What phone will the rest of you switch too?
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- Guys and gals, I have been with them all.
I had and still have a WindowsPhone 8.1 now 10, I had and still have an iPhone 4s running 9.x using Continuity to sync it to my iPad 2, I have an Android 4.4.2 as a spare phone. I have a BlackBerry 9900 Bridged to a Playbook on my business line. I have a BlackBerry Q5 on my private line and a z30 that I sometimes switch to on weekends. I've taken a very hard look at each OS as they progressed. The verdict after a great deal of comparison is that every platform comes with some benefits, and some deficits. There is no one platform that will do everything that I want it to do. Not yet anyway.
iPhone drives me crazy at times. It's a very dated GUI, not changing the very basis of the UI since iPhone 1. There is no way to hide apps, as they all past on the screen somewhere. You can only put them in folders, unlike Android where you can have apps residing in a maste menu and choose which apps you want to be represented by Icon on the home screens. There are no BACK and MENU button on the hardware like on Android, so I'm constantly hunting for back and menu within each app and every app is different. It drives me crazy. There are no fantastic Widgets like on Android. Yet, there are some perks. Apple Music is built into the architecture of the phone unlike Droid where it just runs as an app. This means Siri has supreme control, and the way you interact with Apple Music is more fluid and elegant than Android. Some apps for iPhone are Gorgeous. It's like they were designed by elves in Jobs' Workshop. The overall look of the GUI is beautiful and elegant to the point of being a piece of art. The hardware is built well for the most part. The interaction and how you get messages and emails and social media through the notification center is very good, and the picture taking and music is the best in the business for mainline phones.
Droid has some nice features. You can actually remove the battery. You have supreme control over how the GUI looks for YOUR phone. You can choose which apps and widgets appear on your phones screen. There is no longer an app gap between iphone and Droid. Any app now developed for iPhone is simultaneously available on Droid and has been that way for years. But unlike iPhone where they even still support the old iPhone 4s with all new OS upgrades, older Androids fall off the support curve rather quickly. If you are still using OS 2.3 on Droid (and much of the world still is according to reports), they you find that many apps no longer work on your phone. And you can't upgrade to 4.x or 5.x because the hardware will not support it. Many Droids come with a boatload of bloatware that really frogs up your OS and is almost impossible to get rid of without jail-breaking the phone. Googles voice assistant is decent, but no where near as advanced IMO as Siri or Cortana. Then there is the fact that even though Droid has come a long way, it's not as elegant an OS as Apple, and is a bit clunkier. The Notification center is coming along and it is a much more mature experience when you get to 4.x and 5.x Droid OS, and it may work for some, but for me, I'm not sure I could do it full time solo.
Windowsphone. Where do I start? The live tiles seduced me years ago when they launched the phone and ran those seductive ads. Unfortunately, like BlackBerry 10, the OS never took off and App development was painfully slow. Many apps never appeared for years and you were left with 3rd party apps that worked "ok" but nothing like the Droid or iPhone apps. I remember waiting 3 years for Flipboard. When it FINALLY arrived on WindowsPhone it didn't even FLIP for crying out loud. It was a horrific app. WindowsPhone finally got Cortana a year or so ago, and it is IMO better than Siri. It's a good integrated assistant that works well for most applications. Cortana has a sense of humor, tells jokes, sings, and even recognizes where you are and reminds you to do abc thing at xyz place when she senses you are at xyz place. I think Windowsphone wins with regard to a voice assistant. But the rest is so-so. I really tried to live with a Windowsphone as my daily driver and finally gave up. I don't even turn it on any longer.
I held on to my 9900 like grim death firmly believing that it was the best OS for business when bridged to my Playbook. Then I finally tried a Q5 with BB10. To me, BB10 is the most elegant business phone on the market. The HUB, Homescreen Multi-Tasking and swiping gestures make it the clear winner. I think BBerry Assistant is a far cry from Cortana or even Siri, but it's there if you want to play with it. So I got a Z30 as another larger screen touch model, and like that too.
Net, net, I have to have two phones. I use my Android for weekends to play, and my 9900/Q5 for weekly business.
