[Ayrow]

I have been on the fence about this forever.
I have been quietly waiting for an Android device to come out that would replace my Storm.
So, I bought the Incredible, thinking it would do the job.

24 hours later and I just returned it.

Before I explain why, let me be clear that the Droid Incredible is an amazing phone and is certainly miles ahead of the Storm in every way. However, there are just some things that Blackberries do better, not to mention the Storm.

I have several email accounts and use my Storm more to message and keep track of information (texts, emails, etc..) than talk. The Incredible, even with 3rd party apps, just couldn't compete.
The battery life on the Incredible was the worst I have ever seen in a phone and the screen was almost useless in sunlight.

The one thing that I missed the most was the multi-colored LED on the front of my Storm. I have it programmed to display different colors based on the email accounts I use or the text messages I receive from certain contacts. I can look at my phone, at a glance, and know if it is something that demands my attention right away.
The Incredible has none of this, nor the ability to have a 3rd party app that does anything similar. The interface is cluttered, at best, even with the several 3rd party apps I tried. I spent all night working non-stop on this phone to make it simple to use and intuitive. A tweak here, an app there, a configuration here. It just never did what I wanted it to do in a smooth and clean manner.

Basically it came down to this; the Storm (as horrible a phone that it is) is like a dedicated tool that performs important tasks simply and reliably. It's not a graphic powerhouse and it certainly is a bit laggy, at times. It is not designed (yet) to be a media consumption machine, although it can certainly do a respectable job when asked. However, it has never let me down (well, with the exception of a battery dying). As long as you don't push the Storm, it is reliable and dependable.

On the other hand, the Incredible feels like (and functions like) an unrefined toy. Sure, it is fast, powerful, and colorful, but it still has a ways to go before it is ready for hard-core business. It is not constructed all that solid and I was constantly worried about breaking it.

Please know, I REALLY wanted this phone to be my next phone - my next workhorse and companion. It just wasn't ready for my needs.

In the meantime, my contract is up and I am now on month to month with Verizon. Something will come along, but in the meantime, I'm sticking with my BB.

I swear, I never thought I'd hear myself say that.

[JohnyLunchmeat#CB]

I agree 100%

I have been messing around with a buddies Incredible for a few weeks now and it's neat, cute, or whatever but there is no way I could run my business on the go with it the way I do with my Storm. BBM has been Huge for business as well!

I am willing to deal with all the Storms quirks as long as it does what I need it to the way it has been. Now I am just waiting to see what the Storm 3 is all about.

[TheOne01]

Whatever gets you to sleep at night.

[valorian]

This is something I've been saying for a while now. The Smartphone market is splitting in two.

You have the Droid phones and the iPhone for those who want a toy to surf the internet, play games, text on, and once in a while call someone.

Then you have those who need a smartphone for their business. They need a phone they can access the internet with and know they do not have to worry about missing an e-mail. They also need a phone to work on their Microsoft Office documents. An office away from their office. This is where no phone can beat a BlackBerry.

[ItalianPrincess]

thanks for the heads up! my Storm has given me nothing but hassles & my husband told me i could use his upgrade so i played around with the Incredible. i like it A LOT, very fast & has tons of apps but is definitely no BB. i too have the led app that lights up different colors for different messages. now i know the Incredible can't do that =( what about giving the Storm 2 a shot?

[Toochief]

Yep! I had the same expierience. I gave it to my wife within 3 hours of receiving it. In addition to what Ayrow stated, the battery life on the incredible was horriblly insulting and the keyboard was just not made for email. After that expierience I wish for only two things: Faster browser and free navigation. Hopefully 6.0 will give me one of those two.

[TheOne01]

This is something I've been saying for a while now. The Smartphone market is splitting in two.

You have the Droid phones and the iPhone for those who want a toy to surf the internet, play games, text on, and once in a while call someone.

Then you have those who need a smartphone for their business. They need a phone they can access the internet with and know they do not have to worry about missing an e-mail. Droid does They also need a phone to work on their Microsoft Office documents.Droid does...cheaper An office away from their office. This is where no phone can beat a BlackBerry.

There's that word again. Calling another platform's devices "toys" must be like an involuntary reflex for you people. Makes you feel like "grown ups". Listen, These new Droids and the new iphone will easily outperform any blackberry. And don't even mention the future bb's, because those are basically the same phone with a different model number.

[valorian]

Listen, These new Droids and the new iphone will easily outperform any blackberry. And don't even mention the future bb's, because those are basically the same phone with a different model number.

