My dearest trackpad, old friend, and great companion.
You came into my life in 2009, replacing my trackball, and making so much sense. An optical device replacing a physical ball that was oh so prone to getting clogged up when using the phone with greasy fingers or dirty hands. The way you reflected sunlight with that beautiful purple glow. Functioning with or without gloves, in all conditions, you changed the way I used my Blackberry forever.
Being able to zip around the screen with ease, selecting text, and accurately placing the pointer over the smallest of links, your accuracy was super. No more stuttering and spluttering across the screen as the trackball registered, then didn't, then did......
As first people doubted your ability to do what the faithful trackball could, like the move from a mouse with a ball to an optical mouse, its a big leap of faith for some. But the package the 8520 offered, complete with you, made it worth that leap of faith. After months of becoming best friends, you made your way onto the 9700 which just had to be mine.
As time went on it seemed like trackpad and Blackberry were a match made in heaven, but then this happened.... That's right, you know what I'm talking about.. YOU! You left me!
The first new handset to appear without you was the Z10, and of course it made perfect sense that you were not there, its a touchscreen after all. But then rumours of the Q10 appeared, and you were no where to be seen. They told us we would be OK without you, that things had moved on, we had changed and grown apart, but I wasn't so sure. When the day came when it was time for the Q10 to come into my life I was worried, would I cope?
So a week after getting my hands on the new love of my life, I thought it only fair to write you a letter to tell you how I am getting on without you, and to be honest, most of the time I don't think about you too much. But from time to time, there are those moment when I remember how you felt to use, and how easily we did some things together. Selecting text in long emails, selecting multiple messages to delete or move, and all those delicate and intimate things that only you could do.
Blackberry have given us options to move on from you, and I have to say I think I'm falling in love all over again, but I cant deny you were an important part of my life, and I will always remember you, and occasionally pine for you.
Thank you for everything you did for me, and all the fun times we had together.
PS for those a little worried, this is just a light hearted entry, and I have not lost the plot.... I lost that a LONG time ago!
Showing posts with label touchscreen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label touchscreen. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Monday, May 6, 2013
Phone porn!
Just a few snaps of the sexy new BlackBerry Q10.
That's right, slow evening, but I liked how the pictures came out..
Taken on my BlackBerry Z10 haha
Regards
Michael
Sent from my BlackBerry Q10
Michael
Sent from my BlackBerry Q10
Thursday, February 7, 2013
So here goes...
With the ultimate test of this blackberry z10, can I manage a decent and meaningful email or on without losing the will to live with the touchscreen?
Well let's see.
I have been meaning to do this since I got the Z10 but wanted to wait until I was comfortable with it so it got a fair chance, and today is that day.
So far so good, I'm sitting on a train for my usual commute, and doing what I usually would do, passing the time by writing my thoughts down. First impressions its not doing too bad. My typing accuracy is a little off to say the least but the keyboard is being very forgiving and correcting a lot of my mistakes which suits me fine. Is it slower, that's the main question for me, and the answer is simple, yes it's slower.
For someone like me that spends a lot of time blogging or emailing I have to admit it is a little frustrating, but I have got a lot further into this blog than I ever have before with any other touchscreen.
If I'm honest I would love to be viewed clicking away on my trusty qwerty right now, there is no doubt. As I go on using the delete and backspace is getting a little annoying, but there are whole paragraphs that go without fault, so maybe this is still just down to me and my fat thumbs. To be fair let's go with that for now.
All in all, very impressive to say the least. And flick words are nice for the larger longer words. The word prediction is pretty good too, but I find at the moment the tense of the suggests words are wrong. Seems to be improving though.
So I will leave it there for now, here ends my test, and im pleased to say BlackBerry Z10 you have passed.
Regards
Michael Snasdell
Michael Snasdell
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
An update on my Z10, day to day use.
Its coming up for a week now since I started using the Z10 as my main day to day handset, and retired my 9900 for good. A true leap of faith by my standards having been a loyal and heavy physical keyboard user for so long now. But that decision was helped along as soon as I laid thumbs on the delightful Z10 touchscreen keyboard. Filling me with confidence that this could really work out well, and maybe the days of physical keyboard were really over.
The first 3 days I used the Z10 I was off work, Friday and the weekend, so use was casual, I was cycling the battery a few times to get a true picture of what it could do on a full charge, and not venturing out too much. Just a simple sit on the side until it flashed level of use.
A few irritations were found, and are on going, which I shall come back to in a moment, but for now lets look at the main situation. Daily usage levels.
For me, without even having to look at it closely, I already know that my use of the new handset is far lower than how much I would have been on the 9900. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is simple. Its a touch screen. Regardless of how good the screen is, its winter here in London, and using the touchscreen, with confidence is just not possible with gloves on. Yes I could wear my gloves that are for using with touchscreens, but I am a creature of habit and prefer wearing the gloves I like, rather than the gloves I NEED to use to be able to use my phone. Walking too and from the station, waiting on the platform etc, I just don't use the phone in the same way. I'm sure as the weather warms up this part of it will change.
Then there are the other reasons, which I can actually tie in with my gripes and irritations. So here goes.
The Hub. As great as it is, with the integration of apps such as Facebook and Twitter into it, it is seriously flawed at this stage. The only Twitter notifications that come in are direct messages or mentions, which kind of makes sense as The Hub is about YOUR messages and communications. However for a big Twitter user, you need to keep the main app open and refresh your feeds. Gone are the days when you will receive notification that there are new tweets to read.
As for Facebook, it seems a little hit and miss right now, you will get a few notifications through about comments and mentions, but then it stops. Quite annoying, as when you go into apps the FB icon is showing the 'splat' on it identifying that there is new activity on the account.
I am generally a bit of a social whore, using the old Social Feeds app to update BBM, Facebook and Twitter at the same time with all sorts of news feeds that I get in from Sky News app (not available) and Twitter, which we know doesn't populate my Hub now. Needless to say I am more a social misfit now, and have hardly used any social sites. Possibly not a bad thing, but has filled me with a little feeling of loneliness lol.
Lets move on before I sound too desperate for attention.
Notifications.
Stripped back to basics, and a single sound per notification type (email, BBM, twitter etc) and a simple red flashing LED. For me as I have said in previous reviews, the whole selling point of a Blackberry to me has always been the ability to know what or who is contacting me without ever needing to pick the phone up. Different sounds for each email account, and social feed. As well as BBM etc. Different colours and combination's of flashes. But alas, its all no more. Instead I am stuck with a vague notification that something on my Blackberry Z10 wants my attention. Might be an email, but no idea which account its from. Hmmm, this really needs sorting out, as I know I am far from the only person missing having BeBuzz on my Blackberry.
