Finally made the switch to Android today

[Kompresshun]

So after years of being pretty loyal to Blackberry, I decided to make the switch to Android today, which i've been thinking about doing for months. I love Blackberry products but after playing with a couple of Android phones I was pretty sold on switching. I was at Sams Club today and the guy that sold us our Blackberry Curves let me play around with the new Samsung Intercept that just came out, which is better than the HTC Hero and Samsung Moment but slightly slower and less features than the EVO. I played with it for a few minutes and loved it, but didn't really want to drop the cash at the moment($100) since there wasn't anything wrong with my phone and it was still pretty new. He ended up offering to buy my Blackberry from me for what I paid for it new($50) because he cracked the screen on his yesterday so I ended up only being out $50.

So far i'm loving it though, it has a slideout keyboard, 3.2MP camera, and Android 2.1. It's very responsive with none of the lag i've seen from the HTC Hero and takes excellent pictures for it only having a 3.2MP camera. The Android Marketplace is amazing compared to Blackberry App World, it even seems to have as much if not more than the Apple App Store. I can't find any pics of it that are decent but it resembles the Samsung Moment except it's all black. So far i've only had it for a few hours but i'm very impressed with it, we'll see how I like it after using it for a few days with work and normal day to day tasks. I was very skeptical about switching, my wifes uncle had been trying to convince me to switch for months after he made the switch from his Blackberry and I wish I would've done it way before now.

[Joe]

welcome to the family man

i have been on android for about a year now, first a G1 and just recently got an EVO. i love android.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

GF has a Samsung Moment and I have the HTC Hero, both of which wwe got from the kiosk in Sam's Club, I paid $50 for my Hero and she paid $100 for her Moment, while I do like the Hero, I kinda wish I had gone with the Moment instead, or waited for the EVO to come out. The Hero's touch screen is a bit of a PITA and it does lag quite a bit, but I have never had my phone go in or out of roaming and/or service while the GF's moment is always losing service even when I'm sitting in the same room as her. As far as the Android market goes, I definitely like the ITunes App store better as it has a much simpler feel to it and the search feature works better, not to mention prices for pay for items are always in USD and not a in JPY or British Pounds.

[Loki]

Welcome aboard. I saw that Intercept at best Buy the other day. I guess it's the replacement for the Moment (which I currently have) Androids pretty great, I've had no real problems with it. I'd love to get an Evo but I can't stand virtual keyboards TBO. That's why i ended up with the Moment.

[anti_flag_army]

Welcome aboard. I saw that Intercept at best Buy the other day. I guess it's the replacement for the Moment (which I currently have) Androids pretty great, I've had no real problems with it. I'd love to get an Evo but I can't stand virtual keyboards TBO. That's why i ended up with the Moment.

I have always thought the same way about keyboards, i had the g1 the day it came out and loved it, I wanted to upgrade to a newer phone, but nothing with a keyboard really existed that was in the higher end of phones, so i took the plunge on a touch screen only phone, though i would just have to deal with it, but then i found swype, and it makes me not even think about hardware keyboards. Its a really cool way of text input that involves dragging your finger across the letters to type the words.

and to the op, welcome to android, you will be very pleased with it!

[Loki]

I saw the commercial for that.. is it really good? I'd need to play around with it for awhile. We'll see, I don't have an upgrade for awhile.

[Jesda]

I'm intrigued and interested. I'm glad Samsung is pushing the availability of real keyboards. Hopefully 2.2 is available soon.

The HTC Hero is one of the worst phones I've ever purchased.

[anti_flag_army]

I saw the commercial for that.. is it really good? I'd need to play around with it for awhile. We'll see, I don't have an upgrade for awhile.

It makes a world of difference, and when you get the hang of it you can "type" faster than any real keyboard, if i use my girlfriend's my touch slide, i use swype instead of the slide out qwerty. The only complaint i have about it is when putting in like a user name or password, it takes a bit of extra time to tap in each letter or switch to the standard keyboard.

[Beancooker]

I have an EVO, and I like it just fine. Does what it needs to do. It makes calls.

It also does some other cool stuff.

[MinisterofDOOM]

The Intercept is a great entry-level Android phone. As with a lot of "entry level" Android devices, I actually like it better than most high-end phones. It trades a huge screen and sexy shape for FUNCTIONALITY. Great optical trackpad, 6 face buttons, FULL keyboard, WVGA...sounds like a winner.

I'm glad Samsung is pushing the availability of real keyboards. Hopefully 2.2 is available soon.