Then why do I keep reading posts such as this, and not just on this forum about people who need a phone for their business and try an Android based phone or iPhone that end up switching back to BlackBerry's becuase the other phone do not meet their business needs?

[jeffmeden]

Then why do I keep reading posts such as this, and not just on this forum about people who need a phone for their business and try an Android based phone or iPhone that end up switching back to BlackBerry's becuase the other phone do not meet their business needs?

Call it second hand denial. They just can't fathom how someone might have different needs from a phone than someone else. Some people just don't get that a phone that does what you want is a toy; a phone that does what you need is a tool. There has yet to be one phone that is both (but they are getting closer.) Knowing what you want and need from a phone (and which of the two are important) will lead you to the right phone. Picking the newest, shiniest, fastest phone with no attention to what it actually does will probably lead you to a bad phone (unless you want a toy). The storm sure had a lot of those types, although by the look of the rants and raves forum they are almost all moving on to newer/shinier toys.

If certain trolls around here would actually stand behind their arguments instead of muttering "droid does" every time these questions come up, there might be a worthwhile conversation around here. Until then, it's just trolls being trolls.

[TheOne01]

Call it second hand denial. They just can't fathom how someone might have different needs from a phone than someone else. Some people just don't get that a phone that does what you want is a toy; a phone that does what you need is a tool. There has yet to be one phone that is both (but they are getting closer.) Knowing what you want and need from a phone (and which of the two are important) will lead you to the right phone. Picking the newest, shiniest, fastest phone with no attention to what it actually does will probably lead you to a bad phone (unless you want a toy). The storm sure had a lot of those types, although by the look of the rants and raves forum they are almost all moving on to newer/shinier toys.

If certain trolls around here would actually stand behind their arguments instead of muttering "droid does" every time these questions come up, there might be a worthwhile conversation around here. Until then, it's just trolls being trolls.

I will stand behind anything that I have ever said in regards to the performance of my device. I have owned 4 different blackberrys and only 1 droid and I will say, without hesitation, that this phone destroys each one of them individually or collectively. The only advantages that people with bb's continue to scream is email and bbm. The difference in when My driod recieves emails as opposed to my blackberrys is not even worth mentioning, and bbm is, by far, blackberry's most overrated feature. Qwerty keyboard? Whatever. I promise you that I can type as fast (if not faster) as you can on any blackberry. Everything else that I can think of, android just does it better (and when I say better, I mean faster and more efficiently). Oh yea, I forgot about battery life. Granted, blackberry has a clear advantage there. But so what, I don't really care that your bb can go 19 days on one charge. My device will go a full day on one charge, how much more do I need. I charge my phones daily anyway. Why wouldn't you?

[Ayrow]

There's that word again. Calling another platform's devices "toys" must be like an involuntary reflex for you people. Makes you feel like "grown ups". Listen, These new Droids and the new iphone will easily outperform any blackberry. And don't even mention the future bb's, because those are basically the same phone with a different model number.

Well, ok. It was a term used as a description of expression.
It was just how it "felt" when using it. I suppose it was the difference between driving a Cadillac or a Geo, one just feels constructed better.
The difference between a Dewalt or Makita hand tool and a Black & Decker (read: cheap Wal Mart tool), the feel of the tool is more solid and better.
"Toy" just seemed appropriate. Sorry you were offended.

I will stand behind anything that I have ever said in regards to the performance of my device. I have owned 4 different blackberrys and only 1 droid and I will say, without hesitation, that this phone destroys each one of them individually or collectively. The only advantages that people with bb's continue to scream is email and bbm. The difference in when My driod recieves emails as opposed to my blackberrys is not even worth mentioning, and bbm is, by far, blackberry's most overrated feature. Qwerty keyboard? Whatever. I promise you that I can type as fast (if not faster) as you can on any blackberry. Everything else that I can think of, android just does it better (and when I say better, I mean faster and more efficiently). Oh yea, I forgot about battery life. Granted, blackberry has a clear advantage there. But so what, I don't really care that your bb can go 19 days on one charge. My device will go a full day on one charge, how much more do I need. I charge my phones daily anyway. Why wouldn't you?

Hold on a second... I made it VERY clear at the beginning of my OP that the Incredible is a better phone, hands down. I will certainly agree with this statement. But, the BB just does some things better, especially for "my needs". You can get all bent out of shape all you want, but when it comes down to hard-core information and getting it reliably in an organized fashion, I'm sorry, your Incredible doesn't compete. At least, not yet.
Again, sorry you were offended.