Same with the sounds, all the settings for different profiles are a mess, with silent being set up as default still with audible notifications, and all the other settings within being a bit hit and miss in how they will make the phone behave. For something as fundamental as the notifications, something has gone wrong here, and needs sorting out asap. Hell I was almost expecting the Z10 on BB10 to some with some sort of in-built LED colour controlling software. Instead there isn't even a 3rd part app on the market for it yet.
Notifications... Disappointed so far.
Apps
Other favourite apps that have made it to the market however have not failed to impress, with things such as BeWeather, you can see a lot of time has gone into making this app silky smooth. A pleasure to check the weather, and all view expandable at a single swipe. Amazingly this is from the same company who make BeBuzz. So much attention to one app, and seemingly nothing on another. Shame, but I hope something is in the pipeline here. The multi pane view on BeWeather is delicious, animations are on par with Android and iOS, and I don't have a bad word to say about the app. In fact its my saviour right now with regards to apps, and gives me hope that the rest that are missing will be as wonderful as this when they come to Blackberry World, soon I hope.
WhatsApp, EyeEm, and Spotify all still missing and no sign of them coming any time soon, if at all at this rate.
Google Chat has taken WhatsApp's place in my 3rd party IM app at the moment, and I am happy to say that its a nice interface on the Z10, much nicer than it was on the OS7 phones. Its notifications DO populate in the Hub which is a relief and a reprieve for the Hub in this respect.
I would really love to see Spotify appear soon, I have seen comments that it can be side loaded and runs OK , so surely the official app cant be that far away. I hope!
Battery
Now that I am back to my usual day to day weekday routine, there are no big issues with the battery life. Yes it still eats away a lot quicker than the 9900 did, and a huge amount more than older devices, but plugged in for a bit here and there, it manages a day without an issue. It certainly seems to hang in a lot longer than it did for its first few charging cycles anyway. In the world of touchscreen phones, it fairs OK really. I will survive with it, that much is sure.
Keyboard
As I have already mentioned, in certain situations the keyboard is simply not usable, gloves on is a no no, as is the case with most touchscreen phones, although I must admit the Galaxy S2 does very well here and is pretty usable with gloves on. Even unlocking the Z10 with gloves on is a bit hit and miss to be fair. So my quick out the pocket, glance, and reply interactions are over with. In general though the user experience is very good. The predictive words are good, and the spelling corrections are usually spot on. I am however yet to do an extensive email, blog or Facebook update yet.
For BBM conversations and brief exchanges though it does a great job, and as it gets to know me a little better, the offerings of words on the frets for flicking is getting a lot better too. Even profanity is taken care of there, which is f***in relief !
All that said, I still think I would be more productive, interactive and use the device more with a physical keyboard. I stand by my original statement from years ago that there is simply NO replacement for a physical QWERTY keyboard. So I welcome the Q10 with open arms. Cant wait to give one a spin, and think the happy compromise will be found with one for sure. Simple things like entering silly words like 'whaaaaaaat' and 'eeeeew' and all the other rubbish I pad my conversations out with, are a chore on a device that assumes you have made a typo of some sort.
In the hand
A lot of thought has clearly gone into the design and feel of the Z10 in the hand. Everyone who has had a look at my handset has commented how it feels in the hand, decent weighted, secure and good grip on it. That got me wondering about why handset manufacturers go to so much effort to make ergonomic devices, when so many people go out and put them in cases of all shapes and sizes.
But back on track, as advertised, the Z10 performs well in the hand, and one handed messaging is indeed very simple to do, with the thumb reaching across the screen with ease. For those of us with medium to large hands anyway. The word suggestions on the frets of course make this even easier.
For games and video viewing again its fit for purpose, and does a great job of handling them. In short, gripping the handset in most situations is not an issue, and only with gloves on does the handset feel a little at risk of slipping. Shape and materials are a great match.
So I shall leave it there for now. Camera testing continues and I continue to be pleased with what it throws out. The latest example of which is sleepy Tuvaaq all curled up. This is using the flash in a dark room. And I shall also add on there my little macro shot of my Voodoo Doll Ninja, just because its a fun picture.
So back to summing up. Here are my hopes for the road ahead for my Blackberry experience.
In general the device is fine, but lacking in apps. This isn't Blackberry's fault of course, and we can only hope that they hear our calls and get a move on. Something tells me that things will be a little better by the time the Z10 and BB10 devices reach the USA and UAE markets, and not the smaller markets of the UK and other such places. By the time it launches in the US, if the apps are not up to par with the competition I would predict that BB will once again start to lose its edge. Only the die hards waiting on the Q10 are going to be the ones who can save them if this happens. The qwerty market is a pretty captive one all things considered, so this would explain why Blackberry decided to launch the contender first, and back it up with the dead cert later.
A Q10 will most definitely come into my possession, but which becomes my primary handset is yet to be seem. Overall the Z10 is a superb handset and I love owning it. I know a few people who have had handset failures, and a couple who have sent them back already, mainly because of the lack of apps.
Lets see how the story pans out from here on in, and see if the sideloaders become the unofficial saviour of Blackberry, as jailbreaking iPhones is to Apple.
PS.. My one major gripe.
A glitch I keep getting with the calender. Interested to hear if anyone has the same problem.
Going into calender and NOT selecting a calender at the top from the drop down. Add an appointment title and location, then selecting a time to start the appointment... The calender simply crashes and closes.
The two ways around this are, first select a calender to add the appointment to, which is easy enough, but pointless if I have my default set up already.
Or the other is to save the appointment with no times, then re-open and 'edit' the appointment to add times.
Either way, its something that needs sorting out, as the calender, like the email, is a fundamental part of the whole ethos of the device, so not functioning properly is a pain. Also doesn't seem to sync to Google too well either. Contacts do, calender doesn't.
Some of this may be settings, so I will take a closer look when time allows.
The first 3 days I used the Z10 I was off work, Friday and the weekend, so use was casual, I was cycling the battery a few times to get a true picture of what it could do on a full charge, and not venturing out too much. Just a simple sit on the side until it flashed level of use.
A few irritations were found, and are on going, which I shall come back to in a moment, but for now lets look at the main situation. Daily usage levels.
For me, without even having to look at it closely, I already know that my use of the new handset is far lower than how much I would have been on the 9900. There are a number of reasons for this, but the main one is simple. Its a touch screen. Regardless of how good the screen is, its winter here in London, and using the touchscreen, with confidence is just not possible with gloves on. Yes I could wear my gloves that are for using with touchscreens, but I am a creature of habit and prefer wearing the gloves I like, rather than the gloves I NEED to use to be able to use my phone. Walking too and from the station, waiting on the platform etc, I just don't use the phone in the same way. I'm sure as the weather warms up this part of it will change.
