Droid Eris or Imagio

A

Afdsf

New member
Currently have a Storm and was thinking of going to a Storm2, but doing research on other phones on VZW led me to HTC Imagio and HTC Droid Eris.

I'm trying to decide which to go for. I'm pretty familiar with the specs. I don't care about Live TV.

For me, coming from Blackberry, these are the things most important:

Push email/calendar/task (have Corporate Outlook)
Ability to have calendar on the home screen with my upcoming appts
Customizable LED notifications for text or email (my phone is silent 100% of the time)
Threaded SMS
SMS with emoticons
SMS with longer than 160 char
Fast browser
Ability to open Word and Excel files
Easy copy, cut, and paste
Camera with flash
T9 or Suretype predictive text entry method (hate QWERTY)
Different mail boxes for Work and personal emails

Based on these, which phone is better? Imagio or Eris?

I'm leaning towards Eris because its a Droid and I figure most of my requirements can be addressed by an app, and I'm confident to think that the Droid app store will be pretty big. However, if I do go with the Eris, I need to know that it can be upgraded to Android 2.0 in the near future.
 
I would go with Eris. I believe Android 2.0 might be an upgrade later, or so I heard.

Right now, all sorts of interesting software are appearing on Android now, which is also another factor.
 
Have the eris, and came from a pearl. It is amazing how much better the os is. Really the only problems I have encountered are the battery and for some reason I always miss the space bar or something. But the predictive text is even better than sure type, and the app store is pretty good. Any questions feel free to ask.
 
Thanks.

I do have a question about the apps since Ive seen the Storm/2 get some new apps.
For the Eris, does it have an app:
-to customize the LED so it flashes a certain color depending on what arrives (sms, email, etc)?
-quicklaunch..altho I guess if it has 7 homescreens, you can just scroll to the right and have an app you need fast
-urbanspoon? just saw this came out for the blackberry
-draw? I need an app where I can quickly access and draw notes with my finger or stylus. does it have one? and if so, is it finger or stylus based?

can you set up the homescreen so that it lists the next 5+ calendar items? This is important for me as I'm always running to meetings and need to see which location I'm supposed to go to.

I guess my main concern is that it is 1.5 android. People say it will be upgradeable to 2.0, but really, thats just the software. the hardware is still a little behind the times, so if you upgrade to 2.0 then it may crash the phone because it can't handle it.
 
Not sure about the led flash indicator yet, and even just the menu on the first page is really easy to use if you didn't feel like changing pages.
It doesn't have urbanspoon but it has an app called "where" which is similar. You either type in your location or it finds you via gps, your choice, and it gives you everything you need to know about the area. From the news to the weather, and where to eat with reviews.
And you can set a whole screen just dedicated to the calendar, or have it show you your days events right on the screen.
And i think the main reason behind 2.0 not being out is HTC hasn't made it compatible with sense. And is it worth it. Sense is pretty amazing. I'd say try it and if you don't like it get the storm 2 or droid.
Oh and typed this whole response on it so the keyboard is pretty good, as I have big hands.
 
i tried both in the store. Coming from an iphone i was used to typing very fast on a virtual keyboard. I found the imagio very difficult to accurately type on (despite being a larger screen). Some people have said that is because of its screen type. I went with Eris and am satisfied but not yet a raving fan. There are issues which need to be addressed (SMS bug - annoying, Bluetooth problem, etc.). once those updates are pushed (and i get the 1750 A battery from seidio), ill probably be a big fan.
 
There is an app called "Missed Call", which will allow you to choose which color LED you'd like, for which missed event.

So, you can have blue led for missed calls, cyan for missed SMS, yellow for email, etc.

On my myTouch and Droid, you had the following LED colors to choose from:

Blue
Red
Green
Pink
Orange
Purple
Light Blue
White
Light Red
Yellow

You can assign any of those colors to the following events:
Cell Service
BT Service
Application Service
Airplane Service
Battery Service


Not sure if the Droid Eris has the same selection of colors for it's LED, but I'd guess so (maybe someone who owns one can chime in here...)

Hope this helps..
 
I think you'll be very happy with the Eris once you get used to it. The typing issue is due to the resistive vs capacitive screen. The reason you struggled with it is because on a resistive screen you need to use the tips of your finger vs using the flat part of your finger on a capacitive screen. You would have figured that out quickly enough.
 
You mention needing to sync to calendaring and Outlook. That would point to the Imagio. I have used one for almost two months now. The downside is that it can be laggy at times. The upside is that WinMo is an easy sync with an exchange server or via cable with MS Ofiice Outlook and calendaring. Those tow are critical for me and that is why Android, in its current iteration, is not a viable alternative for me.

R
 
Droid Eris is just a basically repackaged Hero.

