[buu511]

So this is my first day with the Z10 after using ios for the past years. I also have an ipad and a macair. So I am fully committed to the Apple world. But I am always ready to try new interesting technology if I think it has a chance to beat my current product (iphone 5).

I will make a list of pros and cons which I will update over time. I will use the z10 exclusively for the next days/weeks.

I didn't get the z10 unprepared. I watched a ton of videos and read about it a lot. That's what got me interested in it. Also I got bored of ios.

Hardware impression:
I find the phone to be good looking. A little too big for my taste but at least it's smaller than all the flagship android or w8 phones.
The iphone design is more appealing to me but the z10 is better than the Samsung stuff to me. The rubber back has its advantages over the slippery iphone back too.

Day 1 pros/cons:

Pros:
Hub - really amazing to have one inbox for everything and being able to quickly reply within it without opening any app.

Keyboard - while I have only been using it for one day and it's still learning my vocabulary, it is already performing better than any other virtual keyboard out there. I often type in English and German (I am german) and the z10 automatically detects the language I am trying to use. Also the word suggestions on top of the letters are amazing, especially for one handed typing. Overall the keyboard is a huge plus compared to apple's shifty one.

Notification led - I have always envied BlackBerry users for the led. Such a nice way of informing someone about a new message. Will never understand why no one else has this function. And it will be even more useful once apps can run in the background and I can use an led app to apply colors to the different messages.

Touch gesture navigation - this works really well for me. After only one day I feel comfortable using it and it's a pleasure to peek to the hub or send an app to the multitasking Window. Not really having to leave your app whole writing a short reply in the hub is so much better than what ios has to offer.

Lte - the z10 offers all Lte frequencies used in Germany while the iphone only supports T-Mobile and only in the cities.

Cons:

30 days of email - I can only have email from the last 30 days on it and I can't even search for more on the server. I cannot understand this oversight by BlackBerry. They are supposed to be the best for business customers.

Lack of physical mute button - that's one big plus on the iphone. There is a dedicated mute switch I can toggle without having to look at the screen and in standby. I wish holding down the lower volume button in standby would do the same for the BlackBerry. I don't like having to go past the lock screen to toggle my profile.

Camera - while it's a decent cam it's nowhere near close to the one of the iphone 5. Especially under low light conditions. And the iphone cam ain't even the best in the market. Having to install a separate camera app to silence the sound when taking a picture is a huge problem since I cannot open that app as quickly as the native camera app from the lock screen. Every other brand gives the option to turn the sound off. Why does BlackBerry have to be old school here.

Birthdays from contacts not im calender - why is there no option to get a calender entry for your birthdays. I'd like to be reminded on a birthday. There is also no app that can do that as far as I have seen.

Apps - this has been said so often that I am not gonna go into too much detail here. Obviously a brand new platform can't compete with something like ios in the app department. What I really miss though is a better map app, a decent navigation app, an app for online banking and apps about the german Bundesliga.


Day 1 conclusion:

I am still enjoying my new toy and looking forward to more. Can the z10 replace my trusty iphone 5 with all it's unique functions like airplay, icloud and its massive app selection? Has the Apple experience sucked me in so much that it's too painful to give up? Android nor Windows 8 could. The z10 has been more promising so far so the verdict is still out on that one.

Ok that's it for today. I will update this post as the days pass.

Also remember those are my very subjective views. Don't feel offended if say bad things about the z10. But I think my thoughts can be helpful for other people thinking about a switch to BlackBerry.

Looking forward to comments on my thoughts of course.

If there are any grammatical mistakes it's because of the z10 keyboard not because I'm german


--------------------------------------UPDATE-----------------------------------------

Day 4

So I have been using the BB exclusively for the last couple of days and will continue to do so for awhile. The list of pros remain the same. I am still in love with the hub, peek, flow and multitasking. I will have to add a few more negative points though. But before I get into that a few words about the Battery.

