blackberry or android?

[chrismartinique]

thinking about making the move to a smart phone tho I don't NEED one..... wondering if other moms made this move just for the convenience even tho you don't NEED it and if you find yourself using it more than you ever thought you would

also which way blackberry or android for the more casual user.... I am not a gamer, and touch screens make me a little nutty. My experience with my son's voyager is where I got this opinion. May be these touch screens are not so crazy sensitive

 

[clj1410]

I upgraded to the blackberry curve last year. I was a bit worried about getting it, because i didn't think i would use it and i thought it would be hard to use.

Well i have had it about 6 months now and i love it, love it, love it!

It is easy to use and it is nice having access to the internet where ever you go. I can even go on Disboards!

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

thinking about making the move to a smart phone tho I don't NEED one..... wondering if other moms made this move just for the convenience even tho you don't NEED it and if you find yourself using it more than you ever thought you would

also which way blackberry or android for the more casual user.... I am not a gamer, and touch screens make me a little nutty. My experience with my son's voyager is where I got this opinion. May be these touch screens are not so crazy sensitive

I do not own either a blackberry or an android, both, I do know that both are touch screens.

I do own an iphone and yes I can not believe how I long I lived without this.

The money you save from locating the cheapest gas, bar scanning items for the lowest price, etc is well worth the price.

I love having every thing in one place, phone, mp3, video, camera ect.

 

[KevGuy]

Do yourself a favor and get an iPhone!!!

 

[lucky1]

I just got a blackberry curve and DH got a Motorola Droid, last month I had to get the blackberry for work, but I am jeoulous of DH's Droid, more free apps and better screen size and plus he has a touch screen and a keypad. He does have the barcode scanning, GPS... I agree it would be great to have an iphone, but we will not switch carriers.

What I don't like as much about my blackberry, screen size is small. Some websites will not support the screen size. Camera resolution is not good as the Droid and I am still getting use the the qwerty(sp) keypad. Don't like to have to swift to get to numbers when typing a text, but I am sure I will get use to it.

But what I have learned from others is the software & hardware is very reliable on a blackberry. I don't know this for a fact.

 

[tammymacb]

I have a droid ( I found the blackberry to be a little too complicated for my impatient self ) and want to give you one warning about them. They are very easy to face dial and I HATE that. You know, you're talking, try to put the phone on your shoulder to do something else, the phone doesn't lock and your face makes the touch screen dial. That is my biggest issue with the phone.

 

[Scurvy]

There are lots of different Android phones, with more being announced all the time. I'm not familiar with most of them but in general the phones that use the Android platform get good reviews. I have the Motorola Droid, and I love it. I have had the dialing issue that tammymacb mentioned, but I read on one of the Android forums that it mostly seems to be an issue for women with longish hair. When I remember to brush my hair out the way and make sure to keep the phone against my ear it seems to help with that problem.

I do think that there are some Android based phones that don't have touch screens - but I'm not positive about that. The Droid is definitely a touch phone but after a short period of adjustment I'm loving mine. (As an aside, one of the only complaints about the Droid vs. the iPhone is the lack of multi-touch in the Droid's browser, but recent rumors suggest that an OTA update will add that. There is a Dolphin browser available in the app store that does use multi-touch already.)

 

[chrismartinique]

There are lots of different Android phones, with more being announced all the time. I'm not familiar with most of them but in general the phones that use the Android platform get good reviews. I have the Motorola Droid, and I love it. I have had the dialing issue that tammymacb mentioned, but I read on one of the Android forums that it mostly seems to be an issue for women with longish hair. When I remember to brush my hair out the way and make sure to keep the phone against my ear it seems to help with that problem.

I only saw the 2 droids for my carrier which is Verizon. The motorola is my choice because it does have a keyboard. May be the touch screen thing on the other droid is something you just "get used to". I don't care for the higher price on the Moto but if I went the amazon route, the price is better.

Does anyone know of other smart phones (verizon) that are easy and getting good reviews?

