[dandrewk]

Having had the chance to use both radio applications, here's MHO:

Advantages Pandora:

1. No 10 second "hiccup", although I have faith Slacker will correct it.
2. Fewer/none audio ads or interruptions for non-subcribers.

Advantages Slacker:

1. Boots up much faster than Pandora.
2. Stations from PC online account updates to the phone.
3. Slacker has cached stations - BIG advantage.
4. Slacker has easier, more intuitive PC interface.
5. Slacker allows genre stations on phone. Haven't figured out if it's available on BB.
6. Biggest advantage - Slacker sounds MUCH better. It really is CD quality. By comparison, a lot of songs on Pandora sound flat and tinny. And Pandora doesn't equalize volume on its songs nearly as well as Slacker does.

So... pretty obvious Slacker is hands down winner for me. If Pandora ever comes up with cached stations, and improves its audio quality, then I'll give it another shot.

[Sectick]

Having had the chance to use both radio applications, here's MHO:

Advantages Pandora:

1. No 10 second "hiccup", although I have faith Slacker will correct it.
2. Fewer/none audio ads or interruptions for non-subcribers.

Advantages Slacker:

1. Boots up much faster than Pandora.
2. Stations from PC online account updates to the phone.
3. Slacker has cached stations - BIG advantage.
4. Slacker has easier, more intuitive PC interface.
5. Slacker allows genre stations on phone. Haven't figured out if it's available on BB.
6. Biggest advantage - Slacker sounds MUCH better. It really is CD quality. By comparison, a lot of songs on Pandora sound flat and tinny. And Pandora doesn't equalize volume on its songs nearly as well as Slacker does.

So... pretty obvious Slacker is hands down winner for me. If Pandora ever comes up with cached stations, and improves its audio quality, then I'll give it another shot.

I'll agree that Slacker has the better sound quality and I really wish Pandora would improve.

Personally I think Pandora provides a greater song selection after you have had your station for a while (oh and BTW you can add individual artists and songs on the PC just like Slacker).

Slackers interface on the PC is definately fool proof but if you have half a brain Pandora is not hard to figure out and allows just as much customization of your personal stations.

Both applications interfaces are clean and straight forward, listening through basic headphones sound quality is pretty much a non factor for me. As soon as I plug it into my car system though I need to use Slacker.

I think IF Pandora raises audio quality it will be the free music app of choice........ I love the fact there are no commercials.

[nyr2k2]

Wow, that's a little one sided!

Advantages of posting a bogus review on Crackberry:

1. No one cares
2. No one listens
7. You become a fanboy

Really? What if one product in fact has many advantages over the competitor? Does it make a poster a "fanboy" for pointing them out?

If you disagree with a review, try telling us why. This is a place to discuss applications for the Storm, not a place to argue who has the better video game console. The only "fanboys" are the ones posting "fanboy!"

Also, judging by the amount of threads asking which application is superior, I'd say that A LOT of people care, and A LOT of people listen.

[mustang02]

Wow, that's a little one sided!

Advantages of posting a bogus review on Crackberry:

1. No one cares
2. No one listens
7. You become a fanboy

You have less than 20 posts and that's all you got?

I agree with the OP about slacker being better, for now. The lack of station caching is the biggest downfall of Pandora. Downloading all day eats up the battery. I can use slacker all day long and still be at 50% when I leave work. But I guess makes me a fanboy too.

If you don't have anything of value to say, STFU and don't post useless crap.

[Inous]

Found this thread to be useful as I was wondering how pandora compared to slacker. Thanks for the review!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[ADay8945]

Slacker is definitely NOT CD quality. I'm a big headphone listener and I can easily tell the difference without even trying.

[zoyano]

I'm going to have to try Slacker out again. I've been mainly using Pandora since it was streaming much better, but now I'm thinking I just didn't give Slacker enough of a chance to cache properly and play without interruptions. Pandora definitely eats up my battery, but that's why I bring my charger to work

[huntmol]

I personally think Pandora is a much better app.

Better sound quality, smoother, and Pandora almost never plays a song I don't like.

Cache is a big + to Slacker, but to me it doesn't outweigh Pandora's other advantages.

