Just picked up a blackberry z10

[desura]

Why didn't I pick this up earlier?

First impressions: bb10 is really really good. It is super fast, has the best software keyboard out there, and it has the best multitasking of any mobile OS. The speed is really impressive on this thing, especially considering the hardware.

The only downside is that its visual design kind of sucks. Every line is thick and badly skeumorphic.

It's a shame this never caught on.

 

[Commodus]

Why didn't I pick this up earlier?

First impressions: bb10 is really really good. It is super fast, has the best software keyboard out there, and it has the best multitasking of any mobile OS. The speed is really impressive on this thing, especially considering the hardware.

The only downside is that its visual design kind of sucks. Every line is thick and badly skeumorphic.

It's a shame this never caught on.

I'm not a fan myself, and I've tried a few.

My main beef: the hub is supposed to save you time, but it frequently feels like more of a hassle. For example, deleting a group of messages was a hassle where it was trivial on Android or iOS. I also didn't like the backwards approach to the camera (where you had to drag the focus point instead of tapping) and a heavy emphasis on gestures over on-screen commands. BB10 does have good multitasking, but that by itself wasn't going to reel people in.

The BlackBerry Priv, on the other hand, is surprisingly spiffy -- it's ultimately Android with a keyboard, of course, but it's a pretty well-done phone as a whole. It feels like the best possible compromise between what fans wanted and what the mainstream actually needs (apps and hardware compatibility).

 

[smitbret]

I'm not a fan myself, and I've tried a few.

My main beef: the hub is supposed to save you time, but it frequently feels like more of a hassle. For example, deleting a group of messages was a hassle where it was trivial on Android or iOS. I also didn't like the backwards approach to the camera (where you had to drag the focus point instead of tapping) and a heavy emphasis on gestures over on-screen commands. BB10 does have good multitasking, but that by itself wasn't going to reel people in.

The BlackBerry Priv, on the other hand, is surprisingly spiffy -- it's ultimately Android with a keyboard, of course, but it's a pretty well-done phone as a whole. It feels like the best possible compromise between what fans wanted and what the mainstream actually needs (apps and hardware compatibility).

Except for your dislike of gestures, everything you mentioned was fixed in BBOS v10.2 & 10.3.

I attempted to take a strong look at Android a couple of months ago and stuck my SIM card in a Nexus 4 running Lollipop just to see if I could adjust. I lasted 36 grueling hours before I couldn't take the clunky navigation and went back to my Z10. Mostly I did it just to see if I could be comfortable with the Blackberry Priv that runs Android. That dream has died, especially since v10.3 runs Android apps so well.

I will eventually move to Android when I am forced to, but as long as I can get a working phone that runs BBOS 10 I just can't pull the trigger.

 

[Commodus]

Except for your dislike of gestures, everything you mentioned was fixed in BBOS v10.2 & 10.3.

I attempted to take a strong look at Android a couple of months ago and stuck my SIM card in a Nexus 4 running Lollipop just to see if I could adjust. I lasted 36 grueling hours before I couldn't take the clunky navigation and went back to my Z10. Mostly I did it just to see if I could be comfortable with the Blackberry Priv that runs Android. That dream has died, especially since v10.3 runs Android apps so well.

I will eventually move to Android when I am forced to, but as long as I can get a working phone that runs BBOS 10 I just can't pull the trigger.

See, the funny thing is that I find BlackBerry navigation awkward, but find Android and iOS relatively intuitive. I wonder how much of this is having to really live with an OS for a while versus ease of use.

I've used the Priv for a little while, on that note, and it's a very interesting phone. Not often these days that you can fire off a Hangouts message with a vertical sliding keyboard -- especially on a phone that could still be considered high-end. It's been years since a BlackBerry felt like it wasn't slightly behind on hardware.

 

[Rottie]

BB is making a comeback?

 

[ChronoReverse]

"intuition" is often more what you're used to anyway. But trying out Android on a Nexus 4 isn't really giving it a fair shake either.

 

[pete6032]

"intuition" is often more what you're used to anyway. But trying out Android on a Nexus 4 isn't really giving it a fair shake either.

Neither is just giving 36 hours. It will of course feel clunky and unintuitive from one OS to the other because your brain is used to the ways of one OS.

When I switched from BBOS to Android I hated android for the first couple of weeks, but I continued on with it and like it a lot now.

 

[Deeko]

Yea I actually really like a lot of things about the Z10 / Q10. Like you said, the software keyboard is really great, MUCH better than the default on other platforms. After using BB10 for awhile you find yourself intuitively swiping up from the bottom to go home...and it's so annoying that it doesn't work! It's not without faults. I find the "widget" feature in native apps to be somewhat useless, they don't update often. Android app integration is terrible - they're so incredibly slow, they're basically unusable. The hub is sometimes very useful, sometimes very frustrating.

It's a bit of a shame, it was too little / too late, but there were a lot of good ideas in there.