One week later... My Blackberry Q10

Well its coming up for a week now since the mainstream launch of the Blackberry Q10, and I thought it was time to hammer the keyboard of the laptop for a while and give the Q a bit of a break. So while Z and Q sit on the side and rest for a bit, lets take a look at my first week (almost) with my latest Blackberry.

So, the Blackberry Q10 is the second handset to be launched from Blackberry since they changed their name from RIM. Sporting the almost entirely new BB10 operating system, its a far cry from my first Blackberry which was an 8320. Not quite as ancient as some out there who rocked the side scroller, but certainly old enough to remember how very different the operation of a Blackberry was then. That was WAY back in 2007. In fact its only in writing this entry that I had any idea I have been using a BB for 6 years now. Then again, given just how many of them I have got through in that time, maybe that's about right.
For those not in the know, this is an 8320..

Back then I could send and receive email while I was on the move, and occasionally if needed, check things on the internet. Browsing then was more necessity  than social and passtime. Oh how things have changed. But very quickly, if there is one thing I have never got over, it has to be the contrasting keys. With the numerical keypad being reverse colours, making it easier to type numbers. Small issue, and would totally ruin the current Q10, but that's my gripe over with.

So, leaping forwards a few years, and blasting past the 8520, 9700, 9900, and Z10 that all followed the first one, and we arrive at the current day. The first fair thing to say is, having experienced the progress from one device to the next, going from a trackball to the trackpad, and then to the trackless device, the progress has been tiresome at best, sometimes sitting so still, that to be a BB user felt like you were in a timewarp and heading backwards while the world around you shot forwards.

Well those days are gone now, and finally it feels like us BB users are on an even playing field with the rest of the smartphone users out there. I would even be so bold as to say that in some respects, we are a step ahead. In one respect a Q10 user has one asset to their disposal that no other real smartphone user has, and that's a physical keyboard. Sure there are other phones out there with physical keyboards, but at this point, none have the same processing power or abilities as the Q.

So, back on track, there was a first week with a Q10 meant to be going on here...

Receiving the box from the courier, the package was very small, and remembering how the Z10 had come packaged I knew what to expect. A phone, a battery, a SIM, a data cable and charger plug, and a cheap pair of headphones. So on opening the box and taking everything out, I was delighted to find a pair of the new premium headphones in there, and a week later I am still over the moon with them. The right balance between sound quality while maintaining some awareness of whats happening around you, like traffic.

Putting the phone together it was then time to see this glass weave battery cover there has been so much talk about. Having been torn between white and black handsets and finally settling for black, I was relieved when I finally felt the back cover in my fingers. Having used a Z for 2-3 months, I have grown used to the level of grip the back of that offers. All the preview images showed the glass weave for the black, and the Z10 style textured back for the white. Having never been happy with the back of the 9900, I was concerned the Q10 would be slippery with its glass weave... WRONG. Its lovely waxy and soft feel give it great grip in the hands, and belay any worries about letting it slip. So off to a good start then.

Powering up for the first time, I knew most of what to expect, with having been baptised into the world of BB10 with using the Z for a few months. All that was left to see was how well the gestures, screens and software would work with this new, non smiling physical qwerty.
Once the introductions were made it was time to get on with the formalities of setting the device up. First up, time to set up a new account, as you obviously cant run two devices on one Blackberry account. Even with the demise of BIS, things like Blackberry World, and Protect require you to have an account for each live device you are running. Obviously a straight device swap would just require logging in with your existing details. With new username and account running, it was time to get to know the Q.

Starting with what most would consider THE important part of a smartphones soul.. Apps! Personally to me they are a nice addition, but I am pretty content with the standard package of native apps on the BB10 devices, they do most things I want to do on a day to day basis. However, having already added a good few to the Z10's arsenal of weapons, I thought it only fair to equip the Q equally.
I would have liked to have done this, but sadly there are a few apps which have not yet ported over. Yes, its that age old problem, right OS, wrong device. And with the different form factors of the two being so far apart, it would be wrong to expect all apps to work out of the box. The only one I actually pine for right now is BeBuzz, no relation to Bieber!
I did however hear that Blackberry are helping the devs out by testing and automatically porting over any Z10 apps that are Q ready, and this should take place in the coming weeks. I sincerely hope BeBuzz is in there.