Crackberry also did a very helpful review/comparison:
Slacker vs. Pandora – Internet Radio Smackdown | CrackBerry.com

[Tyler1077]

I am +1 for Slacker

[manny99]

After reading all the rave reviews pandora got, I decided to try it. It's unfortunate these stations can't learn from each other. Pandora has the less quality audio, but there selection is awesome. If you don't plan on paying for the service and using the free editions, then go with pandora. I paid for both of them and it was really dissapointing to find out that i still only get to skip 6 songs on pandora. I know I could just change the station but it's a pain when i'm in my car listening to pandora. I really wanted Pandora to be my preffered player but the sound quality and limited skips (even with paid subscription) make slacker my choice, but only when i'm in my car and i use pandora when i have my earphones.

[Pholey22]

Pandora really cut a lot of corners (or left MANY features out!) on the Blackberry version. I was playing with my friends iPhone and Pandora has a TON more features than the Blackberry version. What gives Pandora?? Don't think us Blackberry owners are worthy??

[dandrewk]

I did try and be "fair and balanced" with my review. I don't expect everyone to agree, but if there is disagreement, we would all gain from a fruitful discussion. These two apps do the exact same thing, in different ways, so inevitably users have to make a choice.

I do agree it -seems- Pandora has a wider selection of songs. I'm not sure if this is because them being around longer, or if it's because Slacker chooses to concentrate on a core group.

I also like Pandora's genre stations over Slacker. Too bad I can't access them on the Storm. As another poster pointed out, the iPhone has a much better interface, and it does allow for genre stations.

For me, the audio quality is all the difference. Cached stations are great too, but if it doesn't sound good it's hard to listen to. At times, Pandora sounds like poorly ripped MP3's.

I'll agree that Slacker has the better sound quality and I really wish Pandora would improve.

Personally I think Pandora provides a greater song selection after you have had your station for a while (oh and BTW you can add individual artists and songs on the PC just like Slacker).

Slackers interface on the PC is definately fool proof but if you have half a brain Pandora is not hard to figure out and allows just as much customization of your personal stations.

Both applications interfaces are clean and straight forward, listening through basic headphones sound quality is pretty much a non factor for me. As soon as I plug it into my car system though I need to use Slacker.

I think IF Pandora raises audio quality it will be the free music app of choice........ I love the fact there are no commercials.

If you build a station on Pandora with your PC account, or build a list of stations, it won't show up on the phone's app. You have to do that all over again. Slacker automatically updates.

I agree the headphones make a difference. I use Etymotic ER-6 - a nice pair, but certainly not audiophile.

[dandrewk]

Oh, and in my review I mentioned Pandora doesn't equalize volume as well as slacker. What I meant to say was it doesn't normalize the volume as well. Often with Pandora, some songs seemed to play a lot louder. RHCP nearly deafened me the other day! . And it's not just due to the nature of the song. I never experience this with Slacker.

Anyone else notice this?

[vzwty]

Having used both myself I found Pandora to be a much better app on the phone and computer. All my stations are saved on my phone so caching stations shows not real benefit to me. Just takes up more room on my memory card.

[aimetti]

Wow, that's a little one sided!

Advantages of posting a bogus review on Crackberry:

1. No one cares
2. No one listens
7. You become a fanboy

its quite clear , pandora has a better song selection however slacker sounds 10x better. If pandora gets the quality better they will be the winner hands down.

[manny99]

and you are a tool.

its quite clear , pandora has a better song selection however slacker sounds 10x better. If pandora gets the quality better they will be the winner hands down.

And if they would allow subscribed users to skip more than 6 songs. I would throw out slacker for these two things.

[aimetti]

wait , so even if you subscribe to pandora you only get 6 skips?

[manny99]

That is correct my friend, and cost me 36 dollars to not have adds and to give me a 5hr continouse play without a confirmation screen asking if i still wanna listen. Instead of the 1 hr.

[bencurry]

OK sorry for the first post. The review sounded a lot more like a product placement than a review to me, that's just my opinion.

As far as the products I tend to choose Pandora more than Slacker. That is my personal preference. I like having stations that are programed to music that I like. I have never been impressed with the stations I find on Slacker. Once again this is my preference. I don't listen to either loudly or through headphones. I use them to play music at low levels while at work.


