[Pilchard]

I'm disappointed as there were absolutely no surprises. Also hearing the battery may not last past 6pm was a shocker. I will still have to get a Z10 though as I'm a hopeless Blackberry addict.

[EGerhardt]

I thought I was fairly clear... indenting didn't work:

Notification customization
Useful bedside mode
Free/busy time lookup in meeting invitations
BB Mobile Conferencing
The battery life looks pretty bad based on reviews
More difficult to manage mail the existing BBs (the strength of BB), e.g. selecting multiple messages.

Frankly speaking, the only reason I still use a BB is for some of the above because other platforms don't do them nearly as well. Without them, not sure what the driver to stay on BB is.

Which ones of these are 'critical functionality' ?

[southflguy]

I'm not disappointed with the device or the OS (we pretty much knew everything about this already). I'm disappointed about the U.S. launch. I know we aren't their bread and butter, but if you want to reboot your entire brand, the U.S. would seem to be important.

[EGerhardt]

sound/notification profiles i think he is referring to

Really? That's critical ? Like lacking it breaks the OS?

I get that it is an annoyance to some people, but critical? Come now.

[samadkins29]

Well how are blackberry launching elsewhere in the world and not in the US if they had the choice to get devices sold in the US tomorrow? Like you say, the devices are made, and they are going on sale in just under an hour here. They are good to go. So what possible non-carrier reason could they have for holding back in the US? Just to screw with you? Come on man.

Their is ZERO reason for the carriers to not want to sell the phone. RIM more than likely chose to send the production units to countries that have a strong BB reputation. Im currently with TMO, which means I get to pay retail. I dont know anyone who is going to pay $800 (close to $900 after tax here) for that phone. I was thinking a $599 price. Anyways, this is all speculation. Since they couldn't even give us a damn price at the launch event.

[RubberChicken76]

On the battery, Mobile Syrup said something interesting ... That battery life was slower at first due to syncing and then improved later after a day or two

Be interesting to get real world use impressions

[ErinnM]

I am not worried about the battery. I have a charger everywhere. Lol

[kbz1960]

If battery life is so bad maybe they should include a spare with a purchase.

[EGerhardt]

Their is ZERO reason for the carriers to not want to sell the phone. RIM more than likely chose to send the production units to countries that have a strong BB reputation. Im currently with TMO, which means I get to pay retail. I dont know anyone who is going to pay $800 (close to $900 after tax here) for that phone. I was thinking a $599 price. Anyways, this is all speculation. Since they couldn't even give us a damn price at the launch event.

You might think that, but the US carriers haven't been any where near as supportive or interested as carriers elsewhere. A couple of months ago Sprint said they might not even carry BB10. You think they were tripping over themselves to get devices on shelves? Where as from Europe, Vodafone and EE had execs featured in the launch. Which of those guys do think made certain they would be ready to sell on launch day? And it turns out the the UK gets phones first. Well what a shock, since the carriers played ball.

And pricing is a carrier thing too. And sim-free I've seen them advertised at �479 including 20% tax. So you should be looking at $600 before tax. Don't rage too hard, it's bad for your blood pressure.

[Seraphim101]

no playbook bb10 os upgrade! that sucks
might as well stick with apple, at least when they update their IOS software all mobile products can upgrade upon release

[EGerhardt]

no playbook bb10 os upgrade! that sucks
might as well stick with apple, at least when they update their IOS software all mobile products can upgrade upon release

Well release hasn't QUITE happened yet. Playbooks will be coming to BB10, just not this exact second.

[BBFanatic4Life]

I'll try to give a less "emotional" answer. A few big reasons for disappointment:

• In the U.S. the release date. They've said March. It may be late March. That makes it two months from now. They're showing a SuperBowl commercial in a few days; completely pointless.
• We expected (not based on rumor, based on actual quotes from RIM execs) surprises - big surprises - that went beyond the leaks. There were not. No features/functions we didn't know about.
• We actually lost critical functionality that we were used to and relied upon.
• Notification customization
• Useful bedside mode
• Free/busy time lookup in meeting invitations
• BB Mobile Conferencing
• The battery life looks pretty bad based on reviews
• The camera performance looks pretty bad based on reviews
• More difficult to manage mail the existing BBs (the strength of BB).
• ... and more

Very disappointing.

