[d7walls]

So I'm about to upgrade my phone, and its come down to the Samsung Captivate or the BlackBerry 9800. There are a couple questions I need to ask the community first however before I make any further decisions.

First, email is very important to me. I need my emails to be pushed to me right away as I rely on this form of communication for work. I already have a GMail account. But is push email on an Android going to match the service I've gotten used to on a BlackBerry?

Second, if I do make the switch, does this mean my BIS account disappears into the void? Or, am I able to get all my BIS emails through my carrier address forwarded to my GMail address and then pushed?

Lastly, I've gotten quite used to the on-the-fly punctuation and spell-checking that the BlackBerry platform offers, is this also an integral part of the Android OS?

Thanks in advance for any replies, if I do switch, I'm really going to miss BBM, which is one of the only things really holding me back.

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[californiablackberry]

If your GMail account is your primary, and the one you use to connect the device, you will receive e-mails in an instant. Other e-mails are slow.

If you make the switch, your BIS account will, I think, disappear? Not sure though.

Yes, if I remember correctly, Android goes have a pretty good spell-checking system. Not so sure about punctuation, I do know it puts a period after two spaces like BB.

I'm not going to automatically say Blackberry is the best, and put down Android because both are amazing.
Good Luck with whatever device you choose!

[carullo]

emails and bbm if they are important to you....bb hands down

[TexanBerry80]

My 2 cents....stick with the Blackberry. I have been a berry user for 2 years now, and the berry has proven to be the most reliable as far as email is concerned, and for further proof, my fiancee has the MyTouch 3G Android with T-Mobile, and for a while, she was having problems reading her emails (said connection error)...was an Android issue based on several forums. Of course, feel free to check out the Android, but if you want reliable emails and peace of mind, stay with the blackberry family. Hope this helps!

[d7walls]

All this feedback is great so far guys, I really do like BlackBerry, especially having a physical keyboard. To be honest I'm not sure that I need the extra multimedia that an Android will offer, but I could definitely use a better browsing experience and I still think I really just want something new.

I still won't be able to make any decisions until I go into the store next week after the Captivate has been released and play with it and the 9800 side-by-side.

What would be the best way to find out if my BIS email account is still active if I switch to another device? Can I really trust just any Rogers sales rep about this, or should I speak to someone from customer services at RIM?

Too many things swaying me from one side to the other!

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[Fubaz]

Your BIS email disappears if you switch because you no longer require BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). No blackberry no specific data plan, you goto a generic plan like iphone users have. Only way to keep your @bb address would be to stick with blackberry.

Don't trust rogers, and RIM isn't the one who controls your bis address, rogers does.

Put it this way, you don't want to use blackberry. Bye bye blackberry email adress.

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[kilted thrower]

If your primary email is gmail, then don't listen to the posters telling you that if email is important to you, go blackberry. Gmail comes to Captivate just as fast as it did on any blackberry I've owned.

I have no idea about BIS.

Periods are added. The rest of the punctuation is up to you. The spell checker is good. I don't send a lot of email from my Captivate since I'm usually around a laptop and anything longer than a few sentences is usually done on the laptop. But I was this way with the blackberry so I can't compare the two on longer emails.

I think you should spend some time with both of them. They're completely different. What you might try is purchasing the captivate, try it out for the 30 days you have, and if you don't like it, return it and get the 9800.

[GG1]

You get email notifications INSTANTLY with gmail and i also use K9 email app for other accounts and it polls at whatever intervals you set it to and that works pretty good also. Auto correction is also very good on Android, you have many settings to play with in that regard. Typing on that 4" screen is a breeze especially in landscape mode and you also have swype which works wonders at one handed typing,if you practice at it. Its a tough choice, Torch is a good phone but still wouldn't trade my SGS for it. Good luck with your decision.

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[maxiang]

I'd say email is a wash when it comes to gmail. No truncated emails with android though. Other accounts can be routed through gmail or other apps as mention by others.

BIS account will be gone. It disappears if you switch carriers too

Spell check is a kinda I love the way BlackBerry handles spell check and autotext so beware my bias IMHO, android's auto replace and predictive is better than BlackBerry's, but the lack of ACTUAL spell check and autotext is disappointing. I have found a few keyboard replacement apps that include these items, but I prefer the system wide integration that BlackBerry has.

Web browsing blows the doors of BlackBerry's old browser. Flash and speed are the main pluses. The new webkit on the Torch is quite good, and mostly matches my iTouch in performance.

I agree that if you really want to get a feel for how any device works for you, you need to give it a several week test drive. I enjoy android a great deal (love adb!) And the hardware for it has me drooling, but its not quite at the point for me to leave RIM...yet. I did not like the Torch at first, but OS .246 satisfies my speed and web needs on it, and I'm rather attached to all of the little things that BlackBerry does and how it does it

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