A lengthy post of question from new Droid owner...

[figs]

I am still trying to get to know my new Droid (not Eris) but am having quite a bit of difficulty and am really considering trading it back for a Blackberry. The apps are great but this is a business phone and I have to be able to conduct my work-related tasks on this phone, preferably with ease.

The user experience for me so far has been just full of frustration. I am hoping this is simply because I'm not familiar with how this phone works and not that it's missing features/abilities that I really need for my job. I am wondering if there is any way to accomplish the following tasks:

1 - Get all email to show up in one box?
There is no way to know who is sending you email unless you drag the notification menu down to see which account got the email. I have shortcuts for the 5 accounts I have on the homescreen but they don't show any indicator that the new mail is in that box nor is there an option to have all mail show up in a single mailbox. It's such an incredible waste of time to have to either click on each of the 5 mailboxes to see where the new mail is or drag the list down from the top. I just can't get over what a silly thing to have to do.


2 - There is no way to know if you've replied to a message.
On my Blackberry, if I replied to an email, the icon next to the message in my Inbox had an arrow on it. The Droid has nothing and the message does not appear in the Sent Items folder. My job is extremely email intensive and remembering if I've replied to a message is difficult to say the least.

3 - Check for mail every 5 minutes.
Is there any way to force check email sooner than 5 minutes? That seems an eternity to me. I've tried sending myself an email and manually clicking Refresh on the mailbox page but it doesn't seem to pull the new messages. Not sure exactly what it refreshes. Also, occasionally, I get the "DROID!" sound notification that is set to my New Mail notification but when I check all the mailboxes there is nothing in them.

4 - When the screen goes to sleep, hitting the Home button or any other doesn't bring the phone back on. You have to press the Power button. Is that

I've been reading threads here this morning and appreciate all the info here!

 

[MNTNBKR]

You're first three issues wouldn't be issues if you were using Gmail. I'm guessing that you're not though, and since I don't have any experience with using other email accounts with this phone, I don't have any good info for you. Sorry.

The last question (er, statement) is true, but it can be taken care of using an app called screeble. It prevents your screen from going to sleep based on several customizable parameters.

 

[jsh1120]

Figs,

I feel your pain. Business users, especially those used to the superb functionality of BlackBerry devices in dealing with email, often find that adjusting to the Droid is problematic. Of course, not all business users have the same needs/requirements so what works for some may not work for others, but here's my recommendation.

If you can, stop trying to deal with configuration of your email through the "email" icon and learn to use Google mail (gmail) to consolidate, filter, sort, and label your incoming email. Then access your gmail account from your droid. (The "push" functionality and immediate notification of incoming email is available there.) And gmail is well designed for consolidating incoming email from a variety of other accounts as long as you can forward the email from those accounts to gmail. This will require you to do some configuration of gmail on your computer, not just on your phone.

If you haven't used gmail in the past, you may find its "threaded" approach to email conversations can be problematic. If you prefer to see individual emails rather than threads organized by a heading, try using the K-9 email client on your Droid (linked to your gmail account) as a way to manage your email.

There are some other solutions, especially for those who must/prefer to use Outlook Exchange email, but that doesn't sound like your specific problem.

As noted above, this may not resolve your problems, especially if you're accustomed to using the facilities provided by a BlackBerry device. That is definitely the strong suit of RIM-based phones. But it's worth a try. Integration with gmail is the Droid's strong suit. In comparison, the facilities provided by the "email" app are an afterthought. So before giving up on the Droid, I recommend you try another approach.

P.S. The reference in the post above is to "screebl." You can find it in the Market. It's a great app. And you can control the behavior of your "sleep" and "wake up" cycles with several applications. I use an app called "Screen Mode Widget."

 

[MrCapcom]

1. I dunno how many accounts u can have in gmail but i have it set to check my other email account
and you can have it tag the email with that email address so it will come up with where the mail came from.
I only have 3 accounts and the regular email account goes to the i geuss its called corporate email.

2. dunno about the replying thing more than just going into your sent messages. I know there are other email
clients like K9 ever try that?

3. never had that problem but I have my mail set to send tome in 15-30 min less battery usage. never had
a problem with not receiving mail and still getting a droid sound.

4. the screen is like that to keep it from coming on by accident. I came from a omnia and i always turn my phone
on with the power button never had a problem

IMO this phone cna be a buisness phone but if your not willing (or don't want to) take steps
to get it there and mess aroudn it might not be the phone for u.

 

[wsbsteven]

3 of your 4 issues are email related. BB is the king of email, if email is the most important thing to you then I'd get a BB. You can't go wrong with BB and email.

 

[bdbraaten]

K9 email can get close to what you're looking for but not entirely.

1.) The home screen shortcut for K9 takes you to your account list and it shows which boxes have new messages in them and how many. Its not exactly what you're looking for but its the closest thing I know of right now.

2.) When you reply to messages in K9, it puts a arrow symbol similar to the arrow on the enter key on a computer keyboard.

3.) K9 can be set to check every minute, haven't tested it to see how accurately it works

4.) That is the case, for me it wasn't a big issue because my previous phone (Samsung i760) was the same way. Only other way I know to wake the phone is more cumbersome, the screen wakes up when you slide the keyboard open.

 

[jsh1120]

3.) K9 can be set to check every minute, haven't tested it to see how accurately it works

Now I'M confused. I use both "gmail" and "k-9" with both linked to my Google Gmail account. I do this because of the different email format presentation (threaded vs non-threaded). I have the "poll" frequency set to "never." Yet I receive email on both the gmail and k-9 clients at almost the same time. I assumed both were being "pushed" to my phone.

Sorry for the threadjack. Perhaps this belongs in another thread.

 

[crimattyple]

lengthy post

I use Touchdown from the Market to access my "office" email and sync with Outlook. It's got "push" capability and works great.
I have GMail for my personal account. I one notification in the notification bar when GMail comes and a different notification when it's from Outlook/Touchdown.
I also got GMail Notifier from the Market which can give me different notifications when GMail is received.