I agree that the release date was stupid and a bad move. Regardless of who is at fault it's a bad move. Having a Super Bowl ad seems very wasted. I too was very disappointed in the overall presentation. It was just a complete rehash of what has already been shown off. The only new things were renaming RIM to BlackBerry, finding out Skype and WhatsApp were going to be available and BBM video calling shown off. I was hoping for some wow features, something that blew the doors off the place but that never happened. To have a launch event held in 8 cities around the world and then have a presentation like that was a let down. To me it seems like just a waste.

I would have liked to have seen some amazing cool features, some apps shown off, accessories shown, specific launch dates for more countries. I've had the chance to use a dev alpha and really enjoyed the experience but I was left thinking there would be more to come. I do hope they come out with regular updates that fill in the holes.

As far as battery life I found it to be alright, of course I wasn't using LTE, but it was still better than my Samsung S3. I read over on N4BB that the Z10 uses Gorilla Glass, would be interested in finding confirmation on that one. Oh and the reviews I've read said the camera was actually quite good. Not as good as the Lumia 920 or iPhone 5 at low light pictures, but still good in normal every day shots. When I used the Dev Alpha I found the camera to be quite good and responsive.

The one thing I wish they did was went with the Snapdragon S4 Pro dual core instead of the older S4 model. I would have wanted this mainly for the enhanced GPU performance. That is the one thing about the phones hardware that pissed me off and makes me wonder why after delaying the phone so much they didn't go with.

At the end of the day I will still be getting the Z10. After using the Dev Alpha for a week and then going back to my Samsung S3 it drove me nuts. I've also used the iPhone but found it to be too simplified and restrictive, plus I don't like being tied into Apple's ecosystem. I also used a Windows mobile phone, which worked alright, but didn't really get me hooked like the BB10 phone did.

[jonty12]

Which ones of these are 'critical functionality' ?

BB Mobile Conferencing - now that other platforms have something similar I have options (they didn't until a couple months ago)
Free/busy time lookup for calendar invitations - not as elegant on Android but if completely absent on BB10 ...
Bedside mode that allows the phone to ring and nothing else
Mail management.

The first and the last are the most important by far and true deal breakers. the third is pretty high in importance too.

I travel about 150K miles/year, am on 3-6 conference calls a day (often while driving), get about 400 emails/day, and arrange a lot of internal meetings. These features have been critical in working efficiently out of the office. BB10 looks like it takes them all away. There are alternatives (not as elegant as BB7) on other platforms that unfortunately I may have to explore. Huge disappointment.

[ErinnM]

You might think that, but the US carriers haven't been any where near as supportive or interested as carriers elsewhere. A couple of months ago Sprint said they might not even carry BB10. You think they were tripping over themselves to get devices on shelves? Where as from Europe, Vodafone and EE had execs featured in the launch. Which of those guys do think made certain they would be ready to sell on launch day? And it turns out the the UK gets phones first. Well what a shock, since the carriers played ball.

And pricing is a carrier thing too. And sim-free I've seen them advertised at �479 including 20% tax. So you should be looking at $600 before tax. Don't rage too hard, it's bad for your blood pressure.

At 600 bucks, I can cancel my Sprint contract ($350) and pay for the Z10 at the under $200 contract deal elsewhere. Because either way, I'd be paying the full retail price with Sprint as I am not due for an upgrade again quite yet.

I am still hoping Sprint gets it anyway.

[EGerhardt]

BB Mobile Conferencing - now that other platforms have something similar I have options (they didn't until a couple months ago)
Free/busy time lookup for calendar invitations - not as elegant on Android but if completely absent on BB10 ...
Bedside mode that allows the phone to ring and nothing else
Mail management.

The first and the last are the most important by far and true deal breakers. the third is pretty high in importance too.