Now, if I want a phone that plays games, is snappy to use, has gobs of memory, and takes great pictures, then I will certainly buy the Incredible or any other Android phone on the market. Unfortunately, that's not what I want (or need) in a phone. After I sell my business, maybe I'll look forward to that, who knows...

[petaf]

OK. I have both a BlackBerry and the Nexus One. When my emails come through on the Nexus, the trackball lights up like a Christmas tree with a loud notification, even emails that are not gmail. I bought an extended battery for it since the battery it comes with sucks. Screen is almost impossible to see in sunlight, but boy is it wonderful everywhere else!
I still have my 9700 and can't seem to part with it so, yes, I am one of those fools that walk around with two devices.
If I was a business person I would probably stick with just the BlackBerry. But I'm not.

[jeffmeden]

I will stand behind anything that I have ever said in regards to the performance of my device.

So by stand behind you mean make excuses or dismiss any negative aspect of it, while at the same time dismissing features on other phones as unimportant simply because you have no need for them? The incredible is a good phone for you, wow, good job, do you want a gold star or something? If you could hold more than one thought in your head at a time maybe you could see that it's not a good phone for everyone. But then, trolls will be trolls.

[PolynesianMedic]

A good friend of mine just ran away from his iPhone after a few years and LOVES his Incredible. I have, until now, not heard anything negative about it. I also work with a few that have the Motorola Droid, and again, LOVE it. I will hold out a thought until I can get my hands on one and see what my thoughts are, but I have to think that if so many people are raving, there has to be something good about it.

[jeffmeden]

A good friend of mine just ran away from his iPhone after a few years and LOVES his Incredible. I have, until now, not heard anything negative about it. I also work with a few that have the Motorola Droid, and again, LOVE it. I will hold out a thought until I can get my hands on one and see what my thoughts are, but I have to think that if so many people are raving, there has to be something good about it.

That's exactly how we ended up with ten thousand complainers in the rants/raves forum! Would you buy a car without test driving it and then complain that the seats are uncomfortable or that the sunroof doesn't work the way you want it to? Even though your friend, who may be a great guy but expects totally different things from a car, told you that he was in love with the one he bought? Probably not.

Get down to a corporate store (one owned by Verizon, not a d-bag reseller who will try a hard sell on you) and just play around with the two phones. Most stores have the displays right next to each other so you can even dual wield them if you want to, to try them out side by side. They are great phones (albeit not for everyone) but never make a long term commitment because of peer pressure!

[loriann82]

I love this post just because its sooo true...I wont even consider going to anything but blackberry, it really is a horrible phone but i love it...hahaha! I seen someone posted about the storm 3....REALLY?? When is it comming out? I have the original storm and want the 2nd so bad but I just might wait for the 3rd if it isnt too far off!!

[seasons]

I am 16 and much prefer my storm over any phone i have had the backflip (lagged worse than the blackberry with the orginal software) i had an iphone and h8ted it it just didnt do what i neede it to

[southeast storm]

I like BB. Droid phones had my eye but I am going to wait on BB. I have an ipod touch so i don't want an iphone. My issue with rant is: Unless it's a company issued phone why are these people not researching these phones???? I researched my storm and knew pros and cons before I purchased so when I learned to backup constantly and buy apps with people I can redownload. I cannot be upset with the company with the info out there. I haven't had all of the storm issues but most of them on four different storms.I think the storm's potential is endless and I hope if there is a storm 3 the improvements are made so this is an INCREDIBLE phone.

[Shadrackc]

Wow. My experience is completely different.
Been a cell phone user since the very early 90's and startec/motorola/nokia phones on analogue networks.
Only two phones stand out to me as being ones where I was completely satisfied with my purchase.
The first was my first motorola Razr. Great feel, well made, and a very sexy phone when it came out.
Second just happened 3 weeks ago when my HTC Touch Pro keyboard died and my staff convinced me to go BB.
Well we just got the Storm 2 here in Canada on the Telus network so, even though the owner of the company has a Storm 1 on OS 5 (still doesn't work right) I jumped on the Storm 2.
Can't say enough about how much I love this phone.
I have a few complaints (cover that later) but overall.....WOW. Great phone.
Running off our office exchange server for work mail, and have my home pop mail and a hotmail account as well.
Running Quick Launch, a few games, but other than that just stock.
As I have read in other forums, the quality of build is fantastic. One of the best phones I have owned for quality of workmanship.
Only thing I find off is that the screen rests a little higher on the right side than the left. The END button sits higher than the SEND button. Checked this on another one new out of the box and it was exactly the same so it isn't just my phone. Doesn't affect anything, just noticed it.
I have ordered the Invisible Sheild for my phone, and use the Seido clip as I don't like skins, or cases that add to a very sexy phone stock.