Battery: Before I tell you how long it lasted I'll explain my usage behavior. Bluetooth, NFC, Gestures on Lockscreen are all OFF. Screen brightness is set to 30%. I have turned Wifi and LTE on. 90% of the day the Z10 is connected via Wifi. I use the Z10 to type a lot of whatsapp messages during the day, I also visit a few websites and apps during the day. During the evening I have played around a lot with settings for 1-2 hours. But the Z10 also sits around unused for 2-3 hours sometimes. So I guess pretty average usage. Yesterday was the first time it lasted a complete day from 9:00 until 24:00 for me. I think that is pretty similar to my iPhone 5, which is quite good. Today I will try the same but with the lockscreen gestures activated because it is very unpractical to press the hardware on switch and then swipe up from the bottom. Really takes away from the smooth touch experience. I will report how much battery that feature drains soon.

So as I have said, I discovered a few new minor problems:

iCloud integration - While I am happy that it works at all, I discovered an annoying bug. Creating new contacts works just fine, they get synced to my iCloud and all my other devices. But editing any contact that I have not created on the BB won't sync up. Same the other way around. If I try to edit a contact (created on BB) with my iPad, it won't sync those changes with the cloud. This is a really strange behavior and I found one other post about the same issue. I don't think apple could fix this on their end, so I'll try to reach out for the BB support.

Calendar - the Z10 calendar is very powerful and much more sophisticated than iCal on the iPhone 5. But iCal as one advantage when it comes to quickly creating an entry. I just go to the day I want the entry on, then press and hold my finger over the time I want the entry at. It automatically creates an entry of 1 hour and prompts me to enter the name and details. After that I can resize the entry box quickly with my fingers to create the right length of the event. If you have never done it that way it might sound complicated but it is so much faster. Obviously BB10 can't copy that behavior since a long press brings up the side menu. This is nothing big really, just made me realize that iOS has some neat features too. UPDATE ON THIS ISSUE ON DAY 5!!

Text editing - this has been really frustrating for me. Selecting text to copy and paste or using the magnifier to put the cursor at the right spot to edit a text is not working out too well for me. Sometimes the magnifier appears, sometimes I hold too long and the side bar comes out. No matter how much I practice it it is just not working reliable. It also positions the magnifier in the middle of your finger, so you can't really see the cursor because it is hidden under your finger. I make no mistakes editing on iOS, a long press brings up the magnifier glass which lets me put the cursor where I want it. Or if I let the magnifier go I get the option to select all or parts of it.

Those are my new discoveries. As always I am happy if you got any information that helps me solve those little problems. Overall I still enjoy using the BB and will continue to do so. Maybe I get lucky and a new software update comes out soon that fixes some of my problems.


-------------------------------------------UPDATE-------------------------------------------

Day 6

Battery - so yesterday I enabled gestures while in standby again to make it easier to unlock the phone. It did not have any negative effect on my battery life at all. It again lasted the whole day. Today though I am at 15% after 10 hours. I spent 8 hours of those 10 without WIFI in a 1-2 signal strength LTE area. So with a weak signal and no WIFI available the battery goes down dramatically fast. My friend with his iPhone 5 went home with 60%. Obviously this is no scientific test but I do think that the iPhone 5 battery life is overall stronger.

Calendar - I have to reevaluate my earlier opinion about this. I found out that a single short click on a time creates an entry. I can then move it around. Also a double click in week view on a certain day, brings me to day view for that particular day. So I can say that I am happy with the calendar now. What I noticed though that if people accept my calendar invites won't show on my Z10 (even if that invited person uses an older BB).... that is pretty annoying since it used to work fine with my iPhone.

Facebook integration - I like how facebook is integrated nicely into the hub but chat messages come in very late .... they get pushed to my iPhone right away and the Z10 sometimes takes 20+ minutes to show them. Pretty useless for chatting.

EDIT: The Update on the FB app didn't help my issue at all.

Alarm Clock - So I discovered a bug with the alarm clock. Last night I went to the lockscreen and pulled down the night mode / alarm clock. After setting a time I went to sleep. Sadly the Alarm never went off. I tested it a few more times and it never goes off. Somehow it never goes off if I set my Z10 into the sleep mode via lockscreen.

EDIT: A couple of reboots later that problem seems to have vanished!

Alright that's it for today, waiting for comments


----------------------------------------FINAL-UPDATE-----------------------------------------



So I have been using the Z10 exclusively for about 2 weeks now and it is about time to make a decision wether to keep it or go back to my iphone 5.