Then there are the other reasons, which I can actually tie in with my gripes and irritations. So here goes.
The Hub. As great as it is, with the integration of apps such as Facebook and Twitter into it, it is seriously flawed at this stage. The only Twitter notifications that come in are direct messages or mentions, which kind of makes sense as The Hub is about YOUR messages and communications. However for a big Twitter user, you need to keep the main app open and refresh your feeds. Gone are the days when you will receive notification that there are new tweets to read.
As for Facebook, it seems a little hit and miss right now, you will get a few notifications through about comments and mentions, but then it stops. Quite annoying, as when you go into apps the FB icon is showing the 'splat' on it identifying that there is new activity on the account.
I am generally a bit of a social whore, using the old Social Feeds app to update BBM, Facebook and Twitter at the same time with all sorts of news feeds that I get in from Sky News app (not available) and Twitter, which we know doesn't populate my Hub now. Needless to say I am more a social misfit now, and have hardly used any social sites. Possibly not a bad thing, but has filled me with a little feeling of loneliness lol.
Lets move on before I sound too desperate for attention.
Notifications.
Stripped back to basics, and a single sound per notification type (email, BBM, twitter etc) and a simple red flashing LED. For me as I have said in previous reviews, the whole selling point of a Blackberry to me has always been the ability to know what or who is contacting me without ever needing to pick the phone up. Different sounds for each email account, and social feed. As well as BBM etc. Different colours and combination's of flashes. But alas, its all no more. Instead I am stuck with a vague notification that something on my Blackberry Z10 wants my attention. Might be an email, but no idea which account its from. Hmmm, this really needs sorting out, as I know I am far from the only person missing having BeBuzz on my Blackberry.
Same with the sounds, all the settings for different profiles are a mess, with silent being set up as default still with audible notifications, and all the other settings within being a bit hit and miss in how they will make the phone behave. For something as fundamental as the notifications, something has gone wrong here, and needs sorting out asap. Hell I was almost expecting the Z10 on BB10 to some with some sort of in-built LED colour controlling software. Instead there isn't even a 3rd part app on the market for it yet.
Notifications... Disappointed so far.
Apps
Other favourite apps that have made it to the market however have not failed to impress, with things such as BeWeather, you can see a lot of time has gone into making this app silky smooth. A pleasure to check the weather, and all view expandable at a single swipe. Amazingly this is from the same company who make BeBuzz. So much attention to one app, and seemingly nothing on another. Shame, but I hope something is in the pipeline here. The multi pane view on BeWeather is delicious, animations are on par with Android and iOS, and I don't have a bad word to say about the app. In fact its my saviour right now with regards to apps, and gives me hope that the rest that are missing will be as wonderful as this when they come to Blackberry World, soon I hope.
WhatsApp, EyeEm, and Spotify all still missing and no sign of them coming any time soon, if at all at this rate.
Google Chat has taken WhatsApp's place in my 3rd party IM app at the moment, and I am happy to say that its a nice interface on the Z10, much nicer than it was on the OS7 phones. Its notifications DO populate in the Hub which is a relief and a reprieve for the Hub in this respect.
I would really love to see Spotify appear soon, I have seen comments that it can be side loaded and runs OK , so surely the official app cant be that far away. I hope!
Battery
Now that I am back to my usual day to day weekday routine, there are no big issues with the battery life. Yes it still eats away a lot quicker than the 9900 did, and a huge amount more than older devices, but plugged in for a bit here and there, it manages a day without an issue. It certainly seems to hang in a lot longer than it did for its first few charging cycles anyway. In the world of touchscreen phones, it fairs OK really. I will survive with it, that much is sure.
Keyboard
As I have already mentioned, in certain situations the keyboard is simply not usable, gloves on is a no no, as is the case with most touchscreen phones, although I must admit the Galaxy S2 does very well here and is pretty usable with gloves on. Even unlocking the Z10 with gloves on is a bit hit and miss to be fair. So my quick out the pocket, glance, and reply interactions are over with. In general though the user experience is very good. The predictive words are good, and the spelling corrections are usually spot on. I am however yet to do an extensive email, blog or Facebook update yet.
For BBM conversations and brief exchanges though it does a great job, and as it gets to know me a little better, the offerings of words on the frets for flicking is getting a lot better too. Even profanity is taken care of there, which is f***in relief !
All that said, I still think I would be more productive, interactive and use the device more with a physical keyboard. I stand by my original statement from years ago that there is simply NO replacement for a physical QWERTY keyboard. So I welcome the Q10 with open arms. Cant wait to give one a spin, and think the happy compromise will be found with one for sure. Simple things like entering silly words like 'whaaaaaaat' and 'eeeeew' and all the other rubbish I pad my conversations out with, are a chore on a device that assumes you have made a typo of some sort.
In the hand
A lot of thought has clearly gone into the design and feel of the Z10 in the hand. Everyone who has had a look at my handset has commented how it feels in the hand, decent weighted, secure and good grip on it. That got me wondering about why handset manufacturers go to so much effort to make ergonomic devices, when so many people go out and put them in cases of all shapes and sizes.
But back on track, as advertised, the Z10 performs well in the hand, and one handed messaging is indeed very simple to do, with the thumb reaching across the screen with ease. For those of us with medium to large hands anyway. The word suggestions on the frets of course make this even easier.
For games and video viewing again its fit for purpose, and does a great job of handling them. In short, gripping the handset in most situations is not an issue, and only with gloves on does the handset feel a little at risk of slipping. Shape and materials are a great match.
So back to summing up. Here are my hopes for the road ahead for my Blackberry experience.
In general the device is fine, but lacking in apps. This isn't Blackberry's fault of course, and we can only hope that they hear our calls and get a move on. Something tells me that things will be a little better by the time the Z10 and BB10 devices reach the USA and UAE markets, and not the smaller markets of the UK and other such places. By the time it launches in the US, if the apps are not up to par with the competition I would predict that BB will once again start to lose its edge. Only the die hards waiting on the Q10 are going to be the ones who can save them if this happens. The qwerty market is a pretty captive one all things considered, so this would explain why Blackberry decided to launch the contender first, and back it up with the dead cert later.
A Q10 will most definitely come into my possession, but which becomes my primary handset is yet to be seem. Overall the Z10 is a superb handset and I love owning it. I know a few people who have had handset failures, and a couple who have sent them back already, mainly because of the lack of apps.
Lets see how the story pans out from here on in, and see if the sideloaders become the unofficial saviour of Blackberry, as jailbreaking iPhones is to Apple.
PS.. My one major gripe.
