HTC ChaCha vs Blackberry vs others

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Can anyone tell me what benefits a Blackberry has over the ChaCha? The phone will mainly be used for texts, calls and basic internet browsing. It's not going to be connected to a corporate environment. And will be mainly associated with a personal Google Account for GMail, Google Calendar and Google Contacts.

My wife has suggested she wants a Blackberry but I'm trying to convince her that an Android phone in the Blackberry form factor will be a better option. However, I'm not that familiar with Blackberry so I want to make sure there's no overseen benefit of the Blackberry given her usage profile.

On a related note, I've also looked at a few other Android handsets in the Blackberry form factor. Has anyone got any comments/opinions on these compared to the ChaCha:

1. Motorola XPRT
2. Motorola Pax
3. Motorola Titanium
4. Motorola Charm
5. Samsung Galaxy Pro
6. Orange Barcelona
7. LG Optimus Pro

In its current Rom state with its poor management of internal memory I would say the big advantage of a BB is that the email will work and not freeze up, which is something gmail has a tendancy to do when the phone gets full on Android.

Battery, there's another plus for BB over the chacha.

This is ignoring the personalisation the Android offers, which for me is important. Despite my points above is rather have the chacha tho.

Sent from my HTC ChaCha A810e using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by qbert456

In its current Rom state with its poor management of internal memory I would say the big advantage of a BB is that the email will work and not freeze up, which is something gmail has a tendancy to do when the phone gets full on Android.

Battery, there's another plus for BB over the chacha.

This is ignoring the personalisation the Android offers, which for me is important. Despite my points above is rather have the chacha tho.

Sent from my HTC ChaCha A810e using Tapatalk

You can use the standard Mail app for Gmail. Just add a new account there, using your gmail.com adress. It works better than the GMail app (which sucks). Apart from that, the internal memory can be fixed with a factory reset and moving the apps that you download to the sd card.

The truth is the stock gmail, mail or even k9 and others do not even come close to BB for email.

Here's why:

- bb will keep all your emails going back to the day you add your account. So 3 weeks from now you can refer back to an email without being on the network. Gmail does too but with a huge performance hit and internal memory will eventually get full.

- FAST, the bb mail app is instant. no waiting to compose, it doesn't get slower as more mails come in, no syncing slowdowns, it's lightning fast.

- Spell check - I dunno, but my chacha doesn't have spell check unless you activate autocomplete which is just way to slow to be useful.

- Conversation mode. With gmail you're stuck with one mode. BB gives you option for both.

- Trackpad makes editing a breeze. My chacha has arrow keys which is good, but getting around is much faster with a trackpad.

- Use of screen, Gmail is not designed for small screens. BB shows you a hella lot on every screen.

Theres more, but that should give you an idea of why email is better on bb and why bb is p0wnaging that market still.

Other BB highlights are battery life, build quality, SMS and camera.

Tough call though, you really take a hit on email with android. If email isn't so important, then go for the chacha.

I prefer my chacha for everything else. Browsing is still better on android, apps, and customization is #1 by far. It is a slippery mofo though, you'll need a gelly case and with the chin/bend the case fits weird.

- Memory is no issue once you do reset and move to sd as mentioned above.
- HTC Sense is also an issue, it's laggy as hell. Switch to launcher pro and you're flying.
- Stock browser gives you 4 windows max. Go for opera mini or dolphin mini for the best browsing on any phone.

About those other phones:
Had a Droid pro - sucks big time, no arrow keys, squeaks & creeks - crap build quality, screen res is too small, keyb a bit better than my bb 9700.
Had a Charm - is completely useless, but keyb was actually good.

Seen the Galaxy Pro - sucks, no led flash, low res screen and overall much lower end than chacha

Motorola XPRT - droid pro all over again

Don't know about the others.

The ChaCha is unique in its appeal on many levels. My girlfriend just bought one a few days ago and she was really set on it and nothing else because she insisted on a physical keyboard and refused to have any slider mechanism of any kind fearing it might spoil. She also needed a WiFi hotspot feature for her iPod touch which handles all the big screen stuff. The BB OS 6 devices still lack this feature.

The ChaCha is already more advanced in many ways than the entire Blackberry range by virtue of Android, but I think it really comes down to its price. Spec-for-spec it matches the Bold 9700 very closely but costs about as much as the Curve. Not to mention that desite HTC's inexperience with this form-factor, the keyboard is a pleasure to use.

Here in Singapore, the only other portrait QWERTY Android phones are the Samsung Galaxy Pro (rubbish screen, build and still on Froyo) and Motorola Charm (ancient). Motorola hasn't even bothered to launch the Pro which could have been a viable option.

Originally Posted by zebdi

The truth is the stock gmail, mail or even k9 and others do not even come close to BB for email.

Here's why:

- bb will keep all your emails going back to the day you add your account. So 3 weeks from now you can refer back to an email without being on the network. Gmail does too but with a huge performance hit and internal memory will eventually get full.

- FAST, the bb mail app is instant. no waiting to compose, it doesn't get slower as more mails come in, no syncing slowdowns, it's lightning fast.

- Spell check - I dunno, but my chacha doesn't have spell check unless you activate autocomplete which is just way to slow to be useful.

- Conversation mode. With gmail you're stuck with one mode. BB gives you option for both.

- Trackpad makes editing a breeze. My chacha has arrow keys which is good, but getting around is much faster with a trackpad.

- Use of screen, Gmail is not designed for small screens. BB shows you a hella lot on every screen.

Theres more, but that should give you an idea of why email is better on bb and why bb is p0wnaging that market still.

Other BB highlights are battery life, build quality, SMS and camera.

Tough call though, you really take a hit on email with android. If email isn't so important, then go for the chacha.

I prefer my chacha for everything else. Browsing is still better on android, apps, and customization is #1 by far. It is a slippery mofo though, you'll need a gelly case and with the chin/bend the case fits weird.

- Memory is no issue once you do reset and move to sd as mentioned above.
- HTC Sense is also an issue, it's laggy as hell. Switch to launcher pro and you're flying.
- Stock browser gives you 4 windows max. Go for opera mini or dolphin mini for the best browsing on any phone.

About those other phones:
Had a Droid pro - sucks big time, no arrow keys, squeaks & creeks - crap build quality, screen res is too small, keyb a bit better than my bb 9700.
Had a Charm - is completely useless, but keyb was actually good.

Seen the Galaxy Pro - sucks, no led flash, low res screen and overall much lower end than chacha

Motorola XPRT - droid pro all over again

Don't know about the others.

Thanks. This was a really helpful post with a lot of good information. I eventually went for the Orange Barcelona (also know as Huawei U8350 or Huawei Boulder). It's a great phone and I got it really cheap 2nd hand. It'll probably be used until the Motorola Pro+ is released in UK. The phone looks really sweet (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08...us_smartphone/).