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OK, so I've been holding out on writing on here until I finished with my phone, and the time has come to spread the gospel of awesome that is the Z10!
I got my phone on Friday, after I found out that my workplace was shut down because we lost power so I had the day off. Perfect? Not so... not when we were getting a snow-dump of epic proportions outside. Getting to the store was a mission and a half. I tried to contact my nearest store to see if they had any, but after 20 minutes on hold, I gave up and made the perilous journey to the mall. Sure enough, what is regularly a 10 to 15 minute drive, took about an hour... thank you goes to the idiots who don't know how to drive in snow and end up in ditches! I went in finally, and get to the store, and turns out that they were completely sold out (of course). So the girl, who apparently I knew from a long time ago and didn't recognize, told me that this particular store sold 90 devices on release day alone, and they can't keep any stock for long. I asked if she would call the nearest store and see if they had any and found one where they did!!! ONE white one. ONE only. So I asked that they set it aside, and they obliged. I was stoked.
Another hour on the road later, I get to the Bell store in question, and sure enough, there were people (about 4) looking to get their Z10's as well. So I talked to the very cute girl who had set my phone aside and we got my phone ready. Turned out that they had a $75-in-store credit, so my phone cost me only half of the $149.95 regular price on a 3 year term. Epic. As she was activating my phone, I asked her a bit about how the phone was selling (since I recalled reading a bash article about not even Canadians wanting the phone), and she said that on release day they sold about 100, and it turns out that the other people waiting to get their phones had come from all over town... the phone was sold-out city-wide and this was the last store to have any at all (they had only 6 black ones left and 4 people were waiting so i assume they sold out soon after); thus, I was getting the LAST WHITE Z10 in the whole city! Awesome! At least for that day anyway, who knows, but whatever. At that point, I just couldn't wait to get started with it!
I got home (I was off all day but I was on the road most of the time anyway because of the snow) and I un-boxed it immediately. Man it felt so right in my hand: so light and easy to grip (and no, that's not what she said). I started with the set-up and took a little while to get going with emails and stuff. I was reading how to do synching and how to transfer contacts and all that, before i even tried it on the phone so that I didn't screw it up. Seriously though, I feared for nothing... I set up my accounts (including email and all that) in 5 minutes. I spent more time reading and worrying than actually doing it. The software did it all for me. I tested an email to my gmail, and it got to my phone almost right away (10 second delay maybe). Contacts it pulled from Facebook, and the few that had no phone number, which was maybe about 5 or 6, i just looked up from my phone directory. After that I went through the usual wi-fi setups, desktop software installing, music transfer to my SD card, etc.
The next day I was ready to get going on making the phone my own. I started browsing for apps, and while Blackberry World doesn't have much yet, it did have some of the apps that I needed (sports, news, some games). In all, I spent about $25 in new apps through BB World (couple of them were friggin' expensive!), I downloaded a cloud client and set up the accounts with no problem, and I tested the music and video downloads: it was all money well-spent. All worked fantastic. I also set up a wallpaper that I was happy with, and got my Facebook, Twitter, and other social accounts going on the apps that come in the phone. I downloaded a ringtone app and now my Z10 rocks to the sounds of The Legend of Zelda (a violin medley) whenever anyone calls: it says I'm classy, but always ready for battle! On another note, I tested the camera and it works perfectly.... a bit tricky to touch the screen to focus and take photo at first but I need practice. I compared some night shots and the photos seriously look almost the same as my 12MP Sony Cybershot, so people complaining about the camera.... get real or get a DSLR. Unbelievable! I also tested the "Play On" feature (playing media wirelessly to my TV through an Xbox), and it was pretty cool. Finally, I set up Bridge on it and linked the Z10 to my Playbook. Beautiful.
On Sunday I began the herculean task (OK, I guess it really wasn't that hard, but it was time consuming) of getting Android apps sideloaded to the Z10. I had a bunch of APK files already that I had installed on my Playbook, so I started with some of those. For the record, all the APKs I use are legit and I discourage anyone from using pirate copies... Don't need Blackberry being accused of being THAT platform that allows for shenanigans. Anyway, thanks to this beauty of a website: PlayBook .apk to .bar converter I got them all converted into BAR files in no-time. Seriously, this is the BEST feature of BB10, hands down! People whose main complaint is apps (and that's the main complaint everywhere) need to know about this feature. I have everything on my phone now, it's epic. Still missing Instagram, Skype, and Netflix, but aside from those which are coming soon anyway (except for the Digitally Imported app, which is not coming at all... dammit!), I don't need anything else. I even got Flipboard on it, and I love it; syncs perfectly with my Twitter and Facebook accounts, etc. I even have the Google navigation going strong too. And talk about navigation, you know what rocks about this phone? Reception! I got signal without a hitch EVERYWHERE! I'm happy I don't have to worry about holding my phone in a particular way so I don't lose signal or drop calls, ahem!
OK, so now that it's all done, I find that my battery is not lasting me as long, but that's a given since I'm playing with the phone day and night, and I keep doing a lot of stuff on it (downloading, etc.) and I have every possible energy-saving feature turned off! Hahaha. Seriously, I knew this coming in.... in fact, part of the reason why I picked a Z10 over the iPhone was removable battery. I knew I would need a spare one, and it's on the way. Seriously people.... if you complain about your battery dying too soon, then get a spare! It's not rocket science. If a car is a gas guzzler, you can complain, but you still gotta spend money to re-fill it... constantly. Well, guess what? A phone is different: a battery is a one time purchase and you won't have any more issues!