Right now, XDA Developers managed to get access to a leaked HTC Hero Android 2.1 ROM. Sounds like a major upgrade on the road ahead.

Imagio, just like any WM phone now, is an article stuck in time. You get fixes, not OS upgrades. And its very unlikely WM 6.5 phones are going to get WM 7. My HTC Diamond at WM 6.1 didn't get an official upgrade to WM 6.5 either, even though the memory and CPU specs are identical as the newer phones.
 
Right now android is too new an OS to really know if upgrades are going to be provided and, if so, to which phones. The reason android is putting out so many fixes and upgrades is because the OS is so new that is has too many missing features and buggy ones. WinMo is more mature as an OS, so much so that it is stodgy and dated, but it does have a lot of useful apps and utilities that at least can make is functional to do real work.

If you're looking for a fun phone, something to play with but don't need a real business device, the android OS may be the way to go. If you're looking for a phone capable of doing work and being a real business device, WinMo is probably the way to go. Each have their ups and downs and what you get needs to be based on your needs, not all of our opinions as to what is the best OS.

R
 
The problem of old mature and stodgy OS design is that they often lack the features which modern OS has. Palm WebOS is a lot younger than Symbian S60, but guess who is way superior on the feature and integration level.

Most of the WinMo apps are getting stodgy and dated themselves. That's because the devs have run to the iPhone, RIM and Android. Windows Marketplace has all sorts of stupid rules like every application is limited to 5 updates, after which you have to reapply and pay the registration fee again. Other stores have free unlimited updates.

If I want a business device I would go with a Blackberry. In fact I dumped my WinMo HTC for a Blackberry Tour. I can feel the difference in productivity already. The Blackberry has all sorts of mature professional financial applications like those that do stock quotes and trades. In any case, business users prefer qwerty phones like the Blackberry over the touchscreen phones, and in which case, the dev support for the non touchscreen Windows Mobile Standard is even more deserted that not even Opera develops for it anymore. When you're referring to Windows Mobile Professional, ala WM touchscreen, much of the market is really consumer, since in business, button phones are still preferred. In all irony it is Windows Mobile Standard that is used by professionals because of qwerty design.

Android is similar to RIM because both are capable of pushed notifications, and display them in a timeline while doing contacts syncing like to Facebook for example. Android's notification system is only matched by RIM and WebOS. If you're using GMail, Android is unbeatable of course. You don't need Microsoft Exchange or BIS to do GMail push sync. The Android Market is growing in leaps and bounds, having 12,000+ apps already. It has a much easier entry point, $25 per app, and Google actively encourages app development and promotion in a way that puts other platforms to shame. Google recently held and announced winners of APC (Android programming contest), giving awards to 30 Android apps and their devs. One of whom was SPB TV, from the dev known for making shells in WinMo. So yup, guess who are making apps now for Android.
 
I will agree with a lot of what you are saying but not 100%. Yes, WM has stagnated and yes some developers have moved on. But, programming for WM is much easier for a seasoned .net programmer than the iPhone SDK. I do not know about the Android SDK though. Microsoft also has a developers challenge going on right now. The Facebook app on Android is a joke really. the iPhone has the best Facebook app but WM is better than Android for sure.

Also, you can get push email from Google on a WM phone as well. In addition you can get push Hotmail at the SAME TIME. As far as I know this is the only platform where you can have dual push accounts from free email services.

I love my Blackberry for work. However, the OS is worse than WM in many respects.

The newer builds of WM 6.5 really are bringing WM in to the future. Just look at the COM5 builds and you'll see that Microsoft is serious about making WM more finger friendly. For me, I prefer the choice of getting my apps from various sources and not being restricted to an App store that may reject said apps. This is where Android and WM both have an advantage. WM also allows you to install apps to the SD card.

Finally, all of the HTC WM phones have a new unified notification that you access by tapping the top status bar. This is very similar to Android but it doesn't slide down like a curtain it just overlays on the screen.
 
Good points and I agree with a number of them, but not all. First off, the biggest disagreement is that I would never consider using a gmail email addy for business contacts. At some level that may be ok but I am the CEO/owner of a couple of companies and I use our own domains for email. My contacts are with other people at the same level and if I received an email from [email protected] I would consider it suspect immediately. I expect my people to use our company email for a number of reasons. 1) Company emails can be archived for future reference, 2) gmail addresses put emails even further into the public cloud out there and further compromise information that may be private and/or proprietary.

I have always admitted that I have a personal comfort level with WinMo because of years of use and the contributes heavily to my continuing to use it at this point. I have never used a Blackberry so my comfort level there is obvious, probably I should give one a test drive.