Conclusion: The Z10 is a very solid phone, I still prefer the size and premium quality of the iPhone but the Z10 is a good looking device. What makes it special though is the OS. BB OS 10 really got me hooked. I came from a perfectly working apple ecosystem that left almost nothing to be desired. But the HUB, FLOW, Active Frames and the keyboard of OS 10 got me thinking again. I fell in love with the way the OS works so much that I could ignore all the little problems I mentioned in my comparisons. Using the Z10 I lost so many important features of my nicely working apple system and my giant app selection. I didn't care though.

Now I wish I could finish my conclusion with a happy end. Telling you that I gave up on the iPhone and kept the Z10 for a brighter future. Instead I have to tell you that the Z10 is going back to amazon and I will revert back to the iPhone. The sad thing about it is that there is only one single reason responsible for my decision against the Z10. A real deal breaker for me. While I can live with only 30 days of email on the device, I cannot live without a way to remotely search my IMAP server for older email. To give you an example: I save important email to separate imap folders now and then. Like travel information or anything regarding my university. On the Z10 I can't get access to any of those since it won't display any email older than 30 days and it won't let me search the server either. Yes I could probably use the browser and login to my icloud to search for older email. But I don't want to, not even for a short while, in case that oversight gets fixed. Being able to remotely search your email server is such a basic smartphone feature that I expect it from any device or any platform. Especially from BB who is supposed to be the best device for such tasks. I am also not interested in any workarounds. I want it to work the way it is supposed to be.
Now you might say that BB will surely fix that, probably in their next update. I don't know when that update will come, I don't know if it will just fix the 30 day limit or if it will also take care of the crucial server search. Reading up on some of the Playbook disasters where such expected updates never came, I decided that the risk is too high. I will send the device back and follow its news closely in the future. Once this issue has been taking care of I will most likely be back on some OS 10 device. Until then the iPhone 5 is not a bad option.

[TimJohnSmith]

Thanks for this post of your opinion. I look forward to reading more each day.

Posted via CB10

[aha]

First......

Edit: 2nd... TJS, you stole my thunder

[Camelhmpz]

I agree with most of your cons, I dont have my Verizon phone yet so I can't make conclusions on the camera, feel of the device, etc. I have seen awesome pics posted however, there are way more user settings to adjust with the Z10 vs iPhone. However I do understand being an early adopter of the platform will have app drawbacks and some quirks to work out. If BlackBerry stays committed to advertising and updating/fixing things users request I will be happy.

Two of the cons you point out, the "mute button" and "30 day email", both are fixable. The suggestion you stated about holding the volume down key would be perfect. However I would prefer like my storm had, a sound profile clickable screen icon that let you choose numerous "sound profiles" for different settings.

I rarely EVER get on a PC anymore to email, so beings able to recall something from more than 30 days is important in my business.

I wasn't aware of the birthdays on the calendar issue, I kinda figured that would have been a given too.

Either way, I am excited to switch from my iPhone to a BlackBerry again, however I will miss my numerous banking apps, I am not sure how long the stigma of BlackBerry will last in the US for me to get them. I think the larger size, and keyboard, with real multitasking apps is going to be awesome. Only time will tell if we can at least pick up some steam to garner more support from the 'top' apps and US corporations.

PS. Glad you found the CrackBerry app, this will be the first I install!

[nhanken]

I must say that I really admire you for doing some research before buying a Z10, most of the iphone users whom I know always seem to refuse trying another phone and always think Apple invented everything.

I must admit that there should be a way to mute the camera shutter sound. It can get annoying especially during lectures or wanting to snap a picture while in a church or temple.

As for apps, you are right BB 10 is still in its infantry so it'll be exciting as the amount of apps will keep pouring in.

I have only used BlackBerry and Android phones and I am glad to be back to BlackBerry; really love intuitive gestures and the keyboard. The only thing I've never used an iphone is due to the fact that everything has to go through iTunes; I just like to drag and drop without installing anything else.

I hope you will like the Z10 as days go by. I'm still learning new things about mine even though I've been using it for more than half a month lol. I often try to swipe up, left and right on my Samsung galaxy note 10.1 tablet =p




Posted via CB10

[wolf_359]

Honest review, thanks for that. Isn't the button between the volume buttons a physical mute?