The other thing I am not sure about with these phones is the email...I don't have Gmail or AOL or MSN.... we have a local internet domain. will that be a problem?

 

[Scurvy]

I only saw the 2 droids for my carrier which is Verizon. The motorola is my choice because it does have a keyboard. May be the touch screen thing on the other droid is something you just "get used to". I don't care for the higher price on the Moto but if I went the amazon route, the price is better.

Does anyone know of other smart phones (verizon) that are easy and getting good reviews?

The other thing I am not sure about with these phones is the email...I don't have Gmail or AOL or MSN.... we have a local internet domain. will that be a problem?

The Droid (with Verizon) is the one I have. It does have a keyboard, but you still have to use the touch screen for quite a few things. The Droid Eris, which doesn't have the keyboard, has gotten good reviews but lacks some of the features that the Droid has. It also uses a previous version of Android rather than 2.0 which the Droid uses. The new Google phone (the Nexus One, also an Android device which uses version 2.01 I think) is supposed to be coming to Verizon this spring and it's been getting really good reviews so far. I don't know much about the other smart phones, though my son has the EnV Touch and really likes it. It is a touch phone, though, and doesn't use Android.

You do have to use Gmail with the Droid in order to take advantage of many of the features. Gmail is free, though, and when you first start to use the features it will prompt you to either sync your existing account or create a new one. I believe that you can also sync other email providers with the phone, but I haven't tried that.

 

[Shmily1]

Do yourself a favor and get an iPhone!!!

Please expand on this!! I've had a BB for 2 years and am going to upgrade in the next week or so. I'm trying to decide on another BB (because I LOVE my BB) or getting an iphone so I can have Disney apps. I don't care about the mp3 part of it, and DS19, who has one, told me wanting a Disney app is not a good excuse to get one. Now I don't knowwhat to get!

 

[2thfairy]

I got a blackberry before christmas and have no reason to have one and love it. I do not have work emails to check or anything like that but find myself using my blackberry all the time. Our carrier was offering them for free and that is the only reason I got one. Dr got a different one (can't remember what) and liked my blackberry better so he switched. I have had no problems at all with them. Now my sis/brother-in-law, and friends all have them because they liked mine. You will be surprised how much you use it.
I do like the iphone also but did not want to change carriers.

 

[Tanzanite]

We just have two pay as you go phones but my teenager wants a nice phone & i would love a blackberry i know nothing about phone plans do we sign for a long time are the phones expensive wheres a good place to sign up

 

[Shmily1]

We have AT&T service. I do not NEED my BB, but I certainly wouldn't want to be without it. I'm looking at upgrading or switching to an iphone and right now, you can get a BB identical to mine for 9.99 with a 2 yr contract. You would need a basic phone plan with the added media package that runs $30/ phone/month. Any smartphone will have atleast the $30/phone add on, but if you a plan with a smartphone and one regular phone, the $30 is only charged for the smartphone. Be sure if your DS or DD is going to text that ou get the unlimited texts. We had like 500/phone to start with but when DD got me my first $900 phone bill from the texting, I decided that the much cheaper costs of unlimited texts was totally worth it! We have unlimited family texts for 4 phones and I think it is like $20/month

 

[louey]

I have the Blackberry Storm and its just ok, I'm going to get the Droid in August when I am due for and upgrade. I have been with Verizon forever and don't want to switch to AT&T so I think I will give the Motorola Droid a try

 

[kmflowers]

I recently got to Droid Eris and love it. I also did not need a smartphone but wanted one anyway. The Eris only has the touchscreen but there a configuration program you run to set the phone to your "touch", after that I had no problems typing. A previous poster mentioned that the Eris is on an older android platform, this is true but Verizon is supposed to release a firmware update soon.

