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Goodbye Research In Motion. Hello BlackBerry! (And BB10)

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I can't recall lit. explaining how A9 is "twice" as slow as A15*, aside from that, doesn't it also depend on exactly how it's implemented?
(i.e. a stock imp. could be much slower than a custom job, no idea if Z10's is stock OMAP4470 or not)
Assuming it is just stock, how does it's GPU, Mem, I/O, Powerman, Display etc. sub-systems compare to the iP5 & current top-end Androids?
I don't just mean only synthetic benches, but proper real-world tests, that take into account the sw running on top of the metal.
I guess we have to wait for Anandtech to pick all that apart, Engadget's/others reviews are (unsurprisingly) intellectually vacuous 🙂

*Also I forget, what clock is the iP5's dual-core running at?
 
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NY Times review

They really like it.

It sounds like there are a few tweaks that could be made to the OS, but those should be solved via feedback and an OS update.

I brought my Playbook to work today to hopefully update it to BB10, but it doesn't look like that will happen today.
 
Both the Z10 and Q10 looks like a big improvement from the current BlackBerry line-up. Unfortunately, I think it's a little too late for BlackBerry, and I can't see myself switching from an ios or android device.
 
Read bottom up:


From the top app partners, sub 10% are Android portsby Marcus Adolfsson 12:28 PM

About 40%by Marcus Adolfsson 12:27 PM

Out of the 100k apps, how many are Android ports?by Marcus Adolfsson 12:27 PM
 
bonkers325 said:
after reading the review, BB10 seems like a great OS. the hardware isn't leading edge, but BlackBerry was never meant to be leading edge hardware. it's a work horse meant for communication.
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The hardware isn't leading edge, no.

However, I also think that AnandTech types sometimes get too wrapped up in paper hardware specs. If the OS runs smoothly and fast on that hardware, then that's fine.

Maybe other concerns are more important to BlackBerry, like power utilization and battery life.
 
I haven't seen anything to indicate A15 has power or battery life issues. They seem to do just fine in benchmarks and reviews.

My guess is they went with TI specifically because I hear they have some security features that make them harder to unlock or something.
 
Eug said:
The hardware isn't leading edge, no.

However, I also think that AnandTech types sometimes get too wrapped up in paper hardware specs. If the OS runs smoothly and fast on that hardware, then that's fine.

Maybe other concerns are more important to BlackBerry, like power utilization and battery life.
Click to expand...

If battery life and power utilization are important concerns for blackberry, they failed. The Z10 by all reports has terrible battery life.

The OS appears solid, the hardware does not.

There was another company that used to be huge. Had a great OS, but the hardware was hit or miss. I don't believe they are in existence anymore.
 
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I skipped halfway down the Engadget review. Calling out the built-in calculator and compass apps? Shitty maps? Yep, DOA.
 
Battery life is also a combo of battery size and other factors. Batteries like in the Note 2 are ginormous (although that's A9).

Remember, one of the selling features of A15 was its ability to be used in conjunction with A7 in a big.LITTLE configuration, which some of chip discussions at various fora took to mean that ramping down power utilization on A15 is somewhat difficult.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but A15 was originally developed with a heavier server focus.

Wreckem said:
If battery life and power utilization are important concerns for blackberry, they failed. The Z10 by all reports has terrible battery life.

The OS appears solid, the hardware does not.
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Well then, battery life would probably be even worse with quad-core or possibly with dual-core A15 (without sister A7 cores). We'll see as more reviews come in though, and it gets a few OS updates.
 
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@wreckem

Now, now, getting a little ahead of yourself, you often see huge disparities in battery perf. for reviews of the same device, typically because there's no standard methodology applied (& in most cases, one that makes practical sense).
Lets wait for the Andtechs & Arsians of the world to (hopefully) apply something decent here, unless you're just wanting to come to a conclusion because you're in some kind of hurry?
Let us also not forget that this is BB's iOS 1.x of sorts, lots of tweaking/fine-tuning via feedback will need to be done (fast admittedly) this year...
 
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Eug said:
Battery life is also a combo of battery size. Batteries like in the Note 2 are ginormous (although that's A9).

Remember, one of the selling features of A15 was its ability to be used in conjunction with A7 in a big.LITTLE configuration, which some of chip discussions at various fora took to mean that ramping down power utilization on A15 is somewhat difficult.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but A15 was originally developed with a heavier server focus.
Click to expand...

Who the hell would use a mobile chip in a server.

And as for the battery, sure, but if the battery isn't at least user replaceable, there isn't an argument.

The BB10 phone has worse battery life than the GS3 and doesn't seem like it has a user replaceable battery like the GS3 does.
 
For regular consumers, I didn't see anything that impressed me. More or less it seems they are still playing catch up to iOS and Android. Though they seem to have a leg up in the UI experience if you like swipe gestures (I do). I doubt there will be many converts.

In the business world, some of the features looked nice. Like being able to segregate business apps from personal apps. Built in voice and video calling with BBM, and I guess even sharing your phone's desktop with who you are calling. There are lots of business users who have been switching out their Blackberrys for iPhones, this might be able to slow down that tide and maybe even reverse it.

So maybe Blackberry can survive this by winning back some of it's business customers.
 
Eug said:
Battery life is also a combo of battery size. Batteries like in the Note 2 are ginormous (although that's A9).