A glitch I keep getting with the calender. Interested to hear if anyone has the same problem.
Going into calender and NOT selecting a calender at the top from the drop down. Add an appointment title and location, then selecting a time to start the appointment... The calender simply crashes and closes.
The two ways around this are, first select a calender to add the appointment to, which is easy enough, but pointless if I have my default set up already.
Or the other is to save the appointment with no times, then re-open and 'edit' the appointment to add times.
Either way, its something that needs sorting out, as the calender, like the email, is a fundamental part of the whole ethos of the device, so not functioning properly is a pain. Also doesn't seem to sync to Google too well either. Contacts do, calender doesn't.
Some of this may be settings, so I will take a closer look when time allows.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Issues found with the Blackberry Z10, so far
This isn't a dig or a snipe, just an informative to Blackberry and anyone else who wants to know if there are any issues with the new OS and handset.
First issue is one I know is affecting other users, which is Twitter. Notifications come through fine for mentions and direct messages, but once deleted they will sporadically re-appear in the Hub. It is a reoccurring issue, and they just reappear whenever it suits. I have not yet found the trigger for it.
Then there is Facebook, notifications are a bit hit and miss at the moment, with the first few for a status coming through, then just stopping. The rest of the app seems to behave just fine, and super smooth. If you open the app rather than just relying on the Hub, the notifications are there. Which kind of detracts from the point of a unified Hub for notifications.
I'm sure both are going to be fixed and probably being looked into now.
The more serious one for me is the calender. When adding a new appointment, you open the calender, select add, then start entering the details. Title is fine, Location is fine, but as soon as you touch start time the calender app just closes, saving nothing. It does the same with the keyboard on or off the screen. To add a time, you have to save with a title and location only, re-open calender, and edit the appointment. Once in edit mode the fault does not reoccur.
To anyone who wants to mock and scoff, that's fine, especially with the calender it is a little embarrassing that its happening. I'm sure I will get a hard time about all the hype I have given the Z10, only for glitches to be found. But that's all they are, and the rest of the experience remains lovely.
A few follow up points, battery life still remains mediocre at best, and currently at the same level of use the S2 can outlast the Z10. Location services are off, NFC is off, Wifi remains on, strong 3G signal. Screen set to 30 second time out, and 50% brightness. Given that 4G is meant to be more power hungry, I'm glad at this stage that I remained on a 3G tariff.
First issue is one I know is affecting other users, which is Twitter. Notifications come through fine for mentions and direct messages, but once deleted they will sporadically re-appear in the Hub. It is a reoccurring issue, and they just reappear whenever it suits. I have not yet found the trigger for it.
Then there is Facebook, notifications are a bit hit and miss at the moment, with the first few for a status coming through, then just stopping. The rest of the app seems to behave just fine, and super smooth. If you open the app rather than just relying on the Hub, the notifications are there. Which kind of detracts from the point of a unified Hub for notifications.
I'm sure both are going to be fixed and probably being looked into now.
The more serious one for me is the calender. When adding a new appointment, you open the calender, select add, then start entering the details. Title is fine, Location is fine, but as soon as you touch start time the calender app just closes, saving nothing. It does the same with the keyboard on or off the screen. To add a time, you have to save with a title and location only, re-open calender, and edit the appointment. Once in edit mode the fault does not reoccur.
To anyone who wants to mock and scoff, that's fine, especially with the calender it is a little embarrassing that its happening. I'm sure I will get a hard time about all the hype I have given the Z10, only for glitches to be found. But that's all they are, and the rest of the experience remains lovely.
A few follow up points, battery life still remains mediocre at best, and currently at the same level of use the S2 can outlast the Z10. Location services are off, NFC is off, Wifi remains on, strong 3G signal. Screen set to 30 second time out, and 50% brightness. Given that 4G is meant to be more power hungry, I'm glad at this stage that I remained on a 3G tariff.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
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
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Blackberry Z10, BB10. First impressions
So its been almost 24 hours since my Z10 showed up, so I thought I would put down some thoughts onto screen and the WWW.
So where shall we start, how about at the beginning.
A call to Orange / EE on Thursday (release day) and some haggling later, I was happy I had got the best deal I could for a new phone to market etc, and it was on its way. However waiting 18 hours was going to be a nightmare, but somehow I coped lol.
Yesterday morning the courier showed up and handed me a bag with a little box in it, as pictured. Restraining myself from excitement I went back inside and started unpacking.
Retail pack / unboxing
This is where the review really starts for me, and I'm going to be as honest as a Crackberry fan possibly can be, in order to help others form their own decisions. Opening the retail box it was all neatly packed up, presented first by a very clean looking BB Z10. So what goodies would lay beneath? Well to be brutally honest, not a whole lot. The usual instructions, USB lead and separate wall plug, Headphones, there they were, the latest variant. I shall come back to those in a moment. So what else was in there. its a touchscreen, and the Playbook came with a micro fibre cloth..... Nope, no cloth in the box. Thankfully all Blackberry's have come with cases, so surely there was one..... Errm nope, no case of any sort either.
Now I know it sounds like I'm being picky already, but as a long term consumer, and someone who has unpacked MANY Blackberry handsets in my time, and the Playbook, I was disappointed to say the least to see that the retail pack doesn't include any form of case, let alone even a wipe. I know this is a new beginning for Blackberry (formerly known as RIM), but to me its a punch on the nose. I have always liked the fact that the phone gets unpacked, device swapped and can safely snuggle up in its new OEM case. Oh well, im sure I will get over it, and go buy one (or three) instead.
Continuing to be fussy about things, lets look at what else was in the box. USB lead and wall plug for charging, no issues there, the micro end of the USB is a little tight but works fine. So onto the headphones. A few generations of handset back, even going back to my original 8320, Blackberry packaged some really nice headphones. Fit for purpose, good feel to them, practical, the whole package worked for me. The ones with the chrome accents on them, and the chrome button on the inline mic. Then alas they moved over to the plain black cheaper plastic feeling ones which have been around a while now. So when I knew there was a fresh start coming, I assumed the headphones would be replaced.... And they have been. Some how with EVEN cheaper feeling headphones, which look like something you would get with a £5.99 MP3 player from a tech fair. Audio quality bearable, build quality horrible, their future is at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.
So far we have a handset and retail box which is approx £450, with no case, or cloth and terrible headphones. Just to add to things missing, there is also no form of SD memory card in there either. Now I know the carrier / network is also responsible in what goes into these packages, so to Orange and to Blackberry... Seriously? Is there anything else you could have scrimped on? One of the 3 would have been nice.
So lets get to the handset, anyone that found this blog through a websearch will be waiting for this part I'm sure.
