Thinking of ditching the BlackBerry for the Droid

slinky317

Well-known member
Oct 18, 2009
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So like many of you, I am thinking of coming from the Crackberry to the Android, and ditching my Tour in a few months because the trackball has just gotten on my last nerve. I've had 4 phones, and I think RIM is about to lose me as a customer because of how piss-poor this thing acts.

Anyways, I go into the Verizon store on a weekly basis to check out the Droid (oh yes, she will be mine) and I'm really craving it. I just have some questions about it...

How's the keyboard? I heard it's subpar, but for anyone that went from a Tour to a Droid, what are your opinions?

How's the SMS application? I really like the threaded SMS in OS 5.0 for BlackBerry. Is SMS in Android like that?

I heard the camera on the Droid isn't that great. Is this something that can be fixed via a software update, or are we stuck with it?

I've heard very few rumors of a Droid 2 coming along with a better keyboard. Is there any more info on that?

I hope to be a proud member of your community soon. Thanks for all your help!
 
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DO IT! I just replaced the Storm 2 for a Droid and ill never go back. I am still real new so everyone else can answer your questions but it will be worth the switch.
 
I went from a Storm/Tour to a Droid. Very very happy with the move.

I type much better on the droid's soft keyboard over the Storm's or the Tour's physical keyboard. I don't use the Droid's physical keyboard much except for playing NES/SNES emulators....

SMS is good. Although you should just download Handcent on day 1. Then it's great.

Camera's meh but I never seem to have lock with any phone cams. Maybe i'm just a bad phone photographer ;-p

Not sure on rumors of Droid 2 but that's how things go. Either way you choose between using a Droid for a year and having to wait a few months to get a Droid 2, or you live w/ a BlackBerry you don't like much for another 6+ months and wait for a Droid 2.

edit: battery life - I'll usually play about 2 hours of SNES roms and other games as well as heavy texting and internet and usually have a good amount of juice to spare when I get home. No complaints at all.

FWIW I'm in love w/ my Droid. There's no reason I'd ever go back to BlackBerry. Android >>> BlackBerry OS. RIM's still living in the past and is too slow catching up with Apple and Google now... at least in the consumer market. Even Microsoft's gonna trump them soon :-( Sorry RIM I loved you in your prime.
 
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Oh - also, how is the battery life? I usually end my day with the Tour being down to about 60% of battery left.
 
So like many of you, I am starting to consider ditching my Tour in a few months because the trackball has just gotten on my last nerve.


How's the keyboard? I heard it's subpar, but for anyone that went from a Tour to a Droid, what are your opinions?

How's the SMS application? I really like the threaded SMS in OS 5.0 for BlackBerry. Is SMS in Android like that?

I heard the camera on the Droid isn't that great. Is this something that can be fixed via a software update, or are we stuck with it?

I've heard very few rumors of a Droid 2 coming along with a better keyboard. Is there any more info on that?

I hope to be a proud member of your community soon. Thanks for all your help!
I ditched the Tour also because of the terrible trackball. Absolutely terrible.
The keyboard is OK...Tour's was better. The worst thing about the Droid keyboard is getting to the top row of keys. I always fat-finger them and end up having a hard time getting to those keys in some instances. I use the touch screen keypad a lot more now. It's tough for us BB guys to get used to a touch screen keyboard I think..lol.
Android SMS is kida like that, but I have been using the Handcent SMS app, and it works killer. It's just like the Iphone's text messages- little balloons and threaded.
I have no issues with the camera. Just remember what it is- a phone with a camera. It ain't no digital SLR. It takes OK pics. I actually think its right there with the BB's. It works fine for my use. Low light photos still suck, but so did the BB's.
No clue about the Droid 2.
 
Battery life is better after a few days of draining and recharging now. It lasts a bit longer than the Tour did initially. But, I find I am using A LOT more internet on the Droid than I ever did with the Tour...A LOT more. You will too...and that sucks the battery a bit quicker. But I used the nav for an hour, made a couple calls and sent some texts, and the phone lasted me all day with juice to spare.
 
I definitely miss my Tour's keyboard, I could fly on that thing. The Droid's physical keyboard feels awkward and clunky at first, but I have gotten used to it and can type pretty well with it. I find myself using the portrait software keyboard a lot for quick replies and have gotten used to it as well.

I have less battery at the end of the day than I ever did with the Tour, but as a poster above me said, its because I am finding myself using the phone a lot more. Even with Opera Mini on the Tour, navigating websites was an absolute pain. Its such a breeze on the Droid that I use it about 5x more on an average day than I ever did on a BlackBerry (even my old Storm).

As far as SMS, the threading is a lot better on the Droid than the OS 5 threading on the BlackBerry. Then again, I was using the leaked 5.0 OS's and who knows if that was the cause of my issues with the Tour and SMS threads.
 
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Definitely seems like a lot of former Tour owners here. Did you guys pay full retail for your Droid? Or is there a slick way of getting the phone at the contract price before your annual upgrade rolls around?
 
Also -

If one thing I absolutely love about my BlackBerry, it's the LED light. Thanks to BerryBuzz, I can easily tell if I have a missed call, an e-mail, an SMS/MMS message, etc. I think the Droid has an LED, but does it work well? Is there any way to customize it?
 