I travel about 150K miles/year, am on 3-6 conference calls a day (often while driving), get about 400 emails/day, and arrange a lot of internal meetings. These features have been critical in working efficiently out of the office. BB10 looks like it takes them all away. There are alternatives (not as elegant as BB7) on other platforms that unfortunately I may have to explore. Huge disappointment.

Well the calender I can't answer to, because I don't have a device to check out what is and isn't there. What mobile conferencing stuff do you want exactly? Conference calling or what? I don't get what is in BB7 that isn't in BB10 in that regard. And what mail management stuff do you think is missing specifically? It strikes me that much of this stuff is in BES10 or the BES App World, and thats where that functionality will be leveraged from.

[jonty12]

I agree that the release date was stupid and a bad move. Regardless of who is at fault it's a bad move. Having a Super Bowl ad seems very wasted. I too was very disappointed in the overall presentation. It was just a complete rehash of what has already been shown off. The only new things were renaming RIM to BlackBerry, finding out Skype and WhatsApp were going to be available and BBM video calling shown off. I was hoping for some wow features, something that blew the doors off the place but that never happened. To have a launch event held in 8 cities around the world and then have a presentation like that was a let down. To me it seems like just a waste.

I would have liked to have seen some amazing cool features, some apps shown off, accessories shown, specific launch dates for more countries. I've had the chance to use a dev alpha and really enjoyed the experience but I was left thinking there would be more to come. I do hope they come out with regular updates that fill in the holes.

As far as battery life I found it to be alright, of course I wasn't using LTE, but it was still better than my Samsung S3. I read over on N4BB that the Z10 uses Gorilla Glass, would be interested in finding confirmation on that one. Oh and the reviews I've read said the camera was actually quite good. Not as good as the Lumia 920 or iPhone 5 at low light pictures, but still good in normal every day shots. When I used the Dev Alpha I found the camera to be quite good and responsive.

The one thing I wish they did was went with the Snapdragon S4 Pro dual core instead of the older S4 model. I would have wanted this mainly for the enhanced GPU performance. That is the one thing about the phones hardware that pissed me off and makes me wonder why after delaying the phone so much they didn't go with.

At the end of the day I will still be getting the Z10. After using the Dev Alpha for a week and then going back to my Samsung S3 it drove me nuts. I've also used the iPhone but found it to be too simplified and restrictive, plus I don't like being tied into Apple's ecosystem. I also used a Windows mobile phone, which worked alright, but didn't really get me hooked like the BB10 phone did.

Check out the camera pics in Kevin's review on the homepage. I'm not going by opinions in reviews, I'm going by the actual pictures. They're not on par with competitors. Specs, per se, don't matter to me, functionality does. So the number of cores etc, isn't an issue for me. The big thing is losing some core BlackBerry features for not a lot of gain, and the disappointment of not seeing anything that hadn't leaked - especially since management reps had said up until very recently that they were saving surprises for the reveal. As for battery, almost all the reviews have been somewhat disappointed (has to be better than my 9810 that gets about 9 hours though).

[EGerhardt]

Check out the camera pics in Kevin's review on the homepage. I'm not going by opinions in reviews, I'm going by the actual pictures. They're not on par with competitors. Specs, per se, don't matter to me, functionality does. So the number of cores etc, isn't an issue for me. The big thing is losing some core BlackBerry features for not a lot of gain, and the disappointment of not seeing anything that hadn't leaked - especially since management reps had said up until very recently that they were saving surprises for the reveal. As for battery, almost all the reviews have been somewhat disappointed (has to be better than my 9810 that gets about 9 hours though).

You'll have to wait and see with camera performance. I've seen some great pictures taken through the Z10. Sure they are from RIM, but they were taken using the camera on the Z10. I've seen some trash pictures taken from other phones too, and from the z10. It's a camera and it'll take pictures of things, and under some circumstances they will be good, and under others they will be bad just like every other device.

[jonty12]

Well the calender I can't answer to, because I don't have a device to check out what is and isn't there. What mobile conferencing stuff do you want exactly? Conference calling or what? I don't get what is in BB7 that isn't in BB10 in that regard. And what mail management stuff do you think is missing specifically? It strikes me that much of this stuff is in BES10 or the BES App World, and thats where that functionality will be leveraged from.