Remember, one of the selling features of A15 was its ability to be used in conjunction with A7 in a big.LITTLE configuration, which some of chip discussions at various fora took to mean that ramping down power utilization on A15 is somewhat difficult.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but A15 was originally developed with a heavier server focus.
Click to expand...

I never really understood the big/little thing. Given that cores can dynamically adjust their frequency and voltage or shut down what's the point in an extra low voltage/frequency vore?
 
Ravynmagi said:
For regular consumers, I didn't see anything that impressed me. More or less it seems they are still playing catch up to iOS and Android. Though they seem to have a leg up in the UI experience if you like swipe gestures (I do). I doubt there will be many converts.

In the business world, some of the features looked nice. Like being able to segregate business apps from personal apps. Built in voice and video calling with BBM, and I guess even sharing your phone's desktop with who you are calling. There are lots of business users who have been switching out their Blackberrys for iPhones, this might be able to slow down that tide and maybe even reverse it.

So maybe Blackberry can survive this by winning back some of it's business customers.
Click to expand...

Pretty much mimics my general impression, so far, but I've sill lots more to learn about the device admittedly.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Who the hell would use a mobile chip in a server.

And as for the battery, sure, but if the battery isn't at least user replaceable, there isn't an argument.

The BB10 phone has worse battery life than the GS3 and doesn't seem like it has a user replaceable battery like the GS3 does.
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What are you talking about? There are pictures in every article posted that show the back cover coming off the Z10 and you being able to pull the battery out. We've even mentioned it in this thread a bunch of times.

There is also an accessory that holds a second battery in a little case with a usb plug. You can pull the battery out and swap it for the one in the phone, or you can plug the case into the phone and run/charge the phone off of the second battery.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Who the hell would use a mobile chip in a server.

And as for the battery, sure, but if the battery isn't at least user replaceable, there isn't an argument.

The BB10 phone has worse battery life than the GS3 and doesn't seem like it has a user replaceable battery like the GS3 does.
Click to expand...

The Cortex-A15's original focus was for low-power servers when put into clusters. It was not designed for phones. Low-power servers also means less heat generated, and server rooms actually have to worry more about getting enough power to cool a server room, rather than getting enough power to server racks themselves.
 
NikolaeVarius said:
Who the hell would use a mobile chip in a server.
Click to expand...
ARM A15 webpage

To achieve the very best performance, the Cortex-A15 processor has a multi-issue, out-of-order superscalar pipeline with a tightly-coupled low-latency, ECC-protected,level-2 cache which can be up to 4MB in size. Now able to address 1TB of physical memory, the Cortex-A15 processor is able to meet the needs of server and networking applications.

Calxeda lays out 64-bit ARM server strategy

In 2012, Calxeda plans to launch a server codenamed 'Midway', based on the ARM 32-bit A15 processor. The server will use an updated version of Calxeda's on-chip Fabric Switch.

As for power — the main reason why companies like Facebook are so interested in ARM servers — Freund said Midway will have a "comparable performance per watt" to Calxeda's current generation of ARM-based 5W EnergyCard servers.

Facebook stretches ARM chips in datacentre tests

Facebook is putting ARM and Tilera processors through tests in its datacentres, as it explores using non-x86 chips for some applications to reduce its electricity bill and boost performance.

Two hardware engineers at the social-networking company told ZDNet recently that they are testing the processors and are keen on them for certain applications. However, they did not disclose how many chips the company is using.
 
Its not just the battery life. Its the device in general.

Most of the reviews are on the whole underwhelming. There are some highly positive ones but they are off set by the extremely negative ones.

The consensus is the OS is mostly great but the hardware is so-so. Thats not a good thing. Blackberry really needed a home run with BB10 and their new hardware, but they didn't come close.
 
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NikolaeVarius said:
And as for the battery, sure, but if the battery isn't at least user replaceable, there isn't an argument.
The BB10 phone has worse battery life than the GS3 and doesn't seem like it has a user replaceable battery like the GS3 does.
Click to expand...

not sure you've keeping open mind about this, if you had you would've read at least a little bit by now, & one of the major facts which would be apparent to you, is that it does have user-replaceable battery.
 
jalyst said:
not sure you've keeping open mind about this, if you had you would've read at least a little bit by now, & one of the major facts which would be apparent to you, is that it does have user-replaceable battery.
Click to expand...

Missed it because it was half a line nestled in the entire review.

Still doesn't change the fact that it still has worse battery life than the GS3.
 
Wreckem said:
Its not just the battery life. Its the device in general.

Most of the reviews are on the whole underwhelming. There are some highly positive ones but they are off set by the extremely negative ones.
Click to expand...


IME the best way to truly appreciate/asses a device (if you genuinely want to), is by using it for a period, or closely follow documentations made by others for a period.
The latter being owners in forums outlining their experiences etc...
Statical layout of negative v positive reviews really means very little, the sea of opinions is generally going to favour the status-quo, simply by virtue of where BB is in the market.
There's just sooo much to compare/analyse nowadays, & folks rarely know more than one platform "in-depth", so it's easier to errr on the side of "what's known".
Reviews are a poor substitute for the aforementioned, there's some exceptions ofc, sites like anand/ars etc. are usually very thorough, & so add some truly credible weight, to add to ones own analysis.
 
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