 

[timmac]

Please expand on this!! I've had a BB for 2 years and am going to upgrade in the next week or so. I'm trying to decide on another BB (because I LOVE my BB) or getting an iphone so I can have Disney apps. I don't care about the mp3 part of it, and DS19, who has one, told me wanting a Disney app is not a good excuse to get one. Now I don't knowwhat to get!

I was a long time (3+ years) BB user, and had to get a new phone due to leaving my employer who was providing the BB for me. Getting the iPhone was the best thing I ever did. The droid is actually a bit stronger technically and has better screen resolution, and is (probably) very similar to the iPhone.

The difference that sets the iPhone apart from all others at this point, however, is that the breadth and depth of applications available FAR outweighs any other platform. iPhone is also very good about not having issues with face dialing, the proximity sensor seems to work flawlessly.

One thing I'll point out though, is that any of these phones require a data plan, which will definitely increase your mobile bill. If that's not a big deal, then they're worth it (IMO), but be aware of that.

Also, just to clarify what a PP said, not all BB are touch screen, only the storm is. A friend of mine has the storm, but he's told me he honestly doesn't like it (and in hindsight would have been better with an iPhone), among other things because it comes preinstalled with a boatload of crap software from Verizon (for media stuff that a lot of people don't care about)

 

[moepanz]

I have the BB Strom 2 and I seriously have no clue how to do most of the things I am told it can do but I will not give it up because of the calender function. DH and I have our calenders linked. So I can be somewhere need to schedule something instead of having to call him to see if he can (whatever) I just look my phone if I make an appointment it pops up on his phone right away. With a 7 year old and 3 yr. old twins we are always scheduling something so this feature is AWESOME for us.

 

[ktlm]

Please expand on this!! I've had a BB for 2 years and am going to upgrade in the next week or so. I'm trying to decide on another BB (because I LOVE my BB) or getting an iphone so I can have Disney apps. I don't care about the mp3 part of it, and DS19, who has one, told me wanting a Disney app is not a good excuse to get one. Now I don't knowwhat to get!

As another reformed Blackberry user, I'll put my 2 cents in on this one too. I was very smart phone resistant, until I broke down and got the Blackberry. I had a Blackberry for about 2 years. I liked it and used it for my work E-mail, but rarely used the internet access or other features because it was too difficult to use. I'm not very technologically advanced. I upgraded to an Iphone about 6 months ago. I LOVE the IPHONE. It is so much easier to use than the Blackberry and you can do so many more things with it. I have the 3GS. I can voice dial every contact in my address book. You can download voice activated google, and then all you have to do to find things on the internet is talk to the phone. Using the Internet is so much easier on the Iphone and it is so much easier to navigate. You don't have to worry about things being too small on the screen because you can zoom everything in with your fingers. Attachments in e-mails are so much easier to work with. You can take a video with the phone and edit it with your fingers. The Disney apps are fun, and there are so many other useful apps out there too. To me, the IPHONE is tons better than the Blackberry!

 

[deerhart]

If your on Verizon and want to go to an Iphone, you have to switch to AT&T.

I have a blackberry curve (not a touch screen) and I love it, but when it comes time for my upgrade, I expect we will move to something more like the droid. I can keep hoping that the Iphone lock on AT&T will be broken by then!

I use my curve for email, to keep my calender (I run everything through gmail and Google which makes my calender very easy to use) and web surfing. With my profession, having a smart phone is almost a must.

 

[louey]

I have the BB Strom 2 and I seriously have no clue how to do most of the things I am told it can do but I will not give it up because of the calender function. DH and I have our calenders linked. So I can be somewhere need to schedule something instead of having to call him to see if he can (whatever) I just look my phone if I make an appointment it pops up on his phone right away. With a 7 year old and 3 yr. old twins we are always scheduling something so this feature is AWESOME for us.

I love the calendar feature too and the contact info is also great because I have everyones email/house address/ mobile, house phone numbers right at my finger tips!!!
Be sure to do the upgrade on your Storm to 5.0 if you don't already have it blackberry.com/storm/update it gives you somemore bells and whistles