BB Mobile Conferencing. As soon as you get a calendar invitation with conference call instructions it automatically parses out all the numbers so when it's time for the call a reminder pops up with the option to "join". You touch one button, "join" and it does everything for you. If you disconnect, a popup comes us saying "reconnect?" and that's all you have to do. Critical when you have a half dozen conf calls a day and you're on the road.

As for mail management, according the reviews, the ability to select multiple messages (for deletion for example), to navigate from one message to the next, to go to the beginning or end of a list of messages (or day to day) all take significantly more effort/time than on BB7. None of this is BES stuff.

[AlexBC]

Two Major disappointments:

1. Camera - must have been at least as good as S3
2. Maps - must have been at least as good as Win8/Nokia maps

Three minor ones:
1. Doesn't look that amazing, different. Should have borrowed more from Porsche design. 9900 looks more premium!
2. Gorilla glass missing
3. Javascript test score is low

Otherwise, it did what I expected, and delivered where it had to. Camera omission is absolutely crazy! Maps and Apps can be updated, but the freaking camera hardware stays on your phone. I just do NOT GET IT, all they had to do was to call Sony, and source the same iPhone camera sensor and be done with it, the camera software is quite nice, so they got that covered!

Regardless, I'd bite my lip and buy a BB10, freaking camera is bugging me though!

[trsbbs]

A couple of things to start...

1-Poor maps implementation
2-From reviews so far looks like it has poor battery life
3-long boot time
4-Not gorilla glass
5-Nothing new that would make the average iPhone/android users go wow

6. No sound/user profiles.
7. Folks are tired of "its coming". Geesh, how many times have I said that!

Tim

[jonty12]

You'll have to wait and see with camera performance. I've seen some great pictures taken through the Z10. Sure they are from RIM, but they were taken using the camera on the Z10. I've seen some trash pictures taken from other phones too, and from the z10. It's a camera and it'll take pictures of things, and under some circumstances they will be good, and under others they will be bad just like every other device.

look at the review on the front page of CrackBerry. Compares various camera in EXACTLY the same circumstances. In EVERY case, the Z10 picture isn't as good as any of the others.

I'm not attached to any platform. I've used BBs since 2006 because they did what I need them to do better than other platforms. This may not be the case anymore, and the disappointment is because as a Canadian, I was hoping to be able to stick with them.

[EGerhardt]

BB Mobile Conferencing. As soon as you get a calendar invitation with conference call instructions it automatically parses out all the numbers so when it's time for the call a reminder pops up with the option to "join". You touch one button, "join" and it does everything for you. If you disconnect, a popup comes us saying "reconnect?" and that's all you have to do. Critical when you have a half dozen conf calls a day and you're on the road.

As for mail management, according the reviews, the ability to select multiple messages (for deletion for example), to navigate from one message to the next, to go to the beginning or end of a list of messages (or day to day) all take significantly more effort/time than on BB7. None of this is BES stuff.

I have never even heard of BB Mobile Conferencing. I goggled it, and it pointed me to app world. So its an app? Made my RIM? You think they won't port it over to BB10? I mean... they may be more consumer friendly now but they are still all about enterprise and just because its not directly baked into the OS, doesn't mean its lost and gone forever.

As for the e-mail management stuff... let me direct you to this screen shot, showing off the ability to go to top, go to bottom, and select multiple messages.

[jonty12]

I have never even heard of BB Mobile Conferencing. I goggled it, and it pointed me to app world. So its an app? Made my RIM? You think they won't port it over to BB10?

As for the e-mail management stuff... let me direct you to this screen shot, showing off the ability to go to top, go to bottom, and select multiple messages.

BB Mobile Conferencing is an app, and no, they haven't ported it yet. Hopefully they will by March (U.S. release). And yes I know you can do those things in mail, it's just much less efficient than it was in BB7 (or on other platforms now). It's a big step backwards. This was/is supposed to improve productivity, not lessen it. If Kevin is critical of it (and he is) you have to know it's a real problem.

I just am not seeing how this paradigm is "better" than that on BB7 for mail management.