Speaking of native apps and software, I thought this was the right time to mention all is NOT well. While the 'shortfallings' of the Hub have already been discussed, I thought I would quickly touch on Twitter, and its native app on BB10. Yes its simple and easy on the eye, but its also pretty bland and a touch dumb too. The way it interacts with the contacts list for composing a tweet with a mention in it, the limited actions available from the app it self. It has a habit of repeating tweets, so on opening one, as it builds it will create a long list of the same text over and over. I wont go on for ages, but in short I find the native Twitter SO irritating, I wont use it. Instead I prefer to use Blaq, with its much nicer and more user friendly interface. Mentions on there are dealt with by a progressive search, with suggestions appearing at the top as you type the names. Unlike the native app which insists on opening a contacts list.

So working with the actual device on a day to day basis, I can only say its an absolute delight to use. I still switch between the Z and the Q, depending on which is closer to hand. The other deciding factor is what I am planning to do with the device, browse, view video or having a long blogging session or forum session.
I wont say gaming as that's truly not my forte, but know it is important to some people, and appreciate their needs.
Needless to say, having been housebound for most of the past week, forums like Crackberry have been my main haunt, and with the Q being the new kid on the block, the choice was pretty obvious. Me and the Q have spent some quality time over the past few days, putting it through its paces, and seeing what its really made of. Testing the battery to see what sort of beating it can take on a full charge. The camera seeing how all the different settings work, and what gives the optimal results, and of course the most important thing to me, seeing how well I can manage going back to a physical keyboard after months away.

With regards to the keyboard, a few days before the Q arrived I picked up my old 9900 for the first time in ages, and immediately became attached to the feel of keys under my thumbs again, could the Q really match that feeling. Well the short answer is yes! And exceed it too. Even though the difference is measured in millimetres rather than centimetres, the loss of the smile from the keyboard made me wonder how different typing would be. Well maybe its coming from the flatness of the Z, or maybe its just the difference in unnoticeable, but either way the new flat lines of the keyboard work fine, and typing is a joy. I am back in my old ways of typing for the sake of typing, and not having to stare at the sensationless buttons of a touchscreen while I do it. So keyboard is a big thumbs up.

Camera, I wont go on too much about it, but as I have said in previous entries, it is a more than capable camera, and pleasing for the average point and shoot user. If you are not happy with the results of the pictures, you probably need to start looking at using a proper camera rather than the relying on the camera on a cellphone and hoping for DSLR results. Yes there are other camera phones out there which have more scope, but the emphasis here is on the simplicity of the use of the Q10's camera.
Read more here... Q10 Camera Test

Speaking of what you see, the screen on the Q, the super AMOLED display is a lovely thing. Some have complained about the whites being grey, or there being saturation of blues, but somehow with all their knowledge, seem to have overlooked the technologies behind AMOLED. It is sharp, crisp, clear and bright. Sunlight legibility is fine with the right brightness setting, although mine resides around 30%

The battery, well I think it is fair to say that it unsurprisingly manages to out perform that of its counterpart. For someone who uses their phone every few minutes for something throughout the day, the Q does a fine job of lasting out the day without a charge. Managing beyond 12 hours for me by modern day standards is really quite a feat. Of course as I have said numerous times, there are many contributing factors to how long a battery will last a day, and it doesn't take a power user to drain a battery in under 12 hours. Process sapping apps, poor network connection, unused connections NFC, Bluetooth, Wifi, etc can all lead to the early demise of the battery too.

So in summary, before this day passes me by.
The Q10 is a very capable device, and should certainly meet all the wants and needs of the die hard physical keyboard fans. You don't have to be old or a technophobe to want to use a physical keyboard. its just a preference. Its productive, its comfortable, and lets be honest, its nice to be a little different. Although with the instant success of the Q10 I'm not sure how long you will stand out for, before you are running with the crowd.
Blackberry have done well with the device, making it current, powerful, and pleasing to use. Ticking all the boxes from both looks and performance stand points, the Q is here, and ready to shake up the smartphone market just ever so slightly, and prove one thing for sure..... The days of the physical keyboard are FAR from over, and as an additional note, Blackberry is very much alive, and here to stay....

Sorry haters :)

More discussions about the Q10, and more of my comments can be found on a popular thread on Crackberry, or on link below.

http://forums.crackberry.com/blackberry-q10-f272/q10-vs-z10-screen-size-debate-802693/

Thanks for reading.

Taming the Blackberry 10 Hub

Since the launch of the Blackberry Z10, there has been so much talk about The Hub. We saw it in the previews, and heard so much about how it was going to revolutionise the way we work with our mobile devices. Peek and Flow, gestures, unified inbox on steroids, we heard all of the comments, and in the demo's it sure did seem the best thing since sliced bread. Being able to peek into your inbox regardless of what you were in the middle of seemed ideal.