[Duffman19]

Good concise unbiased review. Look forward to future pro cons

Now I wonder if op will get flamed by people who take any negativity as a personal insult.

Posted via CB10 from my BlackBerry zed one zero

[bighap]

Cons:

Lack of physical mute button - that's one big plus on the iphone. There is a dedicated mute switch I can toggle without having to look at the screen and in standby. I wish holding down the lower volume button in standby would do the same for the BlackBerry. I don't like having to go last the lock screen to toggle my profile.

There was a bug that allowed you to adjust the volume of the phone while locked using the volume rocker. Keep hitting volume down. You can also unlock it and swipe down from the top of the screen to bring up a menu where you can turn off notifications. Much quicker than digging in the options.

[bighap]

Honest review, thanks for that. Isn't the button between the volume buttons a physical mute?

It is used for muting and playing music only. Holding it will activate voice control.

[sid744]

It would also be interesting to hear your opinion on the battery life. Since the os update that was released a few weeks ago my battery life has been outstanding compared to my bold. I have always been a BlackBerry user so am not sure how the z10 battery life compares to an iphone. Certainly compared to previous BlackBerrys the 14 hour life I am getting now is remarkable.

And as others have stated a wonderful honest review of z10 agree with all you have said.

Posted via CB10

[jeffreytoronto]

It is used for muting and playing music only. Holding it will activate voice control.

Also pressing middle button on home calls mutes the call.


Posted via CB10

[trynacu2]

Nice review. Look forward to reading more.

[zerobelow]

Woah, 30 days of email? I just did some web searching, and saw other complaints of this. It seems to not be provider specific.

I regularly search email history, and have email threads that span much longer than 30 days. 30 days is ridiculous! I usually have 6+ months of messages on my 9930. Today, I referred to at least 3 messages from December...

I was already leary about losing the push mail notifications (BIS), and now this...

[SDTRMG]

So this is my first day with the Z10 after using ios for the past years. I also have an ipad and a macair. So I am fully committed to the Apple world. But I am always ready to try new interesting technology if I think it has a chance to beat my current product (iphone 5).

I will make a list of pros and cons which I will update over time. I will use the z10 exclusively for the next days/weeks.

I didn't get the z10 unprepared. I watched a ton of videos and read about it a lot. That's what got me interested in it. Also I got bored of ios.

Hardware impression:
I find the phone to be good looking. A little too big for my taste but at least it's smaller than all the flagship android or w8 phones.
The iphone design is more appealing to me but the z10 is better than the Samsung stuff to me. The rubber back has its advantages over the slippery iphone back too.

Day 1 pros/cons:

Pros:
Hub - really amazing to have one inbox for everything and being able to quickly reply within it without opening any app.

Keyboard - while I have only been using it for one day and it's still learning my vocabulary, it is already performing better than any other virtual keyboard out there. I often type in English and German (I am german) and the z10 automatically detects the language I am trying to use. Also the word suggestions on top of the letters are amazing, especially for one handed typing. Overall the keyboard is a huge plus compared to apple's shifty one.

Notification led - I have always envied BlackBerry users for the led. Such a nice way of informing someone about a new message. Will never understand why no one else has this function. And it will be even more useful once apps can run in the background and I can use an led app to apply colors to the different messages.

Touch gesture navigation - this works really well for me. After only one day I feel comfortable using it and it's a pleasure to peek to the hub or send an app to the multitasking Window. Not really having to leave your app whole writing a short reply in the hub is so much better than what ios has to offer.

Lte - the z10 offers all Lte frequencies used in Germany while the iphone only supports T-Mobile and only in the cities.

Cons:

30 days of email - I can only have email from the last 30 days on it and I can't even search for more on the server. I cannot understand this oversight by BlackBerry. They are supposed to the best for business customers.

Lack of physical mute button - that's one big plus on the iphone. There is a dedicated mute switch I can toggle without having to look at the screen and in standby. I wish holding down the lower volume button in standby would do the same for the BlackBerry. I don't like having to go last the lock screen to toggle my profile.

