Why did you move from Blackberry to Android?

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alkit

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Hi,

I've been a faithful Blackberry user for a year now. It has now come time to upgrade my contract and I am looking at the options out there.

I am hearing tons of hype about android and was wondering if anyone has moved from BB to Android, and what are the benefits?

In short, I use my BB for BBM, 2 email accounts and web browsing.

Will I see the benefits if I switch to Android?

One major thing that worries me is lack of BBM on android. I have both BBM and whatsapp currently, but find more of my friends to be comfortable with BBM and find the interface of BBM better than whatsapp. Anyone out there made the change over? Do you miss BBM enough to regret it?

Regarding email and browsing - Is it better/easier on the Android than the BB? For eg - isn't email harder without a physical keyboard?

Lastly, what's the word on the new Bold coming out soon. I hate the screen size of the bold (I have a Torch). Would the new bold be better for me than an Android (even with the tiny screen)? Or perhaps a new Torch is being released at the same time?

Thanks for your help.

PS - If I do go the Android route, it will be with a 500mb data plan and a Galaxy S2 phone (or equivalent).
 
Well I have the HTC Desire, I've had it for a year and I'm still loving it.

It's got a nice big screen, 480p or DVD quality so it's awesome for browsing / games / pictures / video.

I've downloaded a keyboard called SlideIt, it allows you to swipe words so you don't have to tap, it's way way easier & better & faster.

Emailing is very easy, it comes with an HTC email client, you an use that or Google's, I preffer Google's.

I can make it a hotspot for my laptop & tablet which is awesome.

Skype is also pretty cool, I find myself skype calling quite often which costs next to nothing, then there is also the skype IM feature, there is also whatsapp which of course allows you to chat to anyone with a smartphone & whatsapp, but I don't really use it.

I love how customisable android is, you get new launchers, new keyboards depending on your peferences.

There are also thousands of apps & games and as far as I know there are more free apps on the android market? not 100% sure though. But with 550 000 adroid activations every day I bet there will be more android apps very soon. Also they are cheap, you can get awesome apps & games for like 6 bucks.

iPhone / Black Berry / Android I suppose they can all be very good but it all depends on the person and what he or she wants.

I want Android :)
 
I have a custom loaded Android on my HTC HD2. I have used them all, BB, Winmo, Symbian....

I am just lost for words when it comes to Android...it puts all other phones away! BBM is good, but confines you to chat to BB users only. ALL BB users I know have whatsapp, and I am VERY comfortable with Whatsapp. I also have Viber loaded which allows me to talk to many of my colleagues and friends for free.

BBM internet is a snail compared to the normal Vodacom 3G connection.

My whole family is in the UK, and I now have more communication with them then my friends in SA! I chat to my brothers FREE on Viber, my sister is constantly with me on whatsapp, and my dad always on Skype, all form my handset, and they're thousands of miles away!

The apps to control the battery, time, email, so so so many. I have 3 dialers loaded! all nice ones. I have Skype, gosh, i have an 8gb SD Card, go figure!!

I just feel so much more in control with my Android loaded handset...i get so much more done, and I actually enjoy it :-)

What I read is no BS. Winmo, Symbian and BB is dead, unless they really have a drastic change.

I'm loving Android. Just bought a 7" Galaxy Tab, and losing some sleep by playing with it!

Ah games! Angry Birds, bubble blast, mouse trap!

I'm in love with Android!

EDIT: Oh, with Dropbox and Google Apps, I store all my important files online, and share all my contacts, photos and calendar using Googles service... WHAT A PLEASURE! Changed my life! (for the better)
 
Last edited:
alkit said:
Hi,

I've been a faithful Blackberry user for a year now. It has now come time to upgrade my contract and I am looking at the options out there.

I am hearing tons of hype about android and was wondering if anyone has moved from BB to Android, and what are the benefits?

In short, I use my BB for BBM, 2 email accounts and web browsing.

Will I see the benefits if I switch to Android?

One major thing that worries me is lack of BBM on android. I have both BBM and whatsapp currently, but find more of my friends to be comfortable with BBM and find the interface of BBM better than whatsapp. Anyone out there made the change over? Do you miss BBM enough to regret it?

Regarding email and browsing - Is it better/easier on the Android than the BB? For eg - isn't email harder without a physical keyboard?

Lastly, what's the word on the new Bold coming out soon. I hate the screen size of the bold (I have a Torch). Would the new bold be better for me than an Android (even with the tiny screen)? Or perhaps a new Torch is being released at the same time?

Thanks for your help.

PS - If I do go the Android route, it will be with a 500mb data plan and a Galaxy S2 phone (or equivalent).
Click to expand...

Okay, I had a blackberry bold 9000 and switched over to the Samsung Galaxy S.

