[possiblybored]

Hi everyone,

So I got caught up in the hype and bought a Palm Pre last summer from Sprint [it was my 2-year-upgrade].

Since then, it has done nothing but make me angrier and angrier. My chief complaint has been the battery life; what good is the best smartphone when 8 hours of moderate use has it begging for the charger? I can't use it because I'm afraid of killing it, and that's kind of a dealbreaker for me. It's also got a bunch of bugs [like overheating and draining the battery in my pocket, making that already bad battery life worse] that I really have a hard time dealing with.

I'm thinking of upgrading out-of-contract, it's that bad. I'm a poor post-college guy for whom $350 is like a week's worth of pay. I can't just do this on a whim.

A bunch of my friends had Android phones, and a bunch of my friends have BlackBerry phones. I've heard a great deal of things about BB phones, mostly positive, and I figured who better to answer my questions than BB fans? :-)

1: Talk to me about Gmail. On the Pre, you just popped in your username and password and that was it: Contacts, Calendar, Mail, even Chat, done. Definitely sweet! And it did push Gmail no sweat. I only get a couple of messages a day--nothing crazy here--but the push was awesome and loved. I've heard that BB phones have a hard time with Gmail. Crazy stuff like sent messages in your inbox, no push, on and on. Tell me what's up. Please be honest.

2. Battery life. I don't care that the ad says "2 years of standby" between charges. What's real life like? Be specific. If I take the phone off the charger and don't use it for anything, what am I looking at 8 hours later? 90%? 20? What about usage? Does texting just kill it? E-mail? The Pre's browser eats battery for lunch, and if I have a ten-text-each-way conversation over my 30 minute lunch, I expect to lose at least 20% of battery life, if not more. Tell me what to expect as this is most important.

3. Stability. Does this thing need to be restarted every other day like my Pre? Does restarting help? What happens to it? Sometimes my Pre acts silly and needs a good restart. Sometimes the restart doesn't help. I had to erase everything and start over once already, and I lost half my contacts, permanently. That was sad. What are people's real experiences?

4. Google. I covered Gmail above. That said, is it possible to get other Google services on the device without downloading some app or Billy's Homemade Patch? I have three Google Calendars, all my contacts are on there, and I use Gchat exclusively for messaging. If I can't get Google Calendars both ways on here without a workaround or some problem, that's no good, and I need to know about that.

5. Anything else. What makes you a happy BB user? Why should I defect from the Pre, in other words, what's better about BB? This is your chance to tell me the unique things you've discovered [good and bad] that might influence whether or not I drop a week of pay on a phone. :-)

I really appreciate people's help with this and I'm glad forums like these are out there. Much love, BlackBerry people! :-)

--Mike
Current Sprint Pre owner, now on the fence.
P.S.: That reminds me, I'd stick with Sprint no matter what, if that makes a difference.

[amazinglygraceless]

I'm only going to address your last question before the barrage of BlackBerry fans
show up telling you BB is the best. It is for them. It isn't for everyone.

What makes a phone unique to one person may be quite irrelevant to another.

BlackBerry has a lot going for it but almost every other platform is outperforming it
from an advancement and innovation standpoint. If you are comfortable with
a dated, simple and honestly stale OS and UI, go with the BB. If you want to be
on the leading edge of technology you will need to look elsewhere.

[possiblybored]

amazinglygraceless,

Thanks for your swift reply, and your honesty is refreshing and appreciated. Good to know that some people in the CrackBerry forums are willing to be honest--I was expecting truthful but cheerleading responses.

I've seen the cutting edge and I've been cut by it. I had heard the rumors that BlackBerry's operating system was out-of-date and did not compare favorably to other smartphones. While that is disappointing and definitely something worth considering, it's not the end of the discussion for me. More so than being able to watch a YouTube video while reading a webpage while texting a friend and tweeting, I have to have a phone that lets me do what I need to do without killing the battery or having a meltdown.

I guess what I'm saying is that, after my experience with the Pre, I'm looking for something more stable and longer lasting in the battery department, and assuming it passes my secondary tests [Google services, mostly, and messaging (text/e-mail]) I might be willing to pick those even if the phone is not the flashiest.

Thanks again so much for keeping it real on me! Will keep your smart comments in mind. :-)

[thymaster]

One thing you will notice about the BB Tour or Curve 8530 versus with Palm pre is the solid hardware build. Blackberry feels more durable and lasting whereas, Palm pre feels cheap and have many hardware issue like overheating, loose sliding hinge, key buttons stop working and unresponsive touchscreen.

Blackberry OS feels snappy but it's not as glamorous as Web OS. If you're huge on messaging, blackberry push email and messaging service is by far better. Like any smartphone, you do need to reboot every once in a while. I reboot my tour every 10 to 15 days to refresh the memory. Palm is known for plenty of memory leaks in their OS software and that is why rebooting doesn't fix all your problems.

Blackberry have a good reputation for battery life so I don't think you're going to complain in that area especially after owning a Palm pre.

[amazinglygraceless]

@ thymaster: I have not rebooted in over a month and don't plan to unless an app
or OS install requires it. Reboots do nothing in terms of memory management or
refreshing the device.

@ OP: The Pre is an early device. Check out some of the ones that came after it
(Nexus One, Motorola Droid, Motorola Backflip, etc...) and you will be pleasantly
surprised. Also take a look at the devices offered by Nokia.

[possiblybored]

Rebooting doesn't really bother me--I have to reboot my Pre all the time and I just do it when I put it on the charger at bedtime. I'm more concerned about stability through the day...as in, will it make it home?

I am also checking out non-BlackBerry devices. I'm happy with Sprint so I'll definitely be sticking with them. That eliminates a lot of choices but still gives me plenty to think about in addition to BlackBerry.