The handset / Getting started
OK so lets get this baby up and running. Immediately out of the box the Z10 feels great in the hand. Having heard that it was far from the thinnest handset on the market (9mm I believe), and being the owner of a Samsung Galaxy S2, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it lived up to the hype, and the feel in the hand is just right, decent weight, yet noticeably present, balanced, and the shape and grip on the device for my hands certainly is great. There is hope yet after a bad start. Time to get the micro SIM in, no SD card at this time as there isnt one, and the battery in. The SD card can go in at any time as its hot swappable, so no battery removal needed. Popping the back cover off is simple enough, and experience with the S2 gave me the confidence to keep pulling even though the cover flexes slightly as you pry it off. Replacing is the same, a simple place and pop, and the job is done.
SIM in, battery in, 9900 backed up to Blackberry Protect, im ready to go. Watching the Z10 start up was somewhat reminiscent of watching a Playbook start, very clean and pretty but still takes a while. Having recently purchased a Nokia 100 handset for emergencies, I remember how far we have come from pressing the power button, waiting for the annoying Nokia tune, then its ready to go. Anyway, its a smartphone, these things take time these days, right? Once started I registered the SIM, watched the life drain from my 9900 as the G turned into a g, and the Z10 sprung into life.
Now at this point I would usually log into my carriers BB service, check the swap had taken place for my BIS and that it had the new PIN in there, validate my emails, et voila.... But NO !
Houston, we have a problem. All the right things were showing on the screen for the BIS, everything live and valid, but no sign of any email accounts on my Z10. A reboot should do the trick....nope! Ah I know what I haven't done, Blackberry ID, I have not signed into the Z10 with my ID yet, so lets do that now. All signed in, and nothing. Still no contacts, email accounts. Obviously I would just need to go to good old Blackberry Protect and choose my last restore point from my 9900. Errm, nope! For some reason Protect on the Z10 has no real function to it at all, no backup or restore, just the location on or off setting.
Great, so how am I going to do this? I guess I will have to plug it into the laptop and do it the old fashioned way. Now this is where it gets interesting. Blackberry replaced Desktop Manager with Blackberry Link. A new start was needed because as they rightfully point out, there is not one single line of script from the OS7 that makes it over to BB10, so start fresh. So I ran a backup on the 9900 on DM, which for some reason would not complete because of a file it could not read. Apparently it cant skip it, so it just hangs. So I ran a custom backup and took only the bare essentials like contacts and calender. Plugging the Z10 in and finding the restore or swap function was fun, took a while as Link seems to like to focus on the media side of things.
Come on guys, this is a new start for everyone here, no one is moving from BB10 to another BB10, we are all going from at least OS6 I would guess. Make the transition a little easier? Why doesn't Protect handle the swap like it used to be able to, why has Protect lost its back up function. So many questions at this stage and SO frustrating. Swapping on the BIS would usually purge all email accounts to my device... But it didn't.
At this stage I have to thank Google, the owners of Android for coming to the rescue. Because I use gmail fully and all my calenders and contacts are attached to that account for my S2, when I manually added my Gmail account to the Z10 it finally pulled down all my contacts and calender events. Phew, what a relief!
Right, so finally after an hour of messing about, I kid you not, I can finally start to relax a bit and get to know the Z10 and BB10.
The Device
This is where the fun begins, and maybe things will start to get a little better for the Z10.
Once up and running, getting to know the Z10 is really quite easy, especially if you have followed the developer videos, sneek peeks and other media online that has shown and explained the gesture controls for the device. Having used a Playbook and being used to gestures with no buttons is probably a distinct advantage at this stage. I wont go into too much about how each gesture works, thats more for the video bloggers to do, but instead I will focus on the over all experience.
At this early stage with a brand new device and OS, there is no previous knowledge that is going to help you, its pretty much new from the ground up. So a long time Blackberry user has no advantage getting to grips with BB10 than any other handset user. Obviously once the Q10 comes to our shelves the bias will turn slightly towards those with experience of the Blackberry QWERTY keyboards. What I am trying to say is its a learning curve for all, but not too painful at all. There are a few key gestures to get to grips with, waking the device, peek to the hub, and returning to the apps screen. Once those are mastered they become second nature quite quickly, and you are away.
Keyboard
Let me skim through a few points about the Z10 and using it. First up I have start with the keyboard. Honestly, WOW! I have read so many reviews saying its the best touchscreen keyboard experience out there, so natural to use, almost comparable to the physical keyboard of the Bold etc. But honestly, it really is great to use. I regularly use the S2 keyboard, the Playbook, have a lot of experience with the iPad, and the iPod touch 5th Gen, and have to say the Z10 with BB10 does indeed have the best touchscreen I have used to date, period!
Putting to one side the flick capabilities of its predictive word suggestion, the accuracy and usability of the Z10 keyboard is really very nice. If I was to be told I would not be able to use a physical keyboard every again, for the first time I would just be annoyed and not petrified. Then include the flick, and spell check, and you realise just where all the focus and research has gone with the BB10 project, and just how worth it it has been. The reassuring click of the physical keyboard is missing, and that is something that is strange getting used to, so I look forwards to getting my hands on a Q10 to get that feeling back. But for now, I can happily speed along through long text entries, without getting frustrated by the 3rd line, as I would with the S2 and Playbook. An iPhone, Apple argument made that point nicely for me last night. 70 replies or so into the epic Facebook discussion I realised that I was knocking out long replies on a device I had only been using for 5 hours or so, and wasn't thinking twice about it.
So the keyboard gets 2 thumbs up from me, if you can catch them not in use for a moment.
Gestures
As mentioned there are a few key gestures which enable you to interact with the device fully, flicking the screen up to get back to your active panes, and back and forth from the hub to the apps is all pretty straight forward. There have been points made about what state the hub is in when you return to it from an app with peek, should it been the main hub screen or the last message you were in. In reality its no hardship. If you left a BBM open for example, and are returning to the hub for a notification, at worst its one extra swipe to the right to get back to the main hub past the BBM. Switching between multiple conversations takes a little bit of getting used to though. Yesterday morning with 10+ BBM convo's going, and a constant update from Facebook and Twitter, while getting to grips with the handset, that was a challenge to say the least. But its one that I came out of victorious.
Apps
This is said to be the make or break point for BB10, and hearing there were 70,000 to launch with was interesting. But as most critics have said, 69,000 would be junk, like the majority of apps in a Google Play, and App Store. So it was always going to be the main apps that counted. There are a few apps on the 9900 that I have grown used to having, such as multi coloured LED notifications from BeBuzz, and Whatsapp to stay in touch with non BB users. Sadly neither of these are to be found right now, but I was sure I had heard Whatsapp WOULD be available after all the initial concerns. So to anyone I speak to on Whatsapp, for now, text or email me if you need me lol.