Yeah, me too. And REAL full keyboards. I'm sick of manufacturers claiming their phones have "full" keyboards when they cram the number keys onto the qwerty keys as alternate functions.

Unfortunately, Touchwiz sucks. Download ADW or Zeam and forget about Samsung's clunky dockbar and stupid dots.

[King Ranzo]

I has a Motorola Cliq. Great phone, I just need Motorola to haul a** with the 2.1 update. I'm still running 1.6 ;_;

I would trade up, but I'm on a payment plan for this phone so it'd be pointless. Plus i love the keyboard and the camera takes better pictures than the Kodak camera that I have which is the best camera in our house. Gotta love phones.

[poems2beats]

I recently ditched my Iphone for an EVO and I'm very happy with my decision... Welcome to the family.

[pepegurr]

Welcome to the family, I have an Incredible and love it. This thing can take a beating, lol. It has actually stood up better to my abuse than my previous phone which was a VZW boulder.

[RobPaulson]

if u dont like virtual keyboards, you should open your mind up to swype, it is pretty damn cool and makes virtual keyboard a million times easier than a physical or normal virtual.

swype is in beta right now for android OS. im def getting it for my nexus one.

Froyo 2.2 is the bomb btw. Doesnt even give you a reason to root the device, it works and does everything you'd ever want right out of the box.

[Eikon]

The HTC Hero is one of the worst phones I've ever purchased.

I'm surprised to hear that. I have a Hero and I love it! It's the best phone I've ever owned. Honestly, I have no complaints at all now that I'm on Android 2.1. The original 1.5 that was on the phone was weak, but with the new software, it's fantastic!!!

My last phone had a physical keyboard and I never really used it. So, I figured I'd be fine on the touch screen, and I am. The predictive text makes it nice because you don't have to get every touch correct, you can miss a couple letters and it'll still pop in the word you wanted.

I might consider the new Evo when my year comes up this November, but I won't have 4g coverage, so I don't see the point in paying the extra $10 per month for the "premium data package" BS...

[Kompresshun]

I'm intrigued and interested. I'm glad Samsung is pushing the availability of real keyboards. Hopefully 2.2 is available soon.

The HTC Hero is one of the worst phones I've ever purchased.

I'm pleased with it so far, i'm big on having a keyboard though, which is what kept me away from Android originally. I've found myself using the touch keyboard as well when i'm just browsing the web but I still like having a real keyboard for emails and text messaging. I have tried the slide keyboard and it's pretty cool how easy it is to use right off but it would still take some getting used to.

My wifes uncle has the Hero and he's worked with it a lot, so it's not so bad now. I still wouldn't buy one though, it's already behind all of the other Android phones on Sprint. I like the EVO but I haven't had good luck with HTC phones either, it seems like they've gotten better but the Heros functionality just wasn't up to par for me.

The Intercept is a great entry-level Android phone. As with a lot of "entry level" Android devices, I actually like it better than most high-end phones. It trades a huge screen and sexy shape for FUNCTIONALITY. Great optical trackpad, 6 face buttons, FULL keyboard, WVGA...sounds like a winner.

Unfortunately, Touchwiz sucks. Download ADW or Zeam and forget about Samsung's clunky dockbar and stupid dots.

Yeah when I saw that it was coming out it I was pretty sure I wanted it, the Intercept seemed to have the perfect combination for what I needed from a phone. I will take functionality any day of the week over a huge screen and coolness factor, it's an awesome phone but I just don't need all of that extra junk that the EVO has to offer.

Does this one have Touchwiz? The interface seems to function like ADW, but maybe i'm missing something... I'll give those a try later today.

[Encryptshun]

I've had my Moto Droid since Xmas last year, and I love love love it. I do wish we got the latest OS versions earlier, but I don't really mind getting a working product a little late instead of getting a buggy product way early.

[ADDirishboy]

I've had my Moto Droid since Xmas last year, and I love love love it. I do wish we got the latest OS versions earlier, but I don't really mind getting a working product a little late instead of getting a buggy product way early.

Agreed. I adore my Moto Droid. Best phone I've ever owned.

[Shizane2002]

Werd.....Ive had my Moto Cliq since December and I love it.

[Crazyirish]

Had my Moto droid for about 4 months now. Worse "phone" I have ever had, but coolest "multi-function device" ever.

[ADDirishboy]

Had my Moto droid for about 4 months now. Worse "phone" I have ever had, but coolest "multi-function device" ever.