To be totally honest with you, I think I will go back to blackberry when my contract expires. When I bought my SGS there was no better phone. I had to really decide hard and long between it and the iPhone and I choose the SGS after a while of playing around etc. But the thing that really gets me is e-mailing and chatting isn't nice on it. Touch screens are not as fast as physical screens, even if you have swype or slide-it on. And I am Afrikaans so those type of applications only works in your language once you typed it in manually. And the nice thing about android is that you can load custom roms on it, and I do a clean install always so I lose all my typed words after a few weeks anyway. Personally I think my SGS is an awesome device, I can control my streaming videos (pictures etc) from my pc to my ps3, I intend to buy a new tv that will be able to be controlled by my phone. I have google navigation on my phone (the cracked one), so it basically replaces my GPS - oh this is much better than what blackberry can do, but it cost a bit of money if you are not in a cached area (which I also lose frequently).

The reason I switched was because I got ADSL at home and thought I would do everything through wifi at home, but even with it I had to curb my downloading from what I had on BIS quite a bit. I still think my facebook I had on BB is better than the one I have on android but that is because I don't sync it as often (to save some money while I am on 3G).

But android IOS has many upsides. Like Viber just became available to android, and I can phone my friends for free over wifi, over 3G it is about 50c per minute. I run everything through google now and all my calenders etc are up to date, something I struggled with BB. I had to get the stuff manually always and import them to outlook or google calender.

Web browsing - Android is just faster, smoother - but not free. On my bold I had to wait about 7 seconds longer to open a normal webpage and if it is really busy, it could take quite longer. But I don't browse primarily through my phone so that was okay for me. If I was at the airport wasting time etc, I really didn't feel the wait, and if I just wanted to find something on google or wiki, it didn't take long either.

I have an android device now, and don't see the point of getting another one, as even the SGS2 doesn't do something that much better than the SGS and I don't see it getting that much better anyway in the next few months. But I have to wait and see, maybe there will be a new super feature that I can't live without soon.

I don't really miss BBM, because whatsapp is a suitable replacement, but yes I do thin BBM is better than whatsapp.

Finally if you receive a lot of emails, and chat allot too - I can't see better than a BB for you. I will go with the bold series my next round, but I don't know if that is for you either way. If you wan't a touchscreen, android or apple are the way to go.
 
BlackBerry are smart, they offer you data for R60 a month.
In essence, android is becoming the new Symbian with market share. Thing is though, Android and iOS are coming on devices that are sporting huge screens [SGS 2 is 4.3 inches]
Blackberry may not be cutting edge, nor may it have a big screen, but it does communication very well. The thing with devices like the SGS 2 and in particular Apple, is that overseas there are options for cheap and fast data. Here in SA, data is expensive. If you do alot of surfing and use apps alot, you may find that the 500MB of data gets used up quickly. I think that BB has that covered, in that they provide the data for a fixed rate.
I would suggest you play with a SGS 2 to see how it would feel. The Bold Touch 9900 you refer to should be here around August, according to Vodacom. I also am in a position to get either a BB or a SGS 2, but will decide this when I get to play with the SGS 2 :)
 
Musiclover08 said:
BlackBerry are smart, they offer you data for R60 a month.
In essence, android is becoming the new Symbian with market share. Thing is though, Android and iOS are coming on devices that are sporting huge screens [SGS 2 is 4.3 inches]
Blackberry may not be cutting edge, nor may it have a big screen, but it does communication very well. The thing with devices like the SGS 2 and in particular Apple, is that overseas there are options for cheap and fast data. Here in SA, data is expensive. If you do alot of surfing and use apps alot, you may find that the 500MB of data gets used up quickly. I think that BB has that covered, in that they provide the data for a fixed rate.
I would suggest you play with a SGS 2 to see how it would feel. The Bold Touch 9900 you refer to should be here around August, according to Vodacom. I also am in a position to get either a BB or a SGS 2, but will decide this when I get to play with the SGS 2 :)
Click to expand...

I buy 600 Meg databundles, they seem to be quite practical for only 189, from Vodacom

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
 
I have been a big Blackberry supporter for a while now. Last year it was upgrade time and Rim had nothing better than my Bold 9000 - I still consider the two more recent Bolds a downgrade - smaller screens and smaller keyboards. So last year I made the switch to Android with the Galaxy S. It's a mixed bag. Services like gmail and google calendar work great, but there are odd missing bits like you can't attach anything but a picture through the gmail app. There is no default task app, obviously you can download one... The biggest problem for me and after trying different keyboards for a year is typing, the best I've found is swiftkey but there's no contest with the Bold 9000. I could easily type whole emails and posts on my Bold, it's a pain on my Galaxy. I'm seriously considering the new Bold 9900, if only for the keyboard. The only other problem with Blackberry is Bis, particularly the way local networks run it. Bis is often down or very slow, even on Mtn. My solution was to get a top up contract on Vodacom which allows me to buy data with my airtime.
I love the customisability of Android but I would give it all up for a Bold keyboard, since the Bold 9900 wil be here soon I would certainly give it a try but I'll have to wait till next year. If you're considering leaving Blackberry I would give the new range a look before you do.
 