For some, the transition over to the hub has been pretty smooth. All the social accounts you use, all in one place, filter them by type if you so wish, or whack them all in together in The Hub itself. In general, I am one of those who is quite happy with the way it performs, and it does what it says on the box. It simplifies the way you communicate across multiple social platforms, all from one single place.

BUT... of course there is a but, this is me!
There are a few things, that possibly for the sake of sanity, or maybe just for functionality reasons that are not as I would like them certainly, so I shall go into a few now before I go on.

The first thing I noticed was a Twitter feed thing. On OS7.1 and before, periodically I would get a notification from twitter into my unified inbox that would say there were new tweets to view. Alas this does not happen with the hub. Now the reason for it is quite simple, only things directed at YOU will appear in the hub. Messages which may require you to respond are the only things of interest to the hub. Naturally it didn't take long to get used to this 'short falling' if you can call it that.
But while talking about Twitter, there is another thing. Mentions. When composing a new tweet and mentioning a contact in it, the long winded approach to adding their @ to the message is quite simply horrible. I don't want a drop down of all my contacts to appear, so I can then enter their name in the search field. What was wrong with the old way, or indeed the way Blaq manages them. Type an @ then start to type the name, and as you type the options appear to select from.
This plus the rather basic and lethargic layout of the whole native Twitter app are the reason I bit the bullet and got Blaq instead. Multiple accounts, real time feed, nice interface, and simple mentions.

After the Twitter thing was overcome, the next thing to understand was how the other apps integrated into the hub. Facebook for example, for a while I thought that I would be able to update my status from the hub also, but this again is not the case. You can compose direct messages on the hub for Facebook only. The same I should say is the case with Twitter.

In short, for those not quite au fait with the hub situation. The hub is ONLY used for direct communication with people, be it SMS, BBM, email, or via social networking apps.

Once you understand what it can do, the next thing to do is get it doing the things you want it do do for YOU, customise it.

This is where the confusion around the hub really starts, and if you were keeping up with what I have been rattling on about so far, hold tight, its about to get a little crazy around here.
Notifications in the hub are for all the native apps to the Blackberry 10 devices, and a little more, as shown below.

As you can see, quite a list there indeed. So can you cope with updates and history from all these feeds showing up in the one single inbox? Well apparently most cant, and it gets a little heated and hectic. The problem is, or is perceived to be, that if you turn them off in the hub management, you then lose the ability to use the feed. But this is not the case, allow me to explain a little. First up you need to get into the hub settings, the following sequence shows where you go to do this.

Firstly, go into the hub, and select the overflow menu, 3 dots, bottom right of the screen. Select settings.

Next up, from settings you want hub Management.

Once you have entered the hub management, you will be presented with the following screen. I'm pretty sure 90% have already seen all this, but just to be sure.

Right, now you are ready to decide what shows in your hub feed and what doesn't. There are important things to know here, so read carefully.

First up, emails, the hub is the only place on your Blackberry 10 device you can access these, so it is important to have your main accounts switched on. If you have other accounts that receive a lot of junk, but periodically get used for something more productive, I would say turn them off. I will explain why in a bit.
Next up are other forms of messages, BBM, SMS. This is where the options start. The BB10 devices come with BBM and texts available from stand alone icons. BBM from the actual app, and texts from its own icon to open JUST text messaging if you so choose. These applications do NOT have to be left open and running in an active pane to receive messages if you turn them off in the hub.

Same applies to your social networks, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquares and so on.

Now to explain how to go about this.

By turning notifications OFF in the hub for any of these applications does not mean you wont receive messages through them, you will, and the hub will still take care of this for you. You just have to understand the slightly complex way in which it works. By turning them off in the hub, it simply means that the notifications will not automatically populate the hub. So when you turn twitter off for example, the device will still receive and acknowledge direct messages, and it will still tell you that you have them. It just wont display it.

