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My last long using BB model was the 9700. I did use the 9800 for a bit; however, I didn't care for it that much.
I think the biggest difference you're going to notice is battery life. I typically get about 8 hours of use out of my phone with some gaming, lots of texting (hundred or so to a couple hundred sent/received), and anywhere from a half dozen to a couple dozen emails sent/received, some music streaming on the way to work or after-school coaching of high school soccer practice sessions. I'm not sure what the battery life on the Skyrocket is. I've heard LTE eats more battery...but not sure though. I have an LG Thrill and battery management isn't very good on this phone. There are a number of us Android users getting 12-17 or more hours.
The virtual keyboard took a bit of time to get used to. I don't have a specific number as far as days and weeks it took to get proficient. But the virtual keyboards that are out now are really good, and there's not that much of a learning curve.
You'll need a Gmail accout to have access to the market. You can set one up if you don't have one with your phone when you pull it out of the box using your phone.
I don't have to deal with truncated emails since I switched to Android. My exchange and gmail are just as fast as they were on the blackberry. My wife uses yahoo, and it comes really quickly. I'm not sure if it's instant though.
The one reallllly cool thing about Android is the near-limitless choices on how you want your phone to look. Here's a thread at teh XDA forums where people show off their screens...
Post your Phone Home Screen **BE APPROPRIATE** - Page 5361 - xda-developers
I linked you to the last page. Just work your way back.
The Skyrocket doesn't have an LED notification. To some this is a big deal. For some of this, we actually found it a relief not to have this LED light as we had come accustomed to constantly checking to see if the light was going off. It became a distraction rather than helping.
The best part of AT&T is the 30 day buyers remorse. Give it a shot. If you don't like it after a few weeks, you can always bring it back.
Last edited by kilted_thrower; 01-03-12 at 08:36 AM.
01-03-12 08:32 AM - Aw shucks *blush*I think you're the bees knees. <3
I'll have to say that I resisted moving to Android because of the virtual keyboard for so long. I can't even tell you how much faster I am using swype on a virtual keyboard than I was on a physical keyboard.. I've never gotten used to Swype. I've tried and tried, but I just can't get the hang of it. When I had the Swype keyboard activated I would always find myself tapping more than "swyping." Now the stock HTC keyboards come with their own version of Swype called Trace. Every once in awhile I send a text this way, but for longer emails, forum posts, etc I always tap.01-03-12 11:40 AM - This is just a personal preference, and I know many absolutely love Samsung devices, but I don't really care for them compared to HTC. To me, the TouchWiz UI isn't as intuitive as HTC's Sense UI. Also, even though Samsungs SAMOLED screens are great when playing games or watching videos, normal daily use on the phone can be a bit of an eye strain because the screen can't display true whites. They have a blue-ish tint. Also, the TouchWiz stock widgets aren't as robust as Sense's (again, that's just a personal preference as widgets are very important to me).
I love doing this widget demonstration. Here are some widgets that are Sense-specific:
The clock widget is probably Sense's most identifiable widget. Not only does it look good, but it's very functional as well. If you tap on the clock, you get this:
Here, you get world clock (as shown), and if you tap on the icons on the bottom they lead to desk mode, alarm settings, stopwatch, and timer. If you tap on the sun on the widget, you get this:
You can view the weather settings for up to 4 other cities, complete with live background of whatever the weather conditions are at the moment.
Here is Sense's calendar widget:
Yes, I know it's big, but that's how I like it. It also gives you options for different sizes and views. I like this view because it lets me scroll through all of my calendar entries up to 6 weeks out. If I want to edit an entry, I simply tap on the entry and it takes me to where I can edit it.
Here is Sense's news widget:
It doesn't give you many options for content, mostly just CNN for headline and world news and some tech sites. However, for me that's adequate enough. I can scroll through the headlines and if a story sounds interesting to me I can tap on the story and it shows me the whole thing.
There are also some other widgets I like that are not Sense specific. For example, Poynt's gas widget:
It's helpful to me because I'm commuting out of town for the next few months for work. I can quickly glance at the widget without having to open the app and select gas prices.
This screen is just a mishmash of widgets I find helpful:
I have my WeatherBug Elite widget that shows me the forecast for the next 3 days. Tapping the widget opens the app. Additionally, I have the WeatherBug Elite Maps widget. It's pretty quiet now, but it's wicked helpful in the spring (I live in Tornado Alley) and winter (we get frequent snow storms, most years). I can quickly see if rain/storms/snow is coming without having to open the app and check the radar. The Color Note widget comes in handy for lists. I can just glance at my screen without having to open an app. I can change what note is displayed by clicking the 3 lines in the top right corner of the widget. Below is the Vlingo widget, which shouldn't need explanation.
I also love the status bar on Android (similar to recent BBOS iterations) because that also stores info I need quickly that I can just swipe to obtain, like my imo.im app.
Reading through your needs for a device, I think Android will suit you just fine. And again, as far as the keyboard is concerned it DOES take a couple weeks to get used to. Don't count Android out if you have difficulty using the keyboard while test driving an Android device at the store. When I was shopping for my first blackberry a couple years ago (coming from the Sidekick platform) I couldn't get the keyboard quite down at the store, but I knew I would get the hang of it eventually, and I'm glad I stuck with it. I switch between my Amaze and 9700 frequently and I find I'm still faster on the Amaze's virtual keyboard than I am on the 9700's physical keyboard.01-05-12 11:50 AM - My gf and I both had Droids before and just got sick of them. They always force close programs. There is programs running off of programs running off programs so they where always slow and glitching out. There some apps that ask for permisions they should not be asking for. Like this game was asking for permision to veiw our pictures, text msgs, voice calling, like why the heck do u need those permissions???? And it was a bunch of apps not just one. And android is horrible for its apps in another way. The app might be good one device but suck on another, and they have to fix problems on each device. It was just annoying. An update for the app would come out and then the app would be good on my android, but then it woud suck on my gfs phone. Just a nightmare. Plus battery life was horrible. I know some bb are not the best but my gf had to charge her Nexus twice a day. And it would not even get a full charge. Would only get up to 96% then my Optimus did the same thing and would only get to 98% the only thing I liked more about android than bb was more apps. But really I found myself using the apps for a few days and just got bored of them. So now I decided to get a cell phone that's meant to be a cell phone so I chose blackberry, if u want games then by a ps3, psp or whatever. I am now happy with my Bold and my gf is happy with her curve. And with the playbook to go with them we are even happier. That is just my opionion though. I won't knock android that much though cuz they do have other amazing features. Like torrent downloading ect... But if u have a compouter then there's no need. That's why I'm just happy with my bb. Anyways sorry for the rant. Just sick of people thinking androids so amazing. Every phone is good in there own way
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com01-05-12 12:01 PM