I work with BES and blackberry's daily, working with user and mail issues particularly. I had a choice of choosing either a Blackberry or finaly going Android for my upgrade. And by seeing blackberry's daily I decided to go for a Samsung Galaxy S2 since then I decided to give up on Blackberry. Yes Blackberry is probably still the best "work phone" outhhere but it cannot compare to Android if you are using your phone for multimedia. But that is just me , my decision was more based on how "gatvol' i have become of Blackberry.
 
Splice said:
I work with BES and blackberry's daily, working with user and mail issues particularly. I had a choice of choosing either a Blackberry or finaly going Android for my upgrade. And by seeing blackberry's daily I decided to go for a Samsung Galaxy S2 since then I decided to give up on Blackberry. Yes Blackberry is probably still the best "work phone" outhhere but it cannot compare to Android if you are using your phone for multimedia. But that is just me , my decision was more based on how "gatvol' i have become of Blackberry.
Click to expand...

rofl, I don't think you could ever compare BB to a highend Android device like the SGSII.

Although I would like to know what makes BB email functionality better than gmail on an Android? I am curious as I've never owned a BB. Is it the simplicity?

Skype for Android is also pretty cool, I often find myself Skype calling people instead of calling them, doesn't cost much if you're using databundles

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
 
CoolBug said:
rofl, I don't think you could ever compare BB to a highend Android device like the SGSII.

Although I would like to know what makes BB email functionality better than gmail on an Android? I am curious as I've never owned a BB. Is it the simplicity?

Skype for Android is also pretty cool, I often find myself Skype calling people instead of calling them, doesn't cost much if you're using databundles

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I have a SGS and a bold 9000, and the bold even though it is 3 years old is still better at mailing than the android just because of the keyboard. Swype is all good and well, but when you have to type a few emails everyday I would rather do it on my bold.

All the other stuff is better on my droid, but you have to ask yourself what you would do you use the most.

Having a keyboard makes updating facebook twitter etc all easier than doing it on my touch screen droid, so it is much more pleasurable doing it on the BB and you can't forget the BIS. Now I know you say 200MB are fine for a smartphone, and I do limit myself on about 100MB a month, but it just isn't the same. BIS is slower, granted but it still is much better than the alternative.

That is why I have two phones now, my BB and my SGS. Everything is better integrated with my SGS and it is much easier to integrate stuff on there, but for emailing and general browsing and downloading youtube clips I still use my BB.
 
I'm with you there phonejunky. Also still use Bold 9000 despite having the SGS2. Typing is sooo much easier and quicker on the Bold.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using MyBroadband Android App
 
I'm curious, have the people complaining about touchscreen typing used Swype? It's way easier than any tiny keyboard, especially for my large fingers. I write e-mails and take notes way faster than I could type, and my Swype keyboard is learning Afrikaans as I go along, although it's not really important, as my most of my business communication is in English.
 
Android is pretty nice, but I still say an android phone is too expensive to own in South Africa in terms of data cost. With BB you get the BIS for R60 and you don't have to worry about your data needs again. With android (and every other phone) you will either have to pay for your data cost or get data bundles and keep checking how much your using. Add to that, that you can't won't be able to use BBM anymore and I'd say BB wins.

Perhaps if android gets something similar to BIS one day I'll consider moving over to them, but for now, BB FTW!

If you do stay with blackberry, I suggest that you wait for the new bold or torch phones to come out. Seems like a nice improvement over the old ones.
 
Gathu said:
I'm curious, have the people complaining about touchscreen typing used Swype? It's way easier than any tiny keyboard, especially for my large fingers. I write e-mails and take notes way faster than I could type, and my Swype keyboard is learning Afrikaans as I go along, although it's not really important, as my most of my business communication is in English.
Click to expand...

Did you see my reply, I did mention Swype. The bold 9000 possibly still has the largest keyboard of any phone. I can type faster on my bold than swyping, but then again, my fingers aren't that big. But even then I would think the bold 9000 will be easier to type on than swype. Just a shame the bolds after that went with the smaller keyboard.
 
phoneJunky said:
Did you see my reply, I did mention Swype. The bold 9000 possibly still has the largest keyboard of any phone. I can type faster on my bold than swyping, but then again, my fingers aren't that big. But even then I would think the bold 9000 will be easier to type on than swype. Just a shame the bolds after that went with the smaller keyboard.
Click to expand...
I can relate - I'm not sure what I'm going to do when my 9000 eventually gives up the ghost. :o
 
bwana said:
I can relate - I'm not sure what I'm going to do when my 9000 eventually gives up the ghost. :o
Click to expand...

Get the 9900. Same keyboard as 9000. I'm already looking in that direction. 9900 for business; SGS2 for everything else.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using MyBroadband Android App
 
Gathu said:
I'm curious, have the people complaining about touchscreen typing used Swype? It's way easier than any tiny keyboard, especially for my large fingers. I write e-mails and take notes way faster than I could type, and my Swype keyboard is learning Afrikaans as I go along, although it's not really important, as my most of my business communication is in English.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's really irritating. Especially on short words and its no match for a Bold keyboard.
 
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