Road Warriors beware... Not ready for prime time for us business users...

[butch350]

Well, I have been playing with the droid for a week now and have made the sad decision to return it and go back to my Windows 6.1 phone ....

My primary reasons for returning it are because I am a serious road warrior with my phone and it is a critical business tool.

My Droid fails as a business tool in a couple areas (where my Samsung i760 does great)

1-teathering, got it to work but it is slow and a bit of a pain
2-Exchange outlook, email synces great, but the mail client is lacking functionality (accept invites, sort, folders, etc)
3- calander (corporate) very lacking in functionality
4- call signal strength, I loose calls easily, and people complain of poor voice quality on their end
5- lack of edit capability on docs, xls, other office stuff (some apps available for a price though)
6-very hard to use while driving as everything takes multiple taps, slides, or other visual type things to do. Not good in a state where cell phone usage has strict limitations
7-keyboard is a bit hard to use compared the great keyboard on the 760 (I could get used to it, and the landscape onscreen keyboard is actually very good)
8-Bluetooth functionality is very poor. No handsfree dial, voice command.


I think the phone is great for a casual user and the form factor is nice and it feels solid.

I know there are OS updates due out in mid Dec, and again in Jan. that will (may) address some of this, but since I only have a 30 day window to decide if I want to keep it, I have decided to stay with my bulky but tried and true i760 and re-evaluate the droid once the new OS patch is released.

Not trying to rain on any parades, just wanted to give my feedback to those who are looking for a business phone and are not able to compromise on the core phone and PIM functions we are accustomed to.

I don't remember seeing in any of the Droid ads that it was oriented
toward the bussiness crowd.

 

[TrueFangz]

I too have switched from the Samsung i760 with WM 6.1.

I liked that phone, with the exception of the sucky soft screen, and bulkiness, specially with the extended battery on it. I had the worst luck with calibrating the touch screen. After a while, the accuracy got very bad, and I couldn't calibrate anymore. The Align screen mode would just cylcle on a never ending loop, and I had to get used to using the D-Pad, and never using the touch again on it.

I have had my Droid since 2/8/2010. I love it very much. By far the best phone ever. But agreeing with the OP, it does lack several business environment needs. I'm finding new work arounds for stuff almost everyday.

The best solution My company has done regarding e-mail, contacts, and calendar syncing is a program called Companion Link. This will sync your outlook to Google, and Google is always in sync with the Driod. The version we bought is $39.99 per license. I think it works well.

We decided not to go with "TouchDown" and use the exchange, because Verizon charges another Monthly fee for supporting Exchange. As I've said in my first post, After spending righteous bucks on the phone, plus the monthly voice AND data plan excpenses, We didn't feel the need to pay Verizon more money than necessary to support Exchange.

True, we had to buy Companion Link Licenses, but a 1 time charge for each Droid user (12 in my company) beats paying monthly fee's for 12 users that would rack up in no time flat.

Anyhow, for anyone in a business environment interested in a Droid, be cautioned that it will be quite different, but after time, you'll get most of what you need figured out, and will probably be quite pleased with Android.

Just to clarify for everyone - Verizon does NOT require an additional monthly fee to support Exchange. If you use TouchDown, that's all you need (as long as your company's Exchange server is setup correctly, which most are). That's been something that has been misunderstood for some time.

My Company's Verizon rep. told us they charge $15.00 a month (per user) to connect their exchange service to our exchange service.

 

[jsh1120]

Just to clarify for everyone - Verizon does NOT require an additional monthly fee to support Exchange. If you use TouchDown, that's all you need (as long as your company's Exchange server is setup correctly, which most are). That's been something that has been misunderstood for some time.

My Company's Verizon rep. told us they charge $15.00 a month (per user) to connect their exchange service to our exchange service.

We have two winners here. In fact, the $30 per month data plan is all that is required. It's also true, however, that VZW charges a premium of $15 per month to support "corporate" email. Just what this "support" amounts to is, as far as I can tell, virtually nothing, at least on the android platform.