An example for you to make it a little clearer. I have Twitter turned OFF in my hub, purely because I don't like the native app as I have explained before. Instead I use Blaq which I will usually leave running in an active pane, as I tent to use Twitter quite a lot. The Blaq app shows within the active pane if I have any mentions or direct messages, as well as new tweets to read. But what if I close the app, then how will I know if I get a message or mention.
While it is turned off in the hub, I wont see the message, but I will get a notification still. I will get an LED flash if set up for that application, I will get an icon on the lock screen, and I will also get a spark on the hub menu button (as pictured below)

Soon also I am hoping that we will see BeBuzz for the Q10 arrive, which will also allow you to have the addition of a specific colour flash on your LED.
So now you have your notification, its up to you to decide how you deal with it.
You can go to the hub and choose the particular inbox for that application, and view it there, or you can open it in the stand alone app. A BBM can be opened in the hub or on the app for example. One thing to note here is that third party apps wont update the hub. So if you get a mention on Twitter and open it in Blaq, the notification spark will remain in the hub until you acknowledge it.

So I guess what I am trying to say here is The Hub is actually a very clever and versatile notifications centre, which is highly customisable, but it is for the end user to make the effort to spend a few minutes going through it properly, setting up what you want to simply be notified of, and what you want to actually see populating your hub.

I hope this hasn't confused you more than it has helped.

My Blackberry Z10, the story so far.

Blackberry Playbook and Blackberry Z10

I have been using the Z10 for a couple of days now and and really starting to get to grips with it, and see how it behaves. Having put some thought into it all and started to see whats present and whats missing in comparison to the outgoing Bold 9900. I have also had time to cycle the battery fully once now, so although its not a great indicator of overall battery life, its a first impression for sure.

On the first day, and in the subsequent review, I complained about the lack of accessories in the retail box. From speaking to friends, I am far from the only one that thinks the contents were a little sparse to say the least. I have never been gentle or kind to my phones, and never will be, its an accessory, not a prized possession, and is treated accordingly, so battle scars are inevitable. But the gesture of a small pouch, even similar material to the Playbook cover would have been nice.. Blackberry, are you listening?

So, in the real world, being used as a primary devices, how does it fair. First up, battery. Having used Blackberry's since the 8320, I am used to a certain level of battery life. Given that the devices are small with small screens, its never been an issue. When the 9900 came about, suddenly Blackberry users around the world started to understand the woes of touchscreen users, and started to experience the all too common problem. So thats about 19 hours including 7 hours of non use. This is using the phones default settings for everything from brightness to screen timeout. 2 hours 45 mins to get a full charge back in the handset after this. In general any handset I have gets plugged in while at work anyway, so battery isnt an issue on an average working day, but out in the wild for a day might be. Time will tell.

Back to actually using the device, and things get a little better. Buttery smooth is the only way I can describe it, just as seen on the demo videos, apps can take a couple of seconds to open if they are particularly big or complex ones, like higher res games etc, but thats more than acceptable given the smoothness they then play with. Im not a heavy gamer, so its not fair for me to critique this area of the device much more, but games such as Run In Crowd perform beautifully. As does streaming media.

Browser
The biggest surprise for me so far is the browser. Now the S2 browser loads pretty quickly on 3G and quite a bit faster on WiFi, but the Z10 BB10 browser is all new as we have all heard, so how would it fair. Well I thought the best way to test them would be to get them on the wifi and search the web for a few sites at the same time, as most do on their video demo's.
The first thing I noticed when doing this was that the Samsung, where one was available, would connect to and load the mobile site, where the Z10 would load the full site. When testing on Sky News for example, the S2 loaded the mobile site, smoothly and quickly, and the Z10 went for the full site, with all its flash content. Before loading the site a pop up appeared advising it was a data rich site with a large amount of Flash content, and asking if I wanted to proceed, which I did. One OK'ed, it loaded the site very quickly and the content was great on the eye and well displayed. As I ran through the various sites, the S2 would again and again go for the mobile site. When one wasnt available, it would load the full site, still very quickly, but noticably slower than the Z10.Then it was time to test against the iPod Touch 5th Gen, running iOS6. Again it was a very close matched affair, but the iPod would like the S2 choose to load mobile sites first.
It is fair to say that loading the mobile site isnt a bad thing at all, less data, and quicker loading, but it didnt give a very accurate comparison.
The summary then is simple. All 3 devices are very capable at displaying feature rich content on their browsers, on the sites I tested with, the Z10 was marginally quicker over wifi than the other 2, but very little in it at all. So if nothing else, BB10's browser is 'on par' with the others, if not a little quicker. Personally I would say the Z10 came out on top, by a hair.