As for the rest, there are some good apps out there for all categories, including some very good games. Not that I play games of course. But its only fair to say that there are some key players that are indeed missing, and thats something I am hoping to see change very soon. For such a long build up to such an important product, its sad that some developers have chosen to abstain. Like any mobile platform, it is only as good as the app developers make it. If they dont produce, the platform slowly sinks. Apple being first to the market with the true smart phone beat the crowd and single handedly invented the modern day app developer. With such a huge user base, you can see why they focus on iOS and Droid apps. Lets just hope that the ease in which some Droid apps can be ported over to BB10 proves a success, and that more and more port their apps too. For now I reserve my judgement, I will still be using my S2 for a long time to come, so am not without apps. But the BB apps are getting there, slowly.
Battery
Well its removable, thats a good start. A good start because like all smartphones these days, no matter what claims the manufacturers make, the battery life isnt the same as my trusty Nokia 100. Understandably so, they do so much more, and we interact with them so much these days, no tiny battery could possibly give us great usage and still hold out. We the consumer demand certain things of manufacturers, such as weight and size we are happy to hold and carry, and this dictates what we get as the end users. I am currently running my first full cycle with the battery, so will reserve judgement for a week or so until it has cycled a few times. Worst case scenario, I will pop a spare in my man-bag for when I am out all day. Never too far from a micro USB plug these days though eh.
Camera
Oh the camera. Coming from the 9700 to the 9900 I was devastated to see they had thrown a fixed focus, poor quality camera into the 9900. For 18 months I have been disappointed with most pictures coming out of the 9900, with the occasional gem being worth sharing with @blackberry themselves for #BlackBerryPhoto. And I am grateful that some even got retweeted or featured on their blog. But it was never a great camera.
So on to the Z10 camera. The early reviews have been quite harsh about it, poor low light, grainy shots, faded colours etc, so I prepared myself for disappointment when I finally got to use it.
First up, any pictures I take with the Z10 are instantly compared by thinking, is it as good as my S2 camera. The S2 has a fantastic camera on it, and this was going to be what the Z10 got put up against. Later on today I will be going out to do a side by side test with them both.
But straight off the bat, wow, its actually a really good camera in the Z10. Good colours in natural light, amazing depth of field for close up shots. Gets crazy close for macro. And who can forget TimeShift. Is it as good as it says... hell yes ! Simple to use, great results. As are all the other features on there, like burst mode, something I didn't even know it had. It can just rattle off shot after shot. And yes I know other smart phones have this, its just pleasant to see on a Blackberry.
The rest
By the rest I mean email use, BBM , notifications and all the other things Blackberry are known for. So here we go.
BBM, yet another great step forwards with this application, and given all its features and function it now has, screen sharing, video calls, voice calls, broadcasts, joint conversations etc, it has just stepped its game up yet again. BBM certainly goes from strength to strength.
Email, to be honest I haven't sent too many as its the weekend, but its function is comparable to that of OS7, smooth, easy to use and manage, and pleasant to work with. Add to it the new functions and how it integrates into other apps like calender and BBM, and it remains one of the most powerful email platforms out there.
The Hub, the unified inbox as its known to some. This takes some getting used to in the way it functions, and can get a little crazy at times when incoming notifications are going a bit wild. Lots of notifications coming in can confuse you for a bit, and not having that simple option to mass highlight in a single stroke of a trackpad takes a bit of getting used to. But once you learn to mass select and prune back whats happening in the Hub, its all ok.
Notifications, once again all the sounds have changed, as have the options of how you manage notifications. Gone are the OS6 days where you could select from a simple long list of sounds, now it has suggested tones, or you can browse for more. gets quite tedious when setting up 5 email accounts, Facebook, Twitter, BBM, you get the gist! Also with the lack of a decent LED notification app at the moment, I am stuck with a red LED, which feels like part of me has been removed. I dont want to know I just have a notification, especially if I missed the sound. I want to know WHAT it is, specifically. Give my BeBuzz or something comparable soon pleaser Blackberry, before I go mad!
There is plenty more to talk about but this will do for now, so I will leave you with my closing summary, and some pics both of the device and from it.
In closing I have to say BB10 and the Z10 have really changed the image of Blackberry. As well as changing from being RIM, they have also changed from being a satisfactory handset and OS maker, to something fully fledged and ready to take flight. Its not ready to fly with the eagles just yet, but its up and out there, and ready to start growing for sure.
Was all the hype worth it? Mixed emotions there, my reaction is tainted still by the battle to get everything set up and running. This isnt something im used to as a Blackberry user, and found myself frustrated. So I am hoping that I simply did something terribly wrong, and that I missed a trick somewhere along the line.. Swapping from a totally different device like an iPhone I would accept issues, but from Blackberry to Blackberry, there should have been more certainty in what was happening. The BIS login and Protect services that I am used to dealing with 90% of it didnt, and im not comfortable with that.
But the hype was so worth it when it comes to the OS, how it flows, and the effortless operation of the device once up and running. I have no doubt that I will be using a Z10 for a while yet, at least until I give the Q10 a damn good going over. The keyboard is a triumph for BB, and the key component that restores my confidence in using a BB touchscreen.
Worth the wait, YES, plain and simple.
More to follow as it get to know my Z10 more.
So where shall we start, how about at the beginning.
A call to Orange / EE on Thursday (release day) and some haggling later, I was happy I had got the best deal I could for a new phone to market etc, and it was on its way. However waiting 18 hours was going to be a nightmare, but somehow I coped lol.
Yesterday morning the courier showed up and handed me a bag with a little box in it, as pictured. Restraining myself from excitement I went back inside and started unpacking.
Retail pack / unboxing
This is where the review really starts for me, and I'm going to be as honest as a Crackberry fan possibly can be, in order to help others form their own decisions. Opening the retail box it was all neatly packed up, presented first by a very clean looking BB Z10. So what goodies would lay beneath? Well to be brutally honest, not a whole lot. The usual instructions, USB lead and separate wall plug, Headphones, there they were, the latest variant. I shall come back to those in a moment. So what else was in there. its a touchscreen, and the Playbook came with a micro fibre cloth..... Nope, no cloth in the box. Thankfully all Blackberry's have come with cases, so surely there was one..... Errm nope, no case of any sort either.
Now I know it sounds like I'm being picky already, but as a long term consumer, and someone who has unpacked MANY Blackberry handsets in my time, and the Playbook, I was disappointed to say the least to see that the retail pack doesn't include any form of case, let alone even a wipe. I know this is a new beginning for Blackberry (formerly known as RIM), but to me its a punch on the nose. I have always liked the fact that the phone gets unpacked, device swapped and can safely snuggle up in its new OEM case. Oh well, im sure I will get over it, and go buy one (or three) instead.