Camera - while it's a decent cam it's nowhere near close to the one of the iphone 5. Especially under low light conditions. And the iphone cam ain't even the best in the market. Having to install a separate camera app to silence the sound when taking a picture is a huge problem since I cannot open that app as quickly as the native camera app from the lock screen. Every other brand gives the option to turn the sound off. Why does BlackBerry have to be old school here.

Birthdays from contacts not im calender - why is there no option to get a calender entry for your birthdays. I'd like to be reminded on a birthday. There is also no app that can do that as far as I have seen.

Apps - this has been said so often that I am not gonna go into too much detail here. Obviously a brand new platform can't compete with something like ios in the app department. What I really miss though is a better map app, a decent navigation app, an app for online banking and apps about the german Bundesliga.


Day 1 conclusion:

I am still enjoying my new toy and looking forward to more. Can the z10 replace my trusty iphone 5 with all it's unique functions like airplay, icloud and its massive app selection? Has the Apple experience sucked me in so much that it's too painful to give up? Android nor Windows 8 could. The z10 has been more promising so far so the verdict is still out on that one.

Ok that's it for today. I will update this post as the days pass.

Also remember those are my very subjective views. Don't feel offended if say bad things about the z10. But I think my thoughts can be helpful for other people thinking about a switch to BlackBerry.

Looking forward to comments on my thoughts of course.

If there are any grammatical mistakes it's because of the z10 keyboard not because I'm german

Posted via CB10

Just like you I'm an pro apple user (2 MBPS, ipad, 3 ipod, 2 apple tvs n an imac.

I have had the same experience as you for the most part and can say I learn new things on the z10 everyday that justify my switch from the iPhone 5.

Your post was a good read and I hope you come to the same conclusion as me and make the z10 your main device.

Airplay is addressed by DNLA

I was on the fence about how I'd get info from icloud to my z10, but icloud was replaced by (or more used with) Box, which works great on Mac, ipad and the z10. Basically whatever document, file, photo, video or picture you on it, it'll be available on every device with box installed.



Posted via CB10

[Mercifuldeath]

Seems like Bb abandoned all that they were good at. Not sure why the 30 day email restriction or that you can't delete emails on device only but not server. No excuse. Its also stupid that the app does a dumb animation every time it opens. Slows down the whole process.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[katesbb]

Notification led - I have always envied BlackBerry users for the led. Such a nice way of informing someone about a new message. Will never understand why no one else has this function.

Most androids have it too

[MidnightWatcher]

Woah, 30 days of email? I just did some web searching, and saw other complaints of this. It seems to not be provider specific.

I regularly search email history, and have email threads that span much longer than 30 days. 30 days is ridiculous! I usually have 6+ months of messages on my 9930. Today, I referred to at least 3 messages from December...

I was already leary about losing the push mail notifications (BIS), and now this...

I believe that this is going to be addressed in a future BB10 update, hopefully the next one.


Posted via CB10

[scorepion]

Thanks for the review.

Regarding the 30 day limit for mails, I believe that is for the initial sync I believe, so 3 days after your initial sync you would have 33 days of mail? Anybody correct me if I'm wrong?

I can search remotely for mails on the server through eas though, and it's quite fast as well

Posted via CB10

[Kriilin Namek]

Good level headed cogent review! I think the camera shutter sound always being on is a legal requirement in Canada, to prevent you from secretly photographing someone. I'm not 100% sure though.

[WTForce]

The camera shutter click is required for some important reason that I can't think of.

This is probably one of the best reviews and comparison that I have seen so far.

[southlander]

thank you. good balanced review. all us blackberry fans (or most) know the iphone is better in some respects. thanks for acknowledging that the z10 has some innovations as well.

Sent from my BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps using Tapatalk 2

[Bdot-1]

The camera shutter click is by law... In Canada a phone camera must be audible by the default so that perverts aren't using it for the wrong reasons.

Posted via CB10

[RubberChicken76]

Thanks for taking the time to do this! I look forward to hearing more in the upcoming days!

[mathking606]

Michael Clewley has announced that more than 30 days of email is coming in the spring update and nice write up.

[SourBB]

Excellent post, if the Z10 has garnered your attention I wonder as to how many others have tested the Z10 waters? I will be reading your updates, thanks for the all the insight as a BB user debating to upgrade to a Z10 or to an iPhone 5.