While testing though, one thing I did notice was the differences in screens of all 3, and how they display colours and fonts. I have to openly concede that the screen of the iPod seems very sharp in comparison, and whilst both screens are perfectly readable with small fonts, the sharpness of the smallest lettering on the iPod seems just that little bit clearer. And for the record I have just had my eyes tested and had a perfect result, so no, im not blind. That said, all 3 give nice easy to read displays with the smallest of fonts. The differences are more to do with how the browsers work, and choose to display the websites, with each using a slightly different layout to enhance certain parts of the website. Again their behaviour differs completely when tapped to zoom.

One thing I have learned from these comparisons, is that accurate comparisons are simply not possible. Even with the browsers, some will claim to be fully loaded, but still sneekily be loading more content like links, roll over images, and other banner images, so a loaded site is not always as it appears.
So right now it is not really possible to say one is better than the other. All 3 are great devices for browsing with, and once you get familiar with their actions, you can have a great browsing experience on any of them.
Over all though, as far as the Blackberry experience goes, even compared to the Playbook, the BB10 Z10 has an amazing browser, and one most BB users have been waiting a LONG time for.

Battery
Its still early days, and only one complete cycle has been done, as I said in the intro. But I will be sure to keep a close eye on things over the coming days and let me opinions be known, honestly.
Today for example, since the phone came off charge yesterday evening, it has had a fair bit of use, and as I write now, at 12.15pm, its down at 35%, which is certainly no triumph. Lets hope things are going to improve a bit after a few cycles of the battery. At this stage, I would certainly be considering a spare battery if things are staying like this. Just for days when im out in the wild so to speak. One advantage over close back handsets for sure.

General use
As I have previously said, this is not a simple change from one Blackberry to another, its not just a slightly different keyboard or OS to get used to, its starting over. New behaviours, interfaces, inputs, the whole nine yards. I am however happy to say that once you get using the Z10 it becomes second nature, the gestures just happen, comfort and security is found in the keyboard, and the worry of not being able to swap over passes. One thing I will say though, and I was thinking about this while walking the dogs last night, this isnt for everyone. I really dont think the die hard qwerty users will transition over without a fight, and the Q10 is still going to be their saviour. Just a shame its 2 months away yet. Some of my friends are far from impressed by this gap in release dates. I have to agree, now knowing how far apart they are going to be, even the markets have reacted badly. The early indications were that the Q10 would follow shortly,but this 'shortly' is like missing a bus and waiting another day for it. Its NOT a short wait.
I do however look forwards to getting to grips with the Q10 when it launches, and seeing how the 2 months have changed my perspective on using a touchscreen.
I can say with confidence that while doing the browser test, I remembered why I dislike touchscreens so much, or have done up until now.

Keyboard
As I say above, the keyboard, for me anyway, is a real breakthrough. Having used the Galaxy S2, the iPod Touch and the Z10 all within second of each other, I can categorically say my preference is the Z10 without a second thought. Next being the S2, which just seems more compatible with my thumbs, and its behaviour somehow seems to know which letter I was going for when its too close to call. The iPod however is a nightmare for me, constant typo's, even when I go back to correct. On the S2 I use Adaptxt for a keyboard, which has a pretty good predictive text dictionary, so the occasional typo is forgiven. On the Blackberry however the BB10 keyboard is truly brilliant in many ways.
First, using the whole area of the bottom of the screen helps with larger fingers for sure. Rather than the other 2 devices which choose to narrow and have smaller keys because of this.
Secondly there is how the keyboard and device behave when typing. There are of course the predictive word assists, which appear on the frets between the rows of keys, which can be flicked to the message above. For a while you find yourself looking for the right words to appear, and this slows you down, but after some time has passed you just type messages the same way you would on a qwerty, and when you see the long word appear you are able to flick it up. This quickly becomes second nature.
Then it is only fair to say, that BB10 seems to have probably the most adaptive and powerful correction service out there at the moment. Watching the message appear can sometimes look like you are typing perfectly, and most of the time you are, but from time to time you will hit dptn instead of from, and somehow from this BB10 realises you mean FROM, and will replace it. Occasionally I look at the word I am currently typing, and realise its totally wrong, but when I look at the space bar, there is the word I was meaning to type, all ready to jump into its place when I hit the space.
Of course, this can be annoying early days when typing fast without noticing the word substitutions, and like all other devices, can lead to some very interesting messages being sent. Although fair to say, less than those of the iPhone which has a site dedicated to it.
All that said, I DO still think that the Z10 and its fantastic keyboard is still a step too far for some out of their comfort zones. However its fair to say that if a Z10 keyboard is not good enough for them to ditch their 9900 or 9700, no other touchscreen device out there is going to cut the mustard either.