Continuing to be fussy about things, lets look at what else was in the box. USB lead and wall plug for charging, no issues there, the micro end of the USB is a little tight but works fine. So onto the headphones. A few generations of handset back, even going back to my original 8320, Blackberry packaged some really nice headphones. Fit for purpose, good feel to them, practical, the whole package worked for me. The ones with the chrome accents on them, and the chrome button on the inline mic. Then alas they moved over to the plain black cheaper plastic feeling ones which have been around a while now. So when I knew there was a fresh start coming, I assumed the headphones would be replaced.... And they have been. Some how with EVEN cheaper feeling headphones, which look like something you would get with a £5.99 MP3 player from a tech fair. Audio quality bearable, build quality horrible, their future is at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.
So far we have a handset and retail box which is approx £450, with no case, or cloth and terrible headphones. Just to add to things missing, there is also no form of SD memory card in there either. Now I know the carrier / network is also responsible in what goes into these packages, so to Orange and to Blackberry... Seriously? Is there anything else you could have scrimped on? One of the 3 would have been nice.
So lets get to the handset, anyone that found this blog through a websearch will be waiting for this part I'm sure.
The handset / Getting started
OK so lets get this baby up and running. Immediately out of the box the Z10 feels great in the hand. Having heard that it was far from the thinnest handset on the market (9mm I believe), and being the owner of a Samsung Galaxy S2, I wasn't sure what to expect. But it lived up to the hype, and the feel in the hand is just right, decent weight, yet noticeably present, balanced, and the shape and grip on the device for my hands certainly is great. There is hope yet after a bad start. Time to get the micro SIM in, no SD card at this time as there isnt one, and the battery in. The SD card can go in at any time as its hot swappable, so no battery removal needed. Popping the back cover off is simple enough, and experience with the S2 gave me the confidence to keep pulling even though the cover flexes slightly as you pry it off. Replacing is the same, a simple place and pop, and the job is done.
SIM in, battery in, 9900 backed up to Blackberry Protect, im ready to go. Watching the Z10 start up was somewhat reminiscent of watching a Playbook start, very clean and pretty but still takes a while. Having recently purchased a Nokia 100 handset for emergencies, I remember how far we have come from pressing the power button, waiting for the annoying Nokia tune, then its ready to go. Anyway, its a smartphone, these things take time these days, right? Once started I registered the SIM, watched the life drain from my 9900 as the G turned into a g, and the Z10 sprung into life.
Now at this point I would usually log into my carriers BB service, check the swap had taken place for my BIS and that it had the new PIN in there, validate my emails, et voila.... But NO !
Houston, we have a problem. All the right things were showing on the screen for the BIS, everything live and valid, but no sign of any email accounts on my Z10. A reboot should do the trick....nope! Ah I know what I haven't done, Blackberry ID, I have not signed into the Z10 with my ID yet, so lets do that now. All signed in, and nothing. Still no contacts, email accounts. Obviously I would just need to go to good old Blackberry Protect and choose my last restore point from my 9900. Errm, nope! For some reason Protect on the Z10 has no real function to it at all, no backup or restore, just the location on or off setting.
Great, so how am I going to do this? I guess I will have to plug it into the laptop and do it the old fashioned way. Now this is where it gets interesting. Blackberry replaced Desktop Manager with Blackberry Link. A new start was needed because as they rightfully point out, there is not one single line of script from the OS7 that makes it over to BB10, so start fresh. So I ran a backup on the 9900 on DM, which for some reason would not complete because of a file it could not read. Apparently it cant skip it, so it just hangs. So I ran a custom backup and took only the bare essentials like contacts and calender. Plugging the Z10 in and finding the restore or swap function was fun, took a while as Link seems to like to focus on the media side of things.
Come on guys, this is a new start for everyone here, no one is moving from BB10 to another BB10, we are all going from at least OS6 I would guess. Make the transition a little easier? Why doesn't Protect handle the swap like it used to be able to, why has Protect lost its back up function. So many questions at this stage and SO frustrating. Swapping on the BIS would usually purge all email accounts to my device... But it didn't.
At this stage I have to thank Google, the owners of Android for coming to the rescue. Because I use gmail fully and all my calenders and contacts are attached to that account for my S2, when I manually added my Gmail account to the Z10 it finally pulled down all my contacts and calender events. Phew, what a relief!
Right, so finally after an hour of messing about, I kid you not, I can finally start to relax a bit and get to know the Z10 and BB10.
The Device
This is where the fun begins, and maybe things will start to get a little better for the Z10.
Once up and running, getting to know the Z10 is really quite easy, especially if you have followed the developer videos, sneek peeks and other media online that has shown and explained the gesture controls for the device. Having used a Playbook and being used to gestures with no buttons is probably a distinct advantage at this stage. I wont go into too much about how each gesture works, thats more for the video bloggers to do, but instead I will focus on the over all experience.
At this early stage with a brand new device and OS, there is no previous knowledge that is going to help you, its pretty much new from the ground up. So a long time Blackberry user has no advantage getting to grips with BB10 than any other handset user. Obviously once the Q10 comes to our shelves the bias will turn slightly towards those with experience of the Blackberry QWERTY keyboards. What I am trying to say is its a learning curve for all, but not too painful at all. There are a few key gestures to get to grips with, waking the device, peek to the hub, and returning to the apps screen. Once those are mastered they become second nature quite quickly, and you are away.
Keyboard
Let me skim through a few points about the Z10 and using it. First up I have start with the keyboard. Honestly, WOW! I have read so many reviews saying its the best touchscreen keyboard experience out there, so natural to use, almost comparable to the physical keyboard of the Bold etc. But honestly, it really is great to use. I regularly use the S2 keyboard, the Playbook, have a lot of experience with the iPad, and the iPod touch 5th Gen, and have to say the Z10 with BB10 does indeed have the best touchscreen I have used to date, period!
Putting to one side the flick capabilities of its predictive word suggestion, the accuracy and usability of the Z10 keyboard is really very nice. If I was to be told I would not be able to use a physical keyboard every again, for the first time I would just be annoyed and not petrified. Then include the flick, and spell check, and you realise just where all the focus and research has gone with the BB10 project, and just how worth it it has been. The reassuring click of the physical keyboard is missing, and that is something that is strange getting used to, so I look forwards to getting my hands on a Q10 to get that feeling back. But for now, I can happily speed along through long text entries, without getting frustrated by the 3rd line, as I would with the S2 and Playbook. An iPhone, Apple argument made that point nicely for me last night. 70 replies or so into the epic Facebook discussion I realised that I was knocking out long replies on a device I had only been using for 5 hours or so, and wasn't thinking twice about it.
