[studum]

Well, I'm not proud of it but my Blackberry 8900 has died what I would like to believe a glorious death. For the interim, my friend has recently upgraded her Blackberry and lent me her old one to borrow until I can figure out a replacement for my phone.

I can jump out to the store for another Blackberry no problem, however I can't help but feel a little intrigued at what else is out there. I've had a blackberry for a few years now and despite minor improvements it still seems like the same old boring thing. If it's the best that's out there then so be it, but I'm seeing this as an opportunity to re-evaluate and perhaps change it up a bit.

I was told by Rogers (my carrier) to wait and call in on Friday to ask about my options of going with the new iPhone on a hardware upgrade as opposed to getting a discounted "out-of-warranty replacement" on a new 9700 which would not affect my current contract at all.

I'd be lying if I wasn't intrigued by the prospect of going android, but I don't know much about it. I've tried to read up - but it seems as though there's a lot of conflict and disappointment in general regarding the after purchase support and system updates etc.

On the other hand, now may be absolute perfect timing to jump on the Apple bandwagon, pending reasonable (or better) pricing vs. the Blackberry replacement.

What I am looking for are opinions or recommendations on what to look into given my opportunity to take a few days to figure something out. I have bought a new Rogers sim and am setup with the loaner phone for as long as I need, within reason of course. I would like to give it back within the next week or so...

I'm hoping to get steered towards an alternative to Blackberry, or if its what's best then get told to stick with it and grab the 9700. Here's what I use my phone for.

- Personal use, at this time not associated with a business. Although a short while ago I was running a small handyman gigg on the side and I may return to that in the future. That means multiple email accounts...

- I do read and reply to emails from my phone

- Texting, pretty heavily. BBM is a plus but not a deal maker / breaker for me.

- Information inquiries. (finding businesses, numbers, addresses etc.) I had used the free app "poynt" extensively for this.

- The odd GPS mapping, really only for those times when the dash mounted GPS didn't have the street in it. I used it to get directions from a location where I am etc.

- very light web use, but this was probably due to the Blackberry browser and my 8900 wasn't 3g. I could definitely seeing myself using this feature more if it was more accessible.

- Personal organization: I pretty much need it to sync with outlook. If I don't make an appointment I will forget. I also use it to sync with my work pc on a one way basis (from pc to phone) to put due dates for my work projects in there. A notepad of some sort would be a must, syncing with outlook would be a plus but not required. Also task list and sync-ability would be a plus, but not required.

- Photography: When it's appropriate I have to be able to take a picture and share it from the phone. Otherwise no-one will believe me, or I will buy the wrong shirt...

- And obviously... a phone. We don't have a house phone so between the wife and I my phone is the main point of contact and is where all the voice mails are left and retrieved.

That's my main use, and what's important. I'm not turned off by an on screen-type virtual keyboard, so long as it works. I'm the type of guy that always has the new toys when I get something, and I don't know what it is but I'm just not drawn to the Blackberry like I was.

With what I use does it make sense to switch it up? If so to what... Android (which device???)? iPhone?

Any help out there? Is the Magic+ from Rogers already outdated? I see them on local classifieds for ~$200-$250.

 

[JamesK]

I recently bought a Google Nexus One, which is quite nice. I expect using an iPhone would be a similar experience. The N1 has a soft keyboard which works resonably well.

 

[studum]

That was fast LOL. I've read of the Nexus One. Basically that if you're getting a 'Droid it's the one to beat. My only problem now is availability, Google is no longer selling them online.

Also it's a bit more than I wanted to spend, but if I must I will save my pennies for a couple of more weeks.

Can you sync up the Nexus with Outlook contacts and callender? I forgot to add that I frequently change and add contacts so syncing those is important too.

 

[JamesK]

It supports Outlook, but I don't use it for that. I do use it with Google mail & calendar. It was very easy to add contacts. I normally use Seamonkey for email. I just exported my address book to GMail and it automagically appeared in my N1.

 

[taxtwit]

I have an N1 and my experiences re: Outlook calendar and contacts are as follows:

My gmail account has a calendar that has a two-way sync to Outlook function, so that part of it works pretty good - everything I enter in my Outlook calendar gets sync'd to my N1 and vice versa. The one exception is Outlook tasks. I know there are android apps that sync Outlook tasks to your android device, but what I now do is just enter what I used to enter as an Outlook "task" as an Outlook "event" and it syncs fine to my N1.

For contacts, you can certainly imported your Outlook contacts into a gmail account and they will be automatically added to your N1. However, I don't think you can sync them, at least not via gmail. Again, I believe there are android apps that will two-way sync an N1 with Outlook contacts, but I don't add many contacts a month, so I just enter new ones as Outlook contacts and import them into gmail on a regular basis.

 

[studum]

I ended up grabbing a used HTC Magic to get my feet wet with Android. It was the most cost effective for me without the need for me to modify my contract. Thus, I am retaining my old plan rates and the previously negotiated discounts and I'm just using my blackberry Data plan as a normal plan on my Magic.

So far I'm loving Android. It's so much more customizable than blackberry. Literally the only downfalls (for me) are the lack of BBM and the shorter battery life. The ability to customize your layouts with widgets and shortcuts has completely won me over.

I'm still getting used to the on-screen keyboard but I've downloaded a free replacement keyboard which has helped that out a bit. I can't wait until Swype is released.

 

[topherpaquette]

i bought my wife the BB 9700 last month... she swears by it and loves it. me, i am still on Storm 1 and wouldn't trade it for the world except for another BlackBerry.... and the number one reason is i love the custom e-mail alerts for each address so I know to answer it for work or if its my own personal. If BlackBerry hasn't done you wrong this far, don't go with the others... and vice-versa

Daddy always said... "if it ain't broke don't fix it... and if it is broke and lasted you a long time, buy the same"