And last, even though my phone/pda is a business device, I have to admit that I also use it as a personal toy. While I don't go as far as some of the tings I've seen on ppcgeeks and in here, I do enjoy customizing my phone. One part of customization is making the things I do easy to get to and one part is making the phone look good.

I have nothing against Android, its just that it doesn't (yet) do some of the critical things I need, but it may do those next year, or the year after, and when it does I've give it a hard look.

R
 
Guess what, I also run some business, and while I don't use personal domains, I find Windows Mobile tends to impede work due to the fact it gets often slow and unresponsive. Hence my replacement by a Blackberry, after my own family members also use Blackberries for the business. BIS is simply a Cloud based no brainer and I don't have to put up managing my own Exchange server just to get push email. I know the fact that I have a phone very similar to yours---an HTC Diamond for Sprint, where the CPU and memory specs are identical.

I picked up an HTC Magic, basically an unlocked MyTouch 3G, and despite having the same CPU but with lower memory, the Magic is a lot more responsive and livelier than than the HTC Diamond. Quite frankly a lot easier to type and do basic things around with.

Windows Mobile cannot give me a push notification update timeline like both RIM and Android can. Once you lived with notification timelines, you will find it absolutely indispensible. All your notifications from email, Facebook Twitter, IM, are all piled up and nicely listed chronologically. Each notification gets a unique sound and phone response. Clicking on them brings up the app automatically with the contact set for response. I don't get that "you got two new email messages" crap, without telling me from who it is.

One reason why I use web email is because I travel. When you travel, that's the only thing that works. You can't bring your own servers with you.

Another thing: Windows Mobile Marketplace forces installation of apps only on the phone's device memory, not on the SD card or external memory. After TouchFlo 3D, bundled apps, how much internal device memory do I have left? 30mb? Why do I and other users have to put up with that short sighted nonsense. This thing has to be told in conscience when you know the other guy is about to make a serious mistake.

At least in my HTC Magic, I still have over 250mb of internal memory to store Market apps with.
 
The main purpose of running an exchange server is hardly to get push email. It is so that employees in varied locations can have access to shared calendaring, contacts and work flows. We have a hair under 450 employees spread in Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Florida. Exchange allows them to share and work together on some projects that require interaction.

I rarely use push email as I don't like getting email on my phone, but when necessary key employees are able to contact me one way or another.

I don't know why you seem so angry, but everyone has their own needs and preferences. If Blackberry works for you that's great. I have nothing against Blackberry, I just prefer WinMo, that's my comfort level from years of use. If I see a Blackberry that I like I would go in that direction. I have no special love for RIM or MS or anyone else, I just love what works best for me, nothing more.

R
 
Really are you sure?

I got both Android and Windows Mobile Facebook apps. The Android Facebook app is actually a lot better than the WM app which is the worst Facebook app implementation I have yet seen. The Android Facebook app is midline, comparable to the Facebook app used on the Nokia N97. The interface and feature level is similar in both, and both allows to float a widget on the screen for real time feeds. In addition, the Android Facebook has one up over the Symbian and Windows Mobile Facebook app is that it allows for customized push notifications.

Guess what. The iPhone Facebook app, said to be the best of all, currently does not have push notifications. Rather its planned for a future release. Except the guy leading the project left the project.

The only Facebook apps that have push notifications right now are on Android and Blackberry. The Android one has one advantage over the Blackberry is that it also has an onscreen real time news feed widget.



Yes, and you must run a Microsoft Exchange server. If you're a company fine. If this is from a personal level, its something else.

Frankly, I don't like personal emails to be stored, recorded and documented on a company server. For company email, fine. No way with personal email.




Sorry but WM Marketplace does not allow you to install apps on the SD card. If you downloaded apps via a browser yes---after you struggle with the slowness of mobile IE4 since the system browser is required for the download for proper device identification, not with Opera or Skyfire or any alternative browser.

But Marketplace itself will not install apps on the SD card, and that's the trending pattern nowadays (RIM and Android does this) because devs demand it. If you install on SD card, you open the possibility of software piracy. Hence why devs don't seem to like developing for Symbian and Windows Mobile among other factors (the others are sheer fracturing of the platform).

The problem of installing apps on the WM device memory, especially with HTC, is that after TouchFlo3D and bundled apps, you are left with incredibly little internal memory left. Heck, even I have installed apps on the external memory of my HTC Diamond (the 4GB space), I only have 33mb on my internal device memory. And WM apps seem to take up more storage memory than Android and RIM apps.

Finger friendly isn't the problem for WM. It's the sheer fracturing on many levels including display resolutions. I got a friend in Twitter developing WM game apps, and he could only put up the game to work on two resolutions. His game could work on the HTC Touch and the HD, but not on the Diamond due to an oversight. He also made the call not to support the resolutions used on Samsung Windows Mobile like the Omnia.

