I am so lost. Please help me decide on phone.

[120inna55]

I've been with AllTel for years. Before that I was with 360 Communications (AllTel absorbed them). Then, as you all know, Verizon overtook AllTel. I was left with an AllTel-branded Treo Pro (Windows OS) and my wife has a Palm Treo 755p (Palm OS). I knew it was destined to happen, but Verizon is now telling us that we have to upgrade to Verizon phones to maintain smart phone capabilities.

My concerns are first with that of my contacts and calendar. Currently I sync my phone using Microsoft ActiveSync. It syncs my contacts and calendar with Outlook 2003. I never use Outlook (except to sync) and frankly, I don't care for it, but I don't want to lose my data. Then I use Google Calendar Sync. That's mainly because I like to be able to view my calendar with any internet capable PC. Ultimately, I modify my data on the phone itself and then sync to PC.

I'm totally unfamiliar with the Android OS, but I like the Droid phones. Particularly, I'm looking at the Droid Razr (probably the MAXX).

Here are my questions:

1. How easy will it be to move my contacts and calendar over to the Android OS?
2. I use Office Mobile on my current phone. Specifically, Excel and Word. Will I be able to use these with the Android OS?
3. My wife uses the Palm Desktop that resides on an old laptop that she never uses. She hasn't sync'd in probably close to a year. Do you think her contacts and calendar may simply have to be re-entered (she doesn't have near as many as I do)?
4. My wife doesn't think she can do without a tactile keyboard. What Verizon phone do you recommend for her?
5. On that note, am I being ridiculous in looking solely at Android OS?
6. Is there another phone Verizon offers that one would recommend over the Razr MAXX?

 

[stardust3]

I can at least answer question 1.
Gmail will let you easily transfer your contacts & calendar. I'll let others respond to the latter.
I use a samsung galaxy s2, it is a great phone with good battery life. Has been everything I need & then some.

 

[HIFI]

I have the maxx and love it. I really think Todd would be the better one to answer most if not all of your questions.

 

[Ronnie-]

Here are my questions:

1. How easy will it be to move my contacts and calendar over to the Android OS?
2. I use Office Mobile on my current phone. Specifically, Excel and Word. Will I be able to use these with the Android OS?
3. My wife uses the Palm Desktop that resides on an old laptop that she never uses. She hasn't sync'd in probably close to a year. Do you think her contacts and calendar may simply have to be re-entered (she doesn't have near as many as I do)?
4. My wife doesn't think she can do without a tactile keyboard. What Verizon phone do you recommend for her?
5. On that note, am I being ridiculous in looking solely at Android OS?
6. Is there another phone Verizon offers that one would recommend over the Razr MAXX?

1:If you have used gmail, it will be easy. Most likely you will find a program to do it even if you do not.
2: Sorry, I do not use office on my phones, if this is important to you, Windows Phone may be worth a solid look. There are alternatives on other platforms though
3ossible. If there are not many, I would not let it be an issue.
4:I was the same way. With the screen sizes available, and the keyboard improvements, I would not let this be a deal killer for me. Often these days, the best phones do not have physical keyboards, and those that do can be harder to use than the on screen versions given time to get used to them. I will just say that I wanted a tactile keyboard, and now it does not matter.
5: on this, I say yes. iOS, and Windows Phone are both fantastic alternatives. I would not limit my search to any single system, and I have had them all recently. They all have advantages. I am currently with android, most recently before had iOS, and if WP8 was imminent, I would be looking at that.
6: The maxx is awesome. Other comparable options are the Rezound (which I currently have, the battery is not as good, but the screen is the sharpest out there), the galaxy nexus (same resolution as the rezound, but with a larger screen, and it will get updates first), and the Galaxy s3 (biggest screen, newest hardware, but the nexus will still get updates sooner, and hardware is comparable). The Maxx has best battery life by far, although you can get extended batteries for all the above.

 

[Ramy]

If I were getting a new Verizon phone it would be the Maxx right now. 6 months from now who knows what will be best.

 

[120inna55]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I think I've decided on the Droid Razr for my wife (I can't justify $100 for extended battery life for her. She's home 99% of the time, and she would agree.) I'll get hers first. Then, I'll pick up the Razr MAXX for myself about a month later. If I understand it correctly, the only difference between the Razr and the Razr MAXX is the larger battery and thus a slight thickness difference as well as weight. Am I correct?