@dandrewk I personally apologize to you. There was no reason for that. It's been a rough morning, and I messed up.

[soulesschild]

That is correct my friend, and cost me 36 dollars to not have adds and to give me a 5hr continouse play without a confirmation screen asking if i still wanna listen. Instead of the 1 hr.

Wow that ******* blows. I thought you'd get unlimited skipping like Slacker. Total fail. Pandora won't be getting my money then

For me,

Slacker Pros:
Sound quality, for those of you who say it makes no difference, it's probably because you have ****ty headphones. I run off a pair of shure E4s and ATH-A900s and you can tell immediately between slacker vs pandora

Caching for sure.

Pandora Pros:
Better selection of music, it just seems to play music that matches together much better then slacker.

No ads, but I have slacker plus so it's not a real issue for me.


Cons of Pandora:
If for whatever reason your signal gets lost, it takes Pandora FOREVER to get it started back up. Sometimes I just have to shutdown Pandora and restart it.

Cons of Slacker:
Music selection

[koehler104]

ok I use both daily n my opinion I tend 2 use Pandora a lil more even tho I'm subscribed 2 slacker, I really like the genre setup on slacker but I don't like hearing the same song that much. I have heard several times where my songs on slacker get quit but it also does that 2 me on Pandora. I don't use the cached section on slacker so whereas that can be very handy and a great idea it not 2 me. I actually have had a station that I setup online transfer over 2 my handset with Pandora (I think, its been a while an I only tried 1 time so I mayb wrong). I've just had 2 many issues on slacker with it skipping songs on me an songs freezing up. if I could get more consistency out of slacker an better played songs I'd prolly never use Pandora anymore. Remember this is just my personal opinion an findings, other opinions an findings may vary from 1 handset 2 another

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[manny99]

[QUOTE=soulesschild;2424194]Wow that ******* blows. I thought you'd get unlimited skipping like Slacker. Total fail. Pandora won't be getting my money then

That was my initial response when I found out you can still only skip 6 songs. After I had purchases the subscirption of course.

I guess it was my fault for assuming it would allow me to skip unlimited songs like slacker tho.

That is why if you are not planning on subscribing to either then i would go with pandora for the music selection, but if you like sound quality i would go with slacker.

[Snarfler]

I don't know why you guys are getting worked up over a skip limit on pandora. On the BB Pandora app, if you try to skip too much, you get a pop up that says "No skips remaining. You may skip 6 times per hour on each station" I don't think Slacker is worth paying for, but I thought the free version was six total. Sometimes when Slacker throws a really crappy song in the mix, I wonder if they do that on purpose to try to sell more skips.

Also, I didn't know there was a paid Pandora. Slacker is all about trying to get you to buy their paid service, Pandora is so quiet about that I didn't know it was an option. I tend to use Pandora for the no ads, and also because it is quicker to exit. Slacker still tries to get you to subscribe every chance it can.

On both Slacker and Pandora I have had times where I thought the song selection was poor, other times very good.

I've had Slacker problems, no Pandora issues. On the .75 OS, every time I ran Slacker it would prevent audible alerts, from the basic phone ringing, to email, mms alerts. Had to do a batt pull to get the tones back after every time I ran slacker. That seemed to go away when I went to the .122 OS (and reloaded Slacker) , and when I went to .132, slacker locked up four of the five times I've tried to use it.

So I'm not well pleased with slacker's performance on my phone, I think my experience is atypical though.

Really, the bottom line for anyone trying to decide which one to use is that you can use them both, it's not an either/or decision.

[shakinlaw]

I downloaded slacker and pandora at the same time. The only time i really care to use them is if i'm riding my bike. I deleted slacker fairly quickly b/c i wanted to see if it was the culprit of my memory loss (storm .75 at the time). My memory did seem to improve & so now i just have pandora. But while riding i notice that the music is pretty much non-existent at a certain speed b/c i can BARELY hear it- so i'm thinking of trying slacker again but def dont want it to freeze on me like Snarfler.. I'm running .132 also.

[shakinlaw]

OH!! And can someone explain the whole cache-ing stations thing? I'm thinking its something like a bookmark- but need a little more clarification as to exactly what it is, and the benefits of it.