Problems with actually talking to people? I've heard stories of people who have difficulty hearing with it, but I haven't had any problems with mine.

[Encryptshun]

Me either. I get great signal, great call quality, okay talk battery life (Motorola batteries are notoriously abused before they get to the distributor), and excellent speakerphone.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Does this one have Touchwiz? The interface seems to function like ADW, but maybe i'm missing something... I'll give those a try later today.

I guess it doesn't...I assumed it did because it's a Samsung device.

And yes, basic functionality of basically ALL android home replacements is the same. But some achieve that functionality more effectively than others. And, more importantly, some offer more customization options and make customization easier.

[poems2beats]

Froyo 2.2 is the bomb btw. Doesnt even give you a reason to root the device, it works and does everything you'd ever want right out of the box.

I've heard a few good things about this froyo 2.2 but I also heard its not going to be available for the EVO. Can somebody clarify???

[MinisterofDOOM]

I've heard a few good things about this froyo 2.2 but I also heard its not going to be available for the EVO. Can somebody clarify???

It's not officially available for anything but the Nexus One. There are a few reasons for that, but the primary one is that the Nexus One's updates are controlled directly by Google.
Other phones get updates over the air (OTA) from service providers, and there are typically provider-specific tweaks (such as bloatware or AT&T's sideloading lockout) that must be made before the updates can go out.
Also, many manufacturers add their own skins and tweaks to android (HTC's Sense, Samsung's Touchwiz, Motorola's Blur) which must be brought up to date and running smoothly before the OTA updates can go out.
So you can either wait for your OTA update to roll out, or you can turn to the Android community for your upgrade needs.

There's a variety of community-customized ROMs out there that allow you to run Froyo on just about ANY modern smartphone (even phones that didn't come with Android out of the box, like the iPhone or HD2). But they don't always work perfectly with every phone since they're usually designed as universal upgrades supporting numerous devices. I don't think anyone has a Froyo build with working 4G right now, so that's a big drawback for Evo users.

The Evo will eventually get an official OTA update to Froyo, so if you're willing to wait, it'll happen eventually.

[PoorManQ45]

Swype > Physical keyboard

I'm using a MyTouch with Eclair on it right now. Works great.

Unfortunately with the way these devices are I don't really have a reason to upgrade.

When It comes to most things you upgrade to get better features. With these phones I don't really get anything.

Maybe when the Dual Core processors come out on these devices I'll upgrade, but for now, there isn't a big enough improvement in speed going from an OC'd MyTouch to a Nexus One or any of the other devices.

It's all a matter of what Rom you put on the phone honestly. Some are slow as a dog(hero and sense based) and others are nice and smooth.

[Jesda]

I wish Motorola would do an Android phone for Sprint. Their hardware tends to be better than HTC's. HTC has a habit of churning stuff out and letting users deal with the flaws.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Swype > Physical keyboard

When I first got Swype, I thought that. But after a few weeks I went back to using my hardware keyboard for "real" typing and just using Swype as a quick search keyboard. Granted, I NEVER EVER used my virtual keyboard AT ALL before getting swype, so any use is more than no use. But it still doesn't come close to replacing a quality hardware keyboard.

I wish Motorola would do an Android phone for Sprint. Their hardware tends to be better than HTC's. HTC has a habit of churning stuff out and letting users deal with the flaws.

I don't really like Moto's Android design decisions. The high-end stuff is okay, but the lower-end stuff is TERRIBLE. The Backflip is a joke, as is the Charm. Moto's hardware keyboards are some of the worst I've ever used. The Droid's is terrible--Mushy, grid-aligned, and inefficiently laid-out. Moto also uses idiotic capacitive touchpads on the BACKsides of their devices rather than the far more useful optical trackpads HTC and Samsung have been using.

Oh, and Blur is far and away the worst Android "skin" out there.

[Jesda]

Yeah, and the Backflip's software is crippled too. Its too bad because the size is just right.

The Evo is too big to fit into my bike pouch and when I'm wearing basketball shorts its so heavy it tries to depants me. I like Escalades, but I don't want one in my pocket.

I like to do trail riding, so I listen to radio streams on the Blackberry and check ahead on the trail for food, weather, gas stations, etc. So, I'm constantly draining power in some way. Those big phones use too much power. And when I'm dripping sweat and my hands are gross the last thing I want to do is smear a touch screen.

Keyboard FTW.

[RB25nURface]

Awww man. Lovin' Android 2.2 on my nexus. Looking forward to gingerbread when it launches