Where will I go next? No where. I'm sticking with a combo package. It works for me.12-11-15 05:16 AMLike 0 -
I get at least one if not two "GO TO MEETING" requests per week. On a BBerry, you accept the request, and Berry sends back an ACCEPTED to the meeting administrator and neatly tucks the information in your calendar. You have what you need. Time, date and WEB ADDRESS and DIAL IN NUMBER, and MEETING CODE, etc.
On a Windows Phone, the core programming on this is FUBAR. You press ACCEPT, and the phone sends back an accepted to the meeting admin. It then puts Time and Date and "GOTOMEETING" in your Calendar, and DELETES ALL MEETING DATA INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL EMAIL! AGH! You find yourself calling the meeting admin and sheepishly asking if they would kindly send you the meeting details again because your smartphone ate them.
I spent hours with a tech from Microsoft at a MS Store while he was on the phone with a Tech at MS trying to get around this issue as it is not an APP issue but a core OS issue. He finally said he hoped Windows 10 would solve this. It's a biggie for me and I have to use a BlackBerry to accept GOTOMEETING requests. My 9900 on BIS actually works the very best in this case. Even my BB10 phone handles it a bit clunky as does my 4.4.2 Droid and iOS 9.x.
I'll stop in a MS Store again next week and send a gotomeeting request to one of the Techs and see if the phone handles the request properly and actually puts the information that you absolutely need to know in your Calendar. If not, then it's useless to me as a daily driver.12-11-15 09:25 AMLike 0 - After reading all the responses, it seems like if you leave BB just for apps, then you are jumping from one sucky OS to the next! Why can't one OS do ALL that we need? After all this time smartphones have been out, none of these companies have managed to make an OS that does it all. It's like they purposely leave out things that force you to download pointless apps or move to a whole other OS just to meet one specific need that doesn't cover the rest of my needs. So frustrating..
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!Last edited by jmo712; 12-11-15 at 10:58 AM.
eggman1987 likes this.12-11-15 10:00 AMLike 1 - Right. In seemingly every WP/WM forum, there's always been the sentiment of (insert version name/number here) will fix everything, but it never does. People do wait, but won't wait forever.12-11-15 10:51 AMLike 0
- IMHO that stat is probably very skewed. I'm sure people that were already using Android or iOS simply took old BlackBerrys that were stuffed in a drawer in for the $200 credit. Or, since no BlackBerry devices were available directly from T-Mo at that time (as I recall) some people might have taken in an old BB, got a ~$200 device, and traded it somewhere for a BB device (that's what I did).
As far as your question, I'm currently using an iPhone 6s+ but I'd like to get my hands on a full touch BlackBerry Android device. We'll see if one of those comes out down the line.
Posted via CB1012-11-15 11:37 AMLike 0 - I think it's the closest to a Blackberry (business) type experience. Apps are still lacking but the better than Blackberry from my assessment. Iphone wins there for sure.12-11-15 01:38 PMLike 0
- After reading all the responses, it seems like if you leave BB just for apps, then you are jumping from one sucky OS to the next! Why can't one OS do ALL that we need? After all this time smartphones have been out, none of these companies have managed to make an OS that does it all. It's like they purposely leave out things that force you to download pointless apps or move to a whole other OS just to meet one specific need that doesn't cover the rest of my needs. So frustrating..
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!Troy Tiscareno likes this.12-11-15 01:40 PMLike 1 -
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!12-11-15 02:20 PMLike 0 - I do realize we all don't want the same apps and utilities..BUT, I don't think it's impossible to please most if not everyone. All it takes it one company to take all the great things(including apps) that people enjoy in all the current smartphones out and put them in 1 OS! Whichever company decides to put in that work will win the "Smartphone Wars"! All of us that have used BB, Windows, iOS & Android, can imagine all the good things in all those platforms rolled into one OS.. whoever could achieve that on a OS could charge a ridiculous price and people would pay it!
