Yes, it’s true. I’ve gone over to the dark side…no, not Apple. The other dark side. Yes, Android.

I got myself a shiny new Samsung Galaxy SII, thinking the grass is always greener on the screen of the other side. I was right. But there are a few things I’ll miss about Ol’ Reliable. Here’s a few things to know if you’re thinking of making the switch.

The Blinking Red Light: This is easily one of the best, most overlooked Blackberry feature. A light that blinks when you have messages. Why is this useful? I don’t have to activate the screen to see when I have messages, saving me battery life and time! Granted, other phones besides Blackberries have this feature…but my Galaxy SII does not sadly.

Email: It’s taken me a little while to get email all sorted out on my new phone. It’s almost up to par, but I must admit email was stylistically easier to look at with RIM’s OS. As well, there were more options for setting up different types of accounts. Still, most conventional email types work fine.

Keyboard: The SII keyboard is excellent, but no touchscreen keyboard will ever match the precision or the speed of a physical keyboard.

Screen: I’d be crazy to say my old Blackerry’s screen had anything on the Galaxy SII picture wise or colour wise, but it was better at dealing with glare from sunlight. It’s near impossible to read the Galaxy SII’s screen sometimes in bright light! This is actually a fairly common problem with a lot of touchscreen and more modern phones, not just the Galaxy SII.

Media Buttons: I had the same problem when I tried an iPhone (though it’s even worse on iPhones). Using my old Blackberry Curve, there were buttons build into the top of the phone to pause or start the current song, go to the next one, and go back one. With most non-Blackberry phones (and most Blackberries which aren’t Curves, I might add) you need to unlock the phone and change the song using the screen. It’s a bit easier on Android than iOS since you can do it from the app tray at the top of the screen. But not nearly as easy as with my old Blackberry!

So, it’s true. RIM does still have a few redeeming convenience features with its phones and things that keep people coming back. But do I have any regrets about trading up? None whatsoever. These minor gripes are insignificant when compared to the speed and functionality the SII gives me over anything RIM could offer with its current lineup.This isn’t meant to be an ad for the SII, but if you are on the fence with your current Blackberry then the next few months are great times to start looking elsewhere.

-PG