Other things I have noticed: the speaker is pretty good and I haven't noticed any hiss or static. Love the lock screen. I keep mixing up my Playbook and Z10 gestures a lot, lol, but at least I'm not looking for a button that isn't there. Cascades is sweet, nothing like it, and so user-friendly. I love the hub. The keyboard (and I'm coming from a physical keyboard on my 9780) is beyond words. I never got a touch screen phone because I hated virtual keyboards, but the one on my Z10 is a joy to use. I couldn't use anything else now, astounding!
People have been asking me to show them my Z10 and they giggle when they play with the gestures! iPhone and Android users both just love the way it flows. Oh, and the Reader feature for the browser is underrated. I show it to everyone too!
All in all, this phone is amazing! Extremely happy with it. No complaints here, and if anything bothers me, I know it's things for which a fix is upcoming anyway (sound profile anyone?). In fact, this phone is a testament to what consumer choice and competition can do to positively influence the market: RIM (now BlackBerry) rested on their laurels and almost paid the ultimate price but in order to save their own butts they designed a magnificent piece of art. People will always complain, that's life, but people should complain after giving the device a chance... it does get better and sweeter. As someone said on a Telus review: "Innovation requires a partnership, the user and the maker have to be willing to change to achieve it."02-13-13 12:33 AM - I got off the 'plane from a holiday yesterday and stopped on the way from the airport to pick up new Z10.
I had to wait until the luggage was unpacked and the fire lit before I could sit down and unbox this beauty. It came activated so it didn't take long to get going. Played with it last night until I was falling asleep and then was back at it first thing this morning. I managed to get all data moved from my trusty Curve onto the new BB without too much trouble. So farI have to say that I am pleased. Full touch screen is going to take some getting used to. FB and Twitter set up. Next job is to pair my Blueparrott headset. Big decisions around what case to buy pending until I can get to a store and handle the merchandise. First impressions are very favourable.02-13-13 01:40 PM - I got mine on launch day in Vancouver. It's a beautiful device, first superphone for me, my last was a BB 9700.
Unfortunately I got one of the bum batteries, but that's being addressed in the forums and I'm shutting off unnecessary features to minimize battery drain. Once I'm finished experimenting, if I still have a problem I'll get my carrier to replace the battery. For a while I was panicking and thinking about returning the device, but thankfully the panic has passed. I'll likely get a second battery/charger as I spend a lot of time in the field away from my vehicle and can't afford to miss a communication.
First time using a touch screen - I love it!
I took some low light pics the night I got it - they were great.
I managed to get Blackberry Link working after about 4 attempts to download it, and I got my information transferred. Later Link caused my laptop to suffer the blue screen of death so I uninstalled it until BB puts out a stable version of it. I could see that it has great potential though.
I'm not a social media kinda guy, I just want it for business use, but that business involves a lot of documents and a lot of graphics, and the screen size makes viewing them a real pleasure. I'm looking forward to many years of jaw-dropping graphics.
Overall:
Device - 5/5
Battery - 1/5 LOL
***Edit
What a humbling experience a little bit of knowledge can be.
I've been whining about my Z10 battery drain problem in every thread that deals with the subject. I even returned one device and exchanged it for another in an attemp to find the 'magic battery' that would give me a chance at an 8 hour working day between charges. But no, I still could get only 4.5 to 6 hours before the dreaded 'red battery' warned of impending shut-down; and this with nearly everything shut down and very moderate use.
I was contemplating calling up my carrier and re-activating my trusty ole BB9700 while I put my Z10 away in a drawer until BB came out with a few updates that might possibly solve the problem.
In addition, I was having a relatively minor problem getting my exchange-based business email to shake hands with BB10, but with experimentation I found that my relatively unused gmail account was synching effortlessly. So as a work-around, I auto-forwarded my business emails to gmail in order for them to show up immediately on my Z10.
After a day of enjoying instantly forwarded emails on my Z10, it dawned on me last night that I could uninstall my exchange-based email account from my Z10 as I was getting them anyway via gmail. I did so, finished fully charging the Z10, and went to sleep at about 1:00am this morning with the device in bedside mode.
Imagine my surprise this morning when I woke up to find more than 90% battery remaining on my Z10! Imagine my further surprise as the battery drained down at a very slow rate during the rest of the day. And imagine my utter elation that it is now 8:30pm and my Z10 still has 40% battery left!!! 19.5 hours since I took it off the charger and still 40%... I'm smiling now!
Granted it wasn't a heavy day - a couple of dozen emails plus replies, half a dozen BBM messages, and approximately two hours on the phone... but still - 19.5 hours and 40% left!
Apparently my Z10 was previously searching diligently the entire time for the (faulty) connection with the exchange-based email account that it knew was planted in its guts, and the radio signals it was continuously sending out were causing the battery to heat up and it to lose charge at a very, very fast rate.
I'm now one happy camper now - and definitely looking forward to the world of jaw dropping features that the device is capable of, as well as the many innovations that are definitely coming our way as BB sends us updates on the OS, and the developers send us their apps.
So thanks to the posters on CrackBerry for leading me through the steep learning curve of how devices work, and thanks for all the helpful suggestions from various helpful posters... and somewhere I remember bristling a bit at suggestions from posters that there was nothing wrong with my device - that I had to be doing SOMETHING wrong. Well, it turns out I was... and dang it, does anybody know of anything that can make those crow feathers go down a little easier?
Last edited by DAY1000; 02-27-13 at 11:20 PM.
02-14-13 01:15 AM
The 'I got my Z10' thread
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