android vs. blackberry

[paul wheaton]

I'm angry with verizon. I could go on and on about that, but I'm gonna skip that.

My blackberry is over two years old and verizon desperately wants me to get a new phone (and lock me in to another two years). And my bb has been getting sick at times.

I'm hooked on the email in the blackberry. Plus, the idea of having the camera/video built in has been a great value. Although I need higher quality video and pictures.

After a long chat with verizon tech support, it would seem that I abuse my blackberry by not regularly synching it and deleting stuff from it. Frankly, it sounds like the insides of a blackberry is a lot like how 386 computers could get by the 640k barrier with goofy memory dancing stuff. So it sounds like the blackberry memory management is something that I would need to learn and nurture and take care of and .... that sort of thing just doesn't seem to make my priority list. I kinda wish I could hand my phone over to "the phone whisperer" once a month and then my phone would be happy and all would be well.

The tech support guy suggested that my next phone be an android. He said that the android memory management is much smarter and will tolerate my abuse far better. BBs apparently need you to learn a little about how a BB works or else they will eventually get sick and then you need to call tech support.

I learned I needed to "sync" my BB or else it would get constipated. I then learned that "sync" is synonymous with "delete". I thought I was doing the "sync", but then all of my files were no longer on my phone. Which is not what I wanted. After all of my files were gone, the BB seemed to work much better. Fortunately, I had copied all of my files off of the BB about five minutes earlier, so nothing was lost.

I should also mention that one of the things I like about my blackberry is that I bought the "tether" stuff. Whenever I need internet and I have cell service, I can plug my laptop into my blackberry and I have free internet. Unlimited. And the speed isn't too bad. Since I live in the country, and I travel a lot to very remote places, having a "plan B" internet is important. Does android have anything like that?

A final note: I need the little keyboard. I am a giant guy with giant hands that have giant fingers. I can get a bb keyboard to work fine. But the iphone pseudo-keyboard is horribly frustrating.

If my current BB ran fine, I would probably not bother getting new phone. I just don't feel like learning a new contraption. On the other hand, I have a feeling that in the next couple of months I'll have no choice - this phone will die and I will have moments to line up a new phone. So I should have an idea of what I'm probably going to get.

Oh, and I feel I should stick with verizon, because of the many rural places I have travelled, verizon works, and the others don't.

Anybody have any suggestions for me?

[Ankit Garg]

In android you can try Droid 2 or HTC Desire Z, both have physical slideout qwerty keypads. I got myself a Samsung i5510 recently and the keypad is good but the screen resolution is low which is noticeable at many times like browsing, photo viewing etc...

[David O'Meara]

I haven't had synced email in a phone before and loving it on my HTC Desire (android). I have two GMail addresses, chat and calendar managed easily (with Android 2.2, didn't work for me with 2.1)
It has the tethering so that when I plug the usb into the computer it gives me the option to share the internet connection and it works seamlessly.
It also has the option to provide the phone internet connection as a wireless network from the phone but I haven't tried this.

[Henry Wong]

I have been a blackberry user for the last 4 years, and admittedly, I don't know how to manually sync it....

How does that work? Does it sync with the outlook running on the computer? I am a BES user, so my BB synchs with the exchange server using the phone data plan. No need to connect the BB to the computer.

Henry

[Pat Farrell]

Even Verizon sells modern blackberries. From what I hear from the review sites, CNET, etc. the blackberries have been behind the curve relative to other smartphones, esp the latest Androids. But RIM doesn't sell to the same folks that buy Droids, Nexus S, etc. Most crackberries are sold to corporations who provide them to employees. So the sales cycles, features, etc are very different.

I see no short term win on Verizon's network as they sell millions of new iPhones on their network. It may be "better" than AT&T's today, but that will change.

Perhaps when all the iPhone users abandon AT&T for Verizon, there will be more network capacilty on AT&T and it would become a better service.

[paul wheaton]

I owned a droid phone for about two hours. It was awful. I have a new blackberry now.

My massive fingers just screwed up the display. I just couldn't seem to touch what I wanted to touch. And on several calls, when I was done, I couldn't figure out how to end the call.

[David O'Meara]

Pat Farrell wrote:Perhaps when all the iPhone users abandon AT&T for Verizon, there will be more network capacilty on AT&T and it would become a better service.

I find this comment on the AT&T quality of service inherently funny.

PW wrote:My massive fingers just screwed up the display. I just couldn't seem to touch what I wanted to touch.

I don't have massive fingers and often have the same issue. I often have the problem with touch screens that it is difficult to see what you're pressing when your finger (massive or otherwise) is in the way. The problem is likely continue until either the current love affair with touch screens reduces or we invent see-through fingers.

PW wrote:And on several calls, when I was done, I couldn't figure out how to end the call.

Sounds like a problem specific to that brand (IMO) Did you try turning the phone off?

[paul wheaton]

Usually, you press the red banana.

In this case, as I was looking for something to end the call, the other party hung up and it said the call was terminated.

This was some sort of motorola offering.

[Janeice DelVecchio]

Henry -- you can sync your BB with email a number of ways. I use gmail (which syncs with IMAP, the "poor man's" exchange server), others use POP/SMTP and leave the emails on the server so they can view/delete/save when they get home. I find the gmail interface completely awesome because what I do on my computer or on my phone is the same no matter what I use. I think you can set up outlook to talk to gmail with imap, too.... but I only use outlook when I have to.


My input on androids: meh. It's a fancy toy that does some cool things. Once the screen breaks from a well placed drop, you're done. At least on a BB you can use it without the screen if you had to. My current (the 9650) has wifi, 3g, bluetooth.... I can tether, text, get my mail, get directions, surf the web, be an access point.... I can do 98% of what the droid users can do, and the rest I don't really care about. Androids are iphones for people who can't stand apple, or have carriers that can't play nice with apple.