date of the Bold 9650. I decided I would use my 30 days to decide if I liked the droid.. If I didn't I would return it and buy the 9650.. Guess what, battery life wasn't too bad, at first carrying the charger around with me was a pain but when I found out I could get 13 hours on the battery that was fine.. I haven't looked back since, bought 2 chinese batteris and have conditioned them and the original into getting me anywhere from 26 to 30 hours a charge.. I use the phone now more for surfing the net, and everything else.. I WILL NEVER GO BACK.. No offence to Crackberriers, but I'm a Droid man now...

 

[mr.saving]

Also remember tho that the BB's you all are talking about didn't have a 4.3 in screen or wifi (most the ones mentioned I see)

They also weren't powering the same level processor these Android phones have.

 

[strick1226]

I remember reading about the pre-release info on the EVO and saying to myself, "4.3 inch screen? What's up with that? What an odd choice... why not a 4.0- or 4.5-inch screen? But 4.3?!?!?"

I stand corrected. The 4.3" screen on the EVO, without a physical keyboard, really works for me. In fact, after several days of regular use, I believe the 4.0" screen would be too small--and that a 4.5" screen actually would be too big. The engineers knew what they were doing. Further proof: Motorola chose 4.3" for the Droid X...

The battery life thing is variable, really... the more you use a phone, the more battery you're going to use. The usability of the EVO, in comparison to the relatively clunky performance of even recent BlackBerries, realistically means shorter periods of (more intense) use between charges.

I've disabled all the social networking nonsense, and set only my Gmail and work-related Exchange accounts to sync on a regular basis. Further, I've set priority hours for the Exchange account, updating far less frequently outside work hours. I'm perfectly happy with the battery life on the device.

(I also disabled the News/Weather sync as the Airave in my house incorrectly assigned my location to a city several hours away, prone to much different weather and temps).

I used my wife's Tour today, trying to get a problem with Google Sync fixed for her (without success, unfortunately). Wow!!! You mean I was using THAT screen for the past year?!?!? The difference really is amazing.

Again, my sincere thanks to all other BB users who posted their own experiences in the BB-->Android transition. I hope I've provided useful info as well.

 

[PedroTheGoat]

I don't miss my Blackberry one bit. The outdated OS was the nail in the coffin for me. I like to do a lot of web browsing on my phone and Blackberry just wasn't making the grade. Blackberry messenger was never a big deal to me. So I jumped onto the Pre bandwagon the day it was released and didn't look back. Unfortunately though, my phone literally feel apart before all was said and done. So as cool as WebOS was, Palm lost my vote of confidence from me because of shabby hardware.

My Evo is the first phone that I've owned that I'm 100 percent happy with. I had a lot of issues with typing with no physical keyboard at first, but I hunted down a manual download for Swype and can now type faster with one hand than I could with even the Blackberry keyboard. Swype amazes me how it can take illegible swipes of my finger and turn it into words.

 

[dwaynewilliams#WN]

@Bodar

Well imo the ease of use with mailing is better delivered with blackberry but it comes at a cost of truncated and screwed up formatting. Yet I still think messaging is better handled by stock blackberry over HTC sense UI. I'm not a bbm fan so that was never a major problem for me. Just wish android was up on there battery life on there devices without crippling them (ala iPhone 3g style)

I forgot about the truncated emails. That was a pain in the butt. I really like the email system of my EVO. I use gmail, so it is so much better than any email experience I have ever had on a mobile device.