You got the serious situation of Write Once, Debug Everywhere here. The often result of this is that apps tend to be basic and featureless because debugging across many devices, ROMs, screen resolutions take up so much effort, time and money that little is left for feature improvement.
 
The issue is not your needs but that of the first poster. You are interposing your needs with his.

He obviously needs push email from a Blackberry background. If you have been reading his post carefully and reading between the lines, he is/wants/needing into Android. Do note his needs are more into the consumer side than on business, and he is interested on the latest apps and OS updates, particularly Android 2.0.

Android 2.0 appears headed for the Droid Eris as an update early 2010 and may already appear on the HTC Hero in the Christmas season.
 
LOL

You may well be right with getting offtrack from the OP on this thread. If someone needs to push email then Blackberry is definitely one of the primary choices. As I stated earlier that if the phone is mainly a personal device then I think Android is a strong choice. I still feel that it is a very early and immature OS but it is being developed at warp speed and, so far, is looking very good. I looked into getting one of the VZW droid phones last week and that's when I discovered the problem with syncing to exchange. If that becomes available soon in an update I may very well look into moving to a droid phone.

Also, as I pointed out earlier, my phone is both a business device AND a fun toy for me. Even though the Imagio has a number of issues that make me crazy, it also has some nice features that work well for me. Obviously the CDMA side is Verizon but I have a TMO sim on the GSM side and this configuration is something I've been looking for. I used to carry two phones, one for business and one that was strictly personal with less than 10 people who had the personal number. Now, I carry one and the TMO runs through GV so now less than 4 good friends and my immediately family have the VZW direct number, I give out the GV number to others. It gives me lots of options to work with in terms of how people can contact me. Only a couple of employees have my personal number, a few more have my GV number.

It may seem a little nuts because it alls goes to the same phone but I have it setup so that my personal calls all ring straight through. My GV number goes to vm and a notice is sent to my VZW number giving me the option to see who called, what they want and the option to call them back when I want or need to. I like all the options available with this setup. I think a droid phone will offer even more options in conjunction with gv and I would just get rid of the TMO number. For me, the more options the better and that philosophy runs right up to the phone OS.

R
 
Try to access your inbox or respond to friend requests using the Android facebook app. This is very important to me. I could care less about facebook push. That is why I turned off all the email notifications on the desktop facebook.

Also, I have WM 6.5.3 and atleast 15 apps installed and I still have 218mb of internal app space available. Apparently there is a big memory difference between the Diamond and Diamond2. How much app space do you have on your blackberry? The blackberry memory partitioning is retarded. I have over 800mb of memory on my blackberry but only 25mb available for apps.

You do not need an exchange server at all to get push email, contacts and calendar from Google on WM. m.google.com is the server that provides this. Same thing with Windows Live. You are misunderstanding something here.

Regarding installing to SD, I can get pretty much all the apps I want without using the Marketplace. Atleast I can make the choice if I need to install to SD. Besides all that, you can install apps from your desktop as well. Imagine if you had to get all your desktop apps from an online store controlled by one entity. This is not something I consider a good thing. There are much better ways to provide protection against app piracy, like activations.

Regarding the screen resolution, it seems obvious to me that the newer resolutions are the ones I would support. The fact that you have a choice with WM (just like a pc) means that app developers have options to support or not support some resolutions. I'd be willing to bet that this will all get worked out in WM7 via some type of DirectX support. I'll take my WVGA resolution over the WQVGA I had on the myTouch and iPhone anyday. Text is so much clearer it's amazing that the iPhone hasn't upped their resolution yet.

Finally, having owned a G1, myTouch 3G and now the Pure (Diamond2), the Pure is much smoother running WM 6.5 than either the G1 or myTouch were with any Android ROM I tried. And I tried them all. The G1 and myTouch were very laggy when trying to run Sense. You have to partition your SD, creating a swap partition, EXT2/3 partition and a Fat32 partition. This is a bad solution because you cannot remove the SD card to swap it and it is prone to corruption in the App partition (EXT2/3). The latest attempts of putting everything on the internal memory of the myTouch still can't solve the performance issues with Sense UI. The problem is mostly because of the lower memory (288 vs 192) of the 32A (standard Magic) and the 32B (myTouch).

Make no mistake, I think Android is great but it still needs some further development. There are some great apps for Android as well, but the official facebook app is not one of them. Blackberry is definitely the messaging king but stinks for apps in it's current state. I still prefer the hacking, customizing and freedom of choice on WM over any other platform. I am not an app addict and as long as I get the things I need most I am happy. I have tried to love the iPhone three different times but I just can't deal with the Apple control issue.

The bottom line is that there is no perfect platform or phone that will be all things to all people. It's a matter of what's most important to you vs what is absolutely required.
 
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