This started as a beautiful day. I woke up bright and early and hit my local AT&T store to pick up my new Q10. The salesperson never had an easier sale. I headed to work and played with my new prized possession whenever I could.
I used it for texting and personal emails and got used to the new gestures... my Bold 9900 sitting sadly in my desk drawer having served me so well. Towards the end of the day I decided it was time to get serious. I sent my IT guy an email asking for the ActiveSync settings to set up email on my new phone. I had been using the Outlook Web Access option on my 9900 but sadly that no longer exists with BB 10. He replied that they're not updating their BlackBerry server and will no longer support BB OS devices and definitely not BlackBerry 10 devices. Maybe I'm wrong but you don't need BES simply for an Exchange ActiveSync setup, right? I'm not a network engineer so I'm not sure.
Anyway, that was strike one. I was loving the keyboard and the swipe gestires were easy to get the hang of. I love this phone. Then I started going through my own "unboxing" even though AT&T had already taken it out to set it up obviously. I didn't like what I found. The box appeared to have been resealed. Then I noticed the power adapter wasn't in bubblewrap, it was just in the plastic wrap. The USB cable pouch also seemed a little too worn. I'm fairly certain I was sold a used device. I tweeted AT&T this evening and they replied telling me to exchange it. More on that in a minute.
Now on to this screen. It seems like the screen itself is a good display but this brightness, or rather the extreme lack thereof, is absolutely killing me. I don't have great eyes and the older I get the worse they get. My Bold 9900 on 10 is easily twice as bright as my Q10 on max. Automatically dimming or not, this is not acceptable. Let me decide. If I want to blow through my battery, that's my choice. I'm a big boy, I know how and when to charge my device. I also know how to plan so if I'm going to be away from power I'll pack a spare battery. I've read others say their screens are fine. I know it's mostly a personal preference but if my replacement is also this dim, I'm going to have to think twice about keeping it.
So I wrote this entire post on my beautifully engineered and built Q10. Don't get me wrong; I love this phone. I want to keep it but if I can't set up my work email (I'm working on that myself with one last piece of the puzzle to fill in tomorrow to see if it works) and if the screen is indeed this dim naturally, I'll probably have to go back to the Bold 9900. I don't want to but those qualms and the lack of Emoji in the SMS app are hurting. Yes, my family and friends and I love to use Emoji and my "all business" BlackBerry needs to be able to loosen its tie and join the fun with all the other phones! :) It's a fun phone. The gestures and movement keeps things fun but it's got a few more steps to take.
I'm going to try to stick it out, I think. Tomorrow is a big day in making that decision. Here's hoping the email trick works and the "actually new" Q10 replacement has a bit brighter screen. And here's hoping 10.2 comes soon and brings many improvements and resurrects some of the great features from BB OS 7.
Come on, BlackBerry, don't drive me or anyone else away! :)
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