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!BoldPreza likes this.12-11-15 02:21 PMLike 1 - Fwiw, I just got a passport about two weeks ago. It's a huge headturner
I know ppl have said that, but one thing I can add is that I teach at a high school in the US (Tennessee). The kids see my phone and think it's cool...now, maybe they would lose interest if they knew it didn't snapchat...but the device is a slick device. One kid specifically liked the fact that you can scroll using the keyboard. This device has/had potential
Sigh
Posted via CB1012-11-15 02:41 PMLike 0 - I do realize we all don't want the same apps and utilities..BUT, I don't think it's impossible to please most if not everyone. All it takes it one company to take all the great things(including apps) that people enjoy in all the current smartphones out and put them in 1 OS! Whichever company decides to put in that work will win the "Smartphone Wars"! All of us that have used BB, Windows, iOS & Android, can imagine all the good things in all those platforms rolled into one OS.. whoever could achieve that on a OS could charge a ridiculous price and people would pay it!
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!12-11-15 03:27 PMLike 0 - I don't think so..Id have an apple if that was the case. There are still things people don't like about iPhones, and still things we can't do on iPhones also. No phone storage, slave to the cloud, slave to iTunes, no Hub or organization, the list goes on.. An iPhone will be the last phone I switch too! I'd rather have my data mined by Android lol. I don't use banking apps, use Ashley Madison, or look at porn on my phone so I'm think my "important information " ie contacts and appointments wil be safe.
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!12-11-15 03:27 PMLike 0 -
- I don't think so..Id have an apple if that was the case. There are still things people don't like about iPhones, and still things we can't do on iPhones also. No phone storage, slave to the cloud, slave to iTunes, no Hub or organization, the list goes on.. An iPhone will be the last phone I switch too! I'd rather have my data mined by Android lol. I don't use banking apps, use Ashley Madison, or look at porn on my phone so I'm think my "important information " ie contacts and appointments wil be safe.
Created by fingering my sexy Blackberry Classic Keyboard..but I think the Priv wants me to touch her too!
By the way, I downloaded WP10 on my Nokia Lumia 830 yesterday and like it quite a bit. It's also got a removable battery, SD card, file manager, etc. Not bad.12-11-15 04:19 PMLike 0 - I think that the "smartphone era" will end a lot sooner than many people think. I am using a 2-in-1 PC (Surface Pro) with a VOIP service (Skype for Business) which gives me a full telephone line for $20 a month with unlimited calling pretty much anywhere. That, plus a data service for the few times I don't have WiFi, pretty much gets the job done, and I don't have to carry two devices or fuss with ANY mobile apps.
I know that carrying a tablet everywhere isn't viable for everyone, but I also think that within a couple of years, some mobile devices will be running "real" operating systems like Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, etc. instead of these silly little gimped mobile OSes.
At that point we won't need dedicated "mobile apps" anymore, so the choice of platform/ecosystem won't matter nearly as much.
For diehard BB10 users, that means you might not have to switch to either iOS or Android if you can get through the next couple of years on your current device.
Posted via CB10
The newest member....Cobalt Classic12-12-15 01:14 AMLike 0 - Got a Samsung Galaxy A5 for around 200 US . Very nice phone. The Z10 was quite slow and I just wanted good maps and a normal app store. Android is not my favorite but not too bad . Once you decide that you can get by without a PKB there are some great choices offered by the carriers this Christmas . Did not consider iOS because of the high price and lack of a good font size for the browser.12-13-15 05:14 PMLike 0
- I will stay with my Passport as long as possible. I love the power of the phone and all the functions of the OS.
I had a Samsung Android phone before and 6 months after release there were no OS-updates any more. I had to stay with Android 2.3. A couple of months later I really had problems installing new apps as the OS was not supported any more. After 2.5 years the phone died.
Now I hope I won't be in the similiar situation in 1 year.
I expect a good phone that is secure, has enough hardware power and an efficient OS. I'm willing to pay enough for such a phone. That was the reason to buy the Passport.
If all my expectations are not fulfilled, I'm not willing to pay much for the phone. If everything for OS10 is really shut down (for example Blackberry-ID system, BBM) and I can't use my Passport any more at all, I will buy the cheapest Android phone I find. If I come to this point, I will not care about my phone any more. I would buy the phone just for calling and texting.
I hope this won't happen.12-13-15 05:18 PMLike 0 - Why, because the Internet said so? This has been overblown like a lot of what we read online. They could have done a better job with some settings, no doubt, and have focused on fixing them. Beyond that I can feel as safe on Windows 10 as any other platform.12-13-15 06:00 PMLike 2
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