Treo vs Blackberry

I came over from a Treo 755p to a BB 8830 a little over a week ago and I posted some early thoughts and impressions. I decided to cross post something here I originally put up over at Brighthand for the benefit of my fellow former Treo users.

Third Party Apps
Part of what hurts BB apps is the architecture of the BB itself. Hotsync is something I'm used to running unattended. BB sync, whether on Mac or Windows requires a lot of clicking around to get the job done. I've gotta sync pim data, then install or remove apps and forget about any app data, the only way to back that up is using the BB Desktop software on Windows and backing up the entire device.

The end user experience on Palm OS is a lot smoother. The only credible BB apps right now fall into two categories...

Apps that get data OTA and don't require sync or use built in RIM data that is already synced

and

Apps that have throwaway data like games.

The market for things like password safes is somewhat murky because they all offer different scenarios for backing up your data and some offer none at all. Sadly, for a Mac user like myself, there is no password safe that can get it's data on and off my 'berry without a lot of tweaking around on my part.

Still, all of this is trivial because one of the main areas for 3rd party apps, namely plugging holes in the OS, is not an issue on Blackberry. The OS does what it was designed to do well enough without so much as a thought about any tweak. Yes, there are 3rd party apps to bend the BB to look more like WM or Palm but these are not essential, rather they are ways for users to avoid having to adapt the the BB way of doing things.

I find that when it comes to a trouble-free handheld experience, it is a lot easier to adapt the way I do things to the device I'm using rather than pile layer upon layer of tweaks and fixes to bend it to my will and as was often my experience on Palm OS, to break it.

A device could be judged on the amount of adaptation it requires. BB might appear to fall short in this regard but I confer a lot more credit to BB because it works so well at what it does. I have found that on my BB, unlike certain other platforms, nothing really important (to me) was omitted.

Treo Versus Blackberry: Winner 'Berry!

Let's go through the list of minuses, shall we?
- SD card backup - why was this important to me? the need to backup an unstable OS - no longer required.
- 3rd party launcher support - why was this important? Palm's launcher sucked. no longer required.
- Ability to run apps from SD card - why was this important? I needed enough 3rd party apps to overflow internal memory just to get through my day. - no longer required - btw there is a 3rd party app to allow this on bb. for now at least I say no thanks. Available but no longer required.
- Ability to edit office docs. This is something I gave up on some time ago. I can get it on BB but I don't bother. Editing office docs on the tiny screen is not something I want to invest any more time and energy to do. Viewing office docs is built in to the BB os. A no brainer.Available but no longer required.
- Ability to copy files via bluetooth - This is something I had to run 3rd party software to accomplish on Palm and it's not that big a deal no longer required.
- Ability to sync wirelessly - I'm willing to wait for this. I'm confident it's coming eventually. I can wait
- Ability to do full back up/ restore on MacOS - I can fill this need by "borrowing" disk space on my PC at work. I can wait for this.

Here are things I never enjoyed on Palm that I doubt I could ever achieve and I now have them working perfectly on my BB...
+ Push email - works all day every day - no bullcrap required - I found out about the schedule changes for my kids' events this weekend without driving home to fire up the computer and without suffering through resets and lags on Palm OS. And I found out while I was still in the car, without getting myself killed fighting with some arcane user interface that assumes email needs to buried several screens deep in a 3rd party application rather than seamlessly integrated into the OS and available from the HOME SCREEN. Awesome.
+ Long battery life - 3 out of 4 bars when I'm hooking it to the charger in the evening. Insanely good battery life. Awesome.
+ a keyboard lock that really works - putting my BB 8830 in "standby" absolutely keeps it from being switched on by the pencils in my pocket or the squirming puppy I'm cuddling with. In all the years I dealt with my Treos waking up in my pocket, I had given up on ever finding a solution for this annoyance on PalmOS. Awesome.
+ Well integrated communications centric interface. Go through the call log to pick a name and send an email. Go through the inbox and emails, sms and missed calls are all gathered in one list. Awesome.
+ Automatic display dimming. I wasted so much time configuring power hero and other solutions to dim the Palm display so it wouldn't eat battery. On my BB, it just works. It gets dim indoors and it gets bright outdoors. It is comfortable to use lying in bed. Awesome.
+ No stylus. I can't overstate how long I've wanted to put this particular albatross out of my life. I find myself still reaching for the stylus and I'm overjoyed when I remember there isn't any. Awesome.
+ Thin. The 8830 is as thin as any phone out there. I didn't realize how FAT the Treos were until I carried an 8830. Awesome. I could never go back to such a huge form factor. I'm encouraged that Palm finally got the thin thing figured out for the Treo Pro. Now they need a thinner Centro running Nova, even if it's only a re-badged Treo Pro. However Palm would have to kick it up a few notches to woo me back from the long battery life seamless email experience I'm now enjoying on my BB!