So the keyboard gets 2 thumbs up from me, if you can catch them not in use for a moment.
Gestures
As mentioned there are a few key gestures which enable you to interact with the device fully, flicking the screen up to get back to your active panes, and back and forth from the hub to the apps is all pretty straight forward. There have been points made about what state the hub is in when you return to it from an app with peek, should it been the main hub screen or the last message you were in. In reality its no hardship. If you left a BBM open for example, and are returning to the hub for a notification, at worst its one extra swipe to the right to get back to the main hub past the BBM. Switching between multiple conversations takes a little bit of getting used to though. Yesterday morning with 10+ BBM convo's going, and a constant update from Facebook and Twitter, while getting to grips with the handset, that was a challenge to say the least. But its one that I came out of victorious.
Apps
This is said to be the make or break point for BB10, and hearing there were 70,000 to launch with was interesting. But as most critics have said, 69,000 would be junk, like the majority of apps in a Google Play, and App Store. So it was always going to be the main apps that counted. There are a few apps on the 9900 that I have grown used to having, such as multi coloured LED notifications from BeBuzz, and Whatsapp to stay in touch with non BB users. Sadly neither of these are to be found right now, but I was sure I had heard Whatsapp WOULD be available after all the initial concerns. So to anyone I speak to on Whatsapp, for now, text or email me if you need me lol.
As for the rest, there are some good apps out there for all categories, including some very good games. Not that I play games of course. But its only fair to say that there are some key players that are indeed missing, and thats something I am hoping to see change very soon. For such a long build up to such an important product, its sad that some developers have chosen to abstain. Like any mobile platform, it is only as good as the app developers make it. If they dont produce, the platform slowly sinks. Apple being first to the market with the true smart phone beat the crowd and single handedly invented the modern day app developer. With such a huge user base, you can see why they focus on iOS and Droid apps. Lets just hope that the ease in which some Droid apps can be ported over to BB10 proves a success, and that more and more port their apps too. For now I reserve my judgement, I will still be using my S2 for a long time to come, so am not without apps. But the BB apps are getting there, slowly.
Battery
Well its removable, thats a good start. A good start because like all smartphones these days, no matter what claims the manufacturers make, the battery life isnt the same as my trusty Nokia 100. Understandably so, they do so much more, and we interact with them so much these days, no tiny battery could possibly give us great usage and still hold out. We the consumer demand certain things of manufacturers, such as weight and size we are happy to hold and carry, and this dictates what we get as the end users. I am currently running my first full cycle with the battery, so will reserve judgement for a week or so until it has cycled a few times. Worst case scenario, I will pop a spare in my man-bag for when I am out all day. Never too far from a micro USB plug these days though eh.
Camera
Oh the camera. Coming from the 9700 to the 9900 I was devastated to see they had thrown a fixed focus, poor quality camera into the 9900. For 18 months I have been disappointed with most pictures coming out of the 9900, with the occasional gem being worth sharing with @blackberry themselves for #BlackBerryPhoto. And I am grateful that some even got retweeted or featured on their blog. But it was never a great camera.
So on to the Z10 camera. The early reviews have been quite harsh about it, poor low light, grainy shots, faded colours etc, so I prepared myself for disappointment when I finally got to use it.
First up, any pictures I take with the Z10 are instantly compared by thinking, is it as good as my S2 camera. The S2 has a fantastic camera on it, and this was going to be what the Z10 got put up against. Later on today I will be going out to do a side by side test with them both.
But straight off the bat, wow, its actually a really good camera in the Z10. Good colours in natural light, amazing depth of field for close up shots. Gets crazy close for macro. And who can forget TimeShift. Is it as good as it says... hell yes ! Simple to use, great results. As are all the other features on there, like burst mode, something I didn't even know it had. It can just rattle off shot after shot. And yes I know other smart phones have this, its just pleasant to see on a Blackberry.
The rest
By the rest I mean email use, BBM , notifications and all the other things Blackberry are known for. So here we go.
BBM, yet another great step forwards with this application, and given all its features and function it now has, screen sharing, video calls, voice calls, broadcasts, joint conversations etc, it has just stepped its game up yet again. BBM certainly goes from strength to strength.
Email, to be honest I haven't sent too many as its the weekend, but its function is comparable to that of OS7, smooth, easy to use and manage, and pleasant to work with. Add to it the new functions and how it integrates into other apps like calender and BBM, and it remains one of the most powerful email platforms out there.
The Hub, the unified inbox as its known to some. This takes some getting used to in the way it functions, and can get a little crazy at times when incoming notifications are going a bit wild. Lots of notifications coming in can confuse you for a bit, and not having that simple option to mass highlight in a single stroke of a trackpad takes a bit of getting used to. But once you learn to mass select and prune back whats happening in the Hub, its all ok.
Notifications, once again all the sounds have changed, as have the options of how you manage notifications. Gone are the OS6 days where you could select from a simple long list of sounds, now it has suggested tones, or you can browse for more. gets quite tedious when setting up 5 email accounts, Facebook, Twitter, BBM, you get the gist! Also with the lack of a decent LED notification app at the moment, I am stuck with a red LED, which feels like part of me has been removed. I dont want to know I just have a notification, especially if I missed the sound. I want to know WHAT it is, specifically. Give my BeBuzz or something comparable soon pleaser Blackberry, before I go mad!
There is plenty more to talk about but this will do for now, so I will leave you with my closing summary, and some pics both of the device and from it.
In closing I have to say BB10 and the Z10 have really changed the image of Blackberry. As well as changing from being RIM, they have also changed from being a satisfactory handset and OS maker, to something fully fledged and ready to take flight. Its not ready to fly with the eagles just yet, but its up and out there, and ready to start growing for sure.
Was all the hype worth it? Mixed emotions there, my reaction is tainted still by the battle to get everything set up and running. This isnt something im used to as a Blackberry user, and found myself frustrated. So I am hoping that I simply did something terribly wrong, and that I missed a trick somewhere along the line.. Swapping from a totally different device like an iPhone I would accept issues, but from Blackberry to Blackberry, there should have been more certainty in what was happening. The BIS login and Protect services that I am used to dealing with 90% of it didnt, and im not comfortable with that.
But the hype was so worth it when it comes to the OS, how it flows, and the effortless operation of the device once up and running. I have no doubt that I will be using a Z10 for a while yet, at least until I give the Q10 a damn good going over. The keyboard is a triumph for BB, and the key component that restores my confidence in using a BB touchscreen.
Worth the wait, YES, plain and simple.
More to follow as it get to know my Z10 more.
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