Messaging
A very different experience indeed, from email to BBM, adding attachments, and formatting etc has all changed. Thats not a bad thing, but is yet another thing to get used to. It took me a while to realise that the options to attach, send image, format text etc, are all at the bottom of the message compose page, which is accessible by a long press on the space bar to make the keyboard disappear, or in BBM, swiping down from the text entry window. A little annoying that 2 native applications have different behaviours for removing the keyboard from the screen. Composing the message from the hub is pretty simple though, with a single press of the compose button at the bottom, you are neatly presented with the options from which you can compose a message, BBM, Text, Email, Twitter, LinkedIn. The clever thing here is that whichever option you choose, it does not need to launch the app. So a Facebook status will be sent from the hub directly, without having to first open Facebook. Same with Twitter and so on. Sounds a bit petty, but its one less action, and by not opening the app, you will not automatically repopulate the news feed either. Pretty nifty if you ask me.
Handling multiple messages through the hub, if you have text, email and BBM, as well as other notifications coming through, is seemless. Flicking in and out of each message rather than switching from app to app constantly. Im sure in some way this will also save on data use and battery too, not having 4 apps all running at the same time. The Hub certainly gets the thumbs up from me, now that I can use it how it was intended. Takes a while to get used to, but learning is worth it for sure.

Screen and icons
Blackberry has come under heavy criticism for its decision on the look of the screen with the app icons looking somewhat dated. Coming from an Android device, which without a doubt has the most configurable, customisable and freshest look, the Z10 screens do without a doubt look a little lame and dated. Beta if nothing else. But that said, you dont want fancy fonts on the keyboard of your PC do you? The appearance of a qwerty physical keyboard is uniform and functional, and its functional that I think Blackberry have gone for here. Dont judge a book by its cover so to speak, its what lays behind the icon that matters at the end of the day. Had Blackberry chosen to follow the trend and have 'pretty' icons, im sure Apple would have found some sort of patent infringement there, and a long court case would ensue. Instead this is very unique, very original, and most of all practical. And indeed, what lays behind the icons is nothing short of beauty. Smooth apps, with great interaction, and for me, I could not ask for more.
That said, I am not a huge app lover. There may be millions available, but I am happy with just a small fistful of apps on my Blackberry.

Apps
Now speaking of apps, this is where things get a little itchy for me. At the launch Thornsten cleverly said apps like Skype, Whatsapp etc were 'committed' to Blackberry10. I can tell you now, at this point, as committed as they are, they are NOT yet available. Which is a little disappointing, its not like QNX and BB10 is a surprise or anything, so something tells me these were late decisions. However there are others too, which have not yet announced if they will be coming to BB10.
Spotify, EyeEm, Google Maps.. 3 examples of apps I do actually find helpful to have on my Blackberry, none of which are available, and some which may never be available. We have heard so much about how Android apps port over with ease to BB10, so why are these apps not there yet? I subscribe to Spotify, so am keen to know if I will get it back on my Blackberry or not. And Whatsapp is great for staying in touch with non BB users. Its not a great app, laggy to say the least, but its handy for the occasional hi message. For now, I will have to rely on my good old fashioned SMS messages, of which I have unlimited. Thats a relief.
One other app I NEED to have back is BeBuzz or similar. A flashing red LED just doesnt do it for me. I need my colours back. Someone please port over a decent app for this ASAP!

Summary
So now I am getting used to the Z10, everything is fitting into place. Happy with the camera, but will never be as instant to use as my trusty 9700 and 9900. Software is a delight, BB10 really is a change of direction and hopefully fortune for Blackberry. The Hub, simply brilliant concept which works well in the real world, once you get used to how it functions.
Its just seeing how this battery will pan out, and getting a few more mainstream non business focused apps out there for the end user, and asap.

PS...

Dear Blackberry, (and EE)
I am STILL not impressed by the lack of accessories with the Z10. For a new device on the market I was really hoping to get something to slip the handset into. For now I will have to use one of the funky socks for the iPod.
Once I get a chance I shall accessorize with some new headphones and a decent case. Although the battery cover flip case for the Galaxy range would be ace for the Z10 *wink wink

Right thats me done, thanks for reading, and I shall report back with more next time there is something to tell.

In the meantime be sure to check out the camera test blog. More camera tests will follow shortly with different subject matter and lighting conditions.

Z10 Camera test against Galaxy S2

First impressions of the Z10