Also -

If one thing I absolutely love about my BlackBerry, it's the LED light. Thanks to BerryBuzz, I can easily tell if I have a missed call, an e-mail, an SMS/MMS message, etc. I think the Droid has an LED, but does it work well? Is there any way to customize it?

There are ways to customize it, but not nearly as much as the blackberry led
 
I did the same out of frustrating with how BB drags their feet with a game changing OS. Ive had my Droid over a week and am completely impressed!!
 
I'm also a former Storm/Tour user. I switched to Droid when things just flat out stopped working right. The Storm was a decent phone until I had to get it replaced. Then the next couple of replacements were complete garbage. Switched to a Tour because of all the problems with the Storm only to have a phone that was all but useless. While I did have a problem with the trackball, what sent me over the edge was having every single call drop out on me. The replacement Tour did the same thing. I put on every 5.0 leak that came out and the problem only got worse. I was all but unable to have a phone call on the damn phone, and according to Verizon, it might just be the area I'm in, not the phone itself. I wasn't due for an upgrade for a while, so I hit eBay and got lucky in finding a Droid that wasn't god awful expensive and wasn't broken. Best $350 I've spent. The Droid stomps all over the Tour. True, the Tour's physical keyboard is vastly superior, but I find that I type far quicker on the Droid's soft keyboard in landscape mode than on any Blackberry I've owned. I fly on that keyboard. The camera is comparable, in that they're both not all that great. And wouldn't you know, I haven't had a single dropped call since getting the Droid.

The stock SMS stuff is threaded, like on OS 5.0. There are a few apps you can get to pretty up the interface, such as Handcent and Chomp.

The LED just isn't as good on the Droid as on the Blackberry. That's about the only thing that I miss from the Blackberry. On the Droid, the notification LED is tiny and easily missed. I had BerryBuzz on my Tour and it did a great job of distinguishing the different notification lights. On the Droid, it seems to only do a display color for the last item received, and doesn't seem to alternate colors for the various notifications. There may be an app that fixes that issue, but I haven't really checked for one yet.

So, besides the notification light and the keyboard (maybe, depending on how you like the soft keyboards), the Droid is a far better phone.
 
Thanks for the input guys. Corey, how did you get your Droid after getting the Tour? Did you just pay full retail?

So now that the comparisons are over... what do you guys NOT like about the Droid?
 
Thanks for the input guys. Corey, how did you get your Droid after getting the Tour? Did you just pay full retail?

So now that the comparisons are over... what do you guys NOT like about the Droid?


eBay and a little bit of luck.

Edited to add:

Things I don't like about the Droid:

- The notification LED
- The physical keyboard
- The way the phone goes bats**t crazy when using certain chargers
- The battery door

Really, that's about it. The LED thing, I can live with. It sucks, but it serves its purpose. The physical keyboard doesn't really bother me so much since the soft keyboard works so well for me. The charger issue is only a half problem and only happens when I'm not around my good chargers. If I have to borrow a charger at work or I forget one when I travel, then it's an issue. The solution, for me at least, is to just charge the phone by computer. The battery door issue was fixed with an incredible Seidio Case. So they're not exactly fixes, just work arounds for small problems.
 
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I tried the physical keyboard in the store, and although it wasn't nearly as good as my Tour's, it wasn't completely horrible and thought I could get used to it. The only thing that completely bugged me about it was the top row of keys that were too close to the screen when it slid up, but it wasn't a deal-killer or anything.
 
Thanks! I also heard that the newer Droids have a slightly different keyboard - now the keys are raised a little bit? Does this make any difference?
 
So now that the comparisons are over... what do you guys NOT like about the Droid?
No real equivalent to profiles on the BB. There are some apps that come close and offer functionality that didn't exist in BB profiles but centralized management of alerts (sound, vibration and LED) is difficult to find and hit-and-miss in my experience.

I don't like the KB either (came from an 8310) other than for gaming. Swype, though, has really helped to make the virtual KB usable for me.

GPS doesn't operate fully standalone like the 8310 and I've run into a couple of instances where I've had to do a PRL update (*228) to get it working again.

Camera is terrible. My 8310 did much better in low light situations.

No native contacts grouping. Probably easily resolved with an app but I haven't bothered looking. Maybe it's not really that big a deal...


The extensibility of Android though trumps any issues I have with the Droid or benefits that the BB might have had IMO.

Thanks! I also heard that the newer Droids have a slightly different keyboard - now the keys are raised a little bit? Does this make any difference?
Not in my case. YMMV, of course if the flatness is the big issue for you.
 
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slinky317

Not trying to hijack your thread, but I have a questions on the same topic that I haven't been able to find answered completely anywhere. And it may be helpful to you or somebody else looking to switch from a BB.

I'm currently using a BB and I need to access mail, calendar and contacts from an Exchange account.

I've heard that the Droid does Exchange email natively through ActiveSync (or at least Google's version of it) very well. But I haven't been able to find anyone who uses a Droid who also needs their Exchange calendar and contacts sync'd as well.

Can anybody with first hand experience answer this? I need to be able to sync 2 ways with both calendar and contacts.

I also have 2 GMail accounts, and I'm assuming the Droid supports multiple GMail accounts. Confirm or deny?

Thanks.
 
I came over from a tour and had a storm before that. I haven't missed blackberry even a bit. Android is so far ahead of bbos it isn't even funny. The only things keeping bb in business are their hardware keyboards and security. That will give them the advantage for only so long. I love my droid, and I'd highly recommend it.
 

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