After setting it up with some suggestions found on here for typing, I can blaze along faster than I could on my keyboard phones. This from someone who swore they wouldn't get a virtual keyboard. I really like the surepress technology now that they have fixed it in the 2. Anyone with a 1 notices how much better the keyboard is on the 2.
No floating screen either. That problem is fixed.
Battery life is fantastic.
One thing I hated and fixed up was the "catch all " message folder. Hated my mail getting put in the same place. Like to know whether it is business or personal mail. Had my IT guys change the BES server to push up a desktop folder that is just the work mail, then hid the messages folder.
On the video front, copied a divx video of a tv show into the video's folder on the memory card and it played perfectly. Great looking screen.
The desktop manager software works for some things, but I have given up trying to use the media manager and the software to sync with media player.
Says it is syncing music library and goes forever doing nothing.
The Roxio software is horrible. Slow, and the interface takes me back to Windows 3.1 days. Wouldn't see my network properly, see my home server, etc.
They could learn from MS and their Zune software. That works great.
Ended up just running Media player (windows 7 ultimate 64 bit) and synching to the 16GB memory card. Drag and drop for my music albums and artists, sync, and done. Works great.
BBM is a staple for us at work now that we have 90% people on Blackberry phones.
To those naysayers....sorry, have to disagree.
This is the best phone I have used in a long time, and does everything I need right, and the things I don't need such as music and video, I can work around very easily.

Now if there is a fix for the media problems that I haven't been able to find, please let me know.

[Ayrow]

I tried the Incredible. It was a nice phone, no doubt.
But I returned it and "upgraded" to a Storm 2 instead (from my Storm 1).

I'm sorry, but there were just too many things that I missed about the Storm that BB just does better. Things that just worked better for me, like the front LED and the simple/uncluttered user interface.

Android is good and it is certainly going to be great, but it still has some big developmental steps to take. Right now it reminds me a lot of using Linux on a PC - it is better in some ways, but it is frustrating (and sometimes impossible) to get it working exactly the way you want, and even then there are compromises you have to make.

Here's a thread I started about it if you want to know more.
http://forums.crackberry.com/f86/bou...k-storm-478078

[howarmat]

you know what has me rolling on the floor laughing right now.

Ayrow was the biggest Android nut hugger 2 months ago. Praying for the release of Nexxus One and telling all the BB users how amazing the Inc and Desire would be. Commenting on how great the Android OS was compared to that of RIM and its outdated POS OS. where is your foot now

[Ayrow]

LOL. I knew it was only a matter of time before you saw my thread. I was just waiting for you to give me **** about it. ;-)

Just don't give me too much, you live right up the street from me and I'll come find you!!


Now if I can just get media player to stream again, I'll be good.

[JudgeHolden]

What program does the OP use for his LED? I haven't found any that I liked. It drives me insane that RIM gives us a multicolored LED but won't let us customize it. Their sound notification customization options leave much to be desired, too.

I use my phone 99% for BBM. BBM is an amazing tool and, as RIM knows, means there's a very high switching cost. But is it enough to keep me with RIM? I despise my Storm, it does absolutely NOTHING well other than BBM. If I had a phone that did the internet decently I feel I'd actually do that.
On the flip side, if I use BBM almost exclusively, why switch?

I'm up for a new phone in August. Unless RIM has announced something interesting for Verizon near then I'm leaving. The Bold just won't cut it. Ultimately it has most of the flaws the Storm has, just to a significantly lesser degree.

[howarmat]

berrybuzz is a good led app

as for the sound notification, the BB has tons of customization so im not sure if you just dont know what you are doing or what cause its by far the best sound selection and use i have seen

[eternalemb]

berrybuzz is a good led app

as for the sound notification, the BB has tons of customization so im not sure if you just dont know what you are doing or what cause its by far the best sound selection and use i have seen

This guy (JudgeHolden) sounds like he's just completely inept at using the Storm. I'm on .732 and my phone is perfect. No leaks. Awesome memory (42.5MB on mine, 46.8MB on my wife's). Super fast. And man does it do everything I need. My business would be considerably harder without it.

As for the troll known as "TheOne01": My other phone, an overclocked Omnia II will outperform your Droid any damn day of the week. Period. Speed is everything right?