 

[Ronnie-]

As far as I know you are correct.

Sent from my Rezound using Tapatalk

 

[JAG72]

Why not look at the Nexus? It is a nice phone and will get updates early and normally will receive continued updates when other phones will be dropped.

 

[Ronnie-]

Why not look at the Nexus? It is a nice phone and will get updates early and normally will receive continued updates when other phones will be dropped.

Yeah, I mentioned that one as well, and later this week, my second go round with the nexus will be here. I hope this one has better reception in my area than the last, but if not, I will resell it once again, and stick with the rezound. (to the op, if I decide to get rid of either, and you are interested in one of them, let me know).

 

[Ramy]

One of the Nexus's has a horrible phone radio in it.

 

[JAG72]

One of the Nexus's has a horrible phone radio in it.

The couple people I know with them have zero radio problems. May depend on the market and the amount of towers.

 

[Ronnie-]

One of the Nexus's has a horrible phone radio in it.

I have read it is hit and miss. The one I had, the most current (Galaxy Nexus) did not pick up well, I sold it, but am getting another and going to give it one more shot. I doubt ALL of them are that way, and I really doubt it is a tower issue. I get full service everywhere around here with the other phones on our account.

 

[Rey]

I have read it is hit and miss. The one I had, the most current (Galaxy Nexus) did not pick up well, I sold it, but am getting another and going to give it one more shot. I doubt ALL of them are that way, and I really doubt it is a tower issue. I get full service everywhere around here with the other phones on our account.

some are defective. you may hit the jackpot with the one coming to ya.

 

[LER]

The Nexus S on Sprint had a bad radio Reputation. I have a Samsung Galaxy SIII and love it.

 

[120inna55]

So do you guys think the Nexus is a better phone over the Razr?

How's the web browser on the Razr. The Nexus specs say, "HTML web browser."

 

[osu1991]

Are the Nexus problems with the CDMA phone or the GSM phone as I've been thinking about grabbing the unlocked GSM model from google?

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[LER]

Are the Nexus problems with the CDMA phone or the GSM phone as I've been thinking about grabbing the unlocked GSM model from google?

Sprint is CDMA. I haven't tried the Nexus phones (the only Nexus device I have is the 7 tab).

 

[Ronnie-]

So do you guys think the Nexus is a better phone over the Razr?

How's the web browser on the Razr. The Nexus specs say, "HTML web browser."

Personally, I would say yes. The specs are similar but there are some differences. The Nexus has a higher resolution screen, and is larger. It has a slightly different processor (TI OMAP 4430 for the razor and TI OMAP 4460 for the Nexus), but both are dual core with the same clock speed.
Ram is the same at 1 gb.
Razor is 16 gb of storage with a SD card slot.
Nexus is 32 gb with no SD slot.

The razor will probably be a better built phone as far as materials, Moto makes well built hardware IMO.

The Nexus will again generally be close to one update ahead of the pack. Example being that most of the upper level android sets are now getting ICS, where as the Nexus is supposedly getting Jelly Bean very soon. On that, it is also important to remember, the Nexus devices will offer "vanilla" android with no custom skins pre installed. Moto, and most other manufacturers overlay their own skin over base android, with varying degrees of success. I do not know how scaled down Moto Blur is on the Razor or Maxx, but "back in the day" it was one of the least popular skins of those. I do know that they have made strides to make it more user friendly though.

The big draw for me (and many others it seems) on the Razor line is the massive battery offered with the MAXX. If I were going in that direction, the Maxx might be the one to get, and I nearly did for that reason alone. If I were going to get the regular Razor, I would go with the Nexus without hesitation.

 

[Ronnie-]

Are the Nexus problems with the CDMA phone or the GSM phone as I've been thinking about grabbing the unlocked GSM model from google?

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

I may not be remembering correctly, but I think it was more of a problem with CDMA versions. on the Galaxy Nexus.

(I did not know that the older Nexus S had reception issues though.)

 

[osu1991]

I may not be remembering correctly, but I think it was more of a problem with CDMA versions. on the Galaxy Nexus.

(I did not know that the older Nexus S had reception issues though.)

Thanks,

Think I will go ahead and order one. I haven't had any new toys to play with in a while. The bigger screen, compared to my 4s will be nice with football coming up, I usually stream the Big 12 games to my phone while I'm at my nephews games.