[EGerhardt]

BB Mobile Conferencing is an app, and no, they haven't ported it yet. Hopefully they will by March (U.S. release). And yes I know you can do those things in mail, it's just much less efficient than it was in BB7 (or on other platforms now). It's a big step backwards. This was/is supposed to improve productivity, not lessen it. If Kevin is critical of it (and he is) you have to know it's a real problem.

I just am not seeing how this paradigm is "better" than that on BB7 for mail management.

So, its not so much critical functionality that isn't there; its more that today (a day before anyone anywhere in the world can buy the devices) the app has yet to appear in app world ? That is a whole different deal.

I'm not saying that its better, just that the functionality IS there. Again, it's a completely different thing to say that things are less good than they were compared to saying they are actually not there. Most of the fast, awesome e-mail management stuff in BB7 comes from having a physical keyboard and those shortcuts are going to be there on the Q10, just not on the Z10 because (as you may have noticed) it lacks 56 shortcut keys arrayed beneath the screen that most of us know as a keyboard. What did you expect them to do about that? They HAD to work out a way that was more amenable to touchscreens, and yes, touchscreens are less effective in that regard. Sorry I guess? Its a good job that they made a device that still has a physical keyboard really. Or else you wouldn't be able to get that functionality ANYWHERE.

It sounds to me like you are looking for a reason to jump, and if thats the case then jump. But the problems you're picking on seem to either be obvious (touchscreen lacks keyboard shortcuts!), almost certainly pending because its a critical part of the enterprise environment (conferencing) or likely to be patched before you get a device (notification profiles). That leaves you ******** about the camera? I mean... Every device ever has had people complaining about the camera being not as good as some other devices. If that's a deal breaker to you, then off you go, no hard feelings. But try to calm down and think about it. ****, if all of this stuff is so terrible, I'm going to know about it in a few days time and if it sucks so hard I'll come tell you about it. So will hundreds of other people here. Deciding based entirely on today's presentation that stuff they didn't show off isn't there isn't a good plan.

[jonty12]

So, its not so much critical functionality that isn't there; its more that today (a day before anyone anywhere in the world can buy the devices) the app has yet to appear in app world ? That is a whole different deal.

I'm not saying that its better, just that the functionality IS there. Again, it's a completely different thing to say that things are less good than they were compared to saying they are actually not there. Most of the fast, awesome e-mail management stuff in BB7 comes from having a physical keyboard and those shortcuts are going to be there on the Q10, just not on the Z10 because (as you may have noticed) it lacks 56 shortcut keys arrayed beneath the screen that most of us know as a keyboard. What did you expect them to do about that? They HAD to work out a way that was more amenable to touchscreens, and yes, touchscreens are less effective in that regard. Sorry I guess? Its a good job that they made a device that still has a physical keyboard really. Or else you wouldn't be able to get that functionality ANYWHERE.

It sounds to me like you are looking for a reason to jump, and if thats the case then jump. But the problems you're picking on seem to either be obvious (touchscreen lacks keyboard shortcuts!), almost certainly pending because its a critical part of the enterprise environment (conferencing) or likely to be patched before you get a device (notification profiles). That leaves you ******** about the camera? I mean... Every device ever has had people complaining about the camera being not as good as some other devices. If that's a deal breaker to you, then off you go, no hard feelings. But try to calm down and think about it. ****, if all of this stuff is so terrible, I'm going to know about it in a few days time and if it sucks so hard I'll come tell you about it. So will hundreds of other people here. Deciding based entirely on today's presentation that stuff they didn't show off isn't there isn't a good plan.

I'm completely calm about everything. Notice in my original message I said "More difficult to manage mail the existing BBs (the strength of BB)". "More difficult", not impossible, but considerably more difficult. As for keyboard vs non-keyboard reasons, some of this stuff is considerably easier to do on my PlayBook than on the Z10 (multi-selection, switching between messages) and last time I checked, my PlayBook didn't have a keyboard.

Rest assured, I'm not looking to jump anywhere, if only because I'd then have to explain myself to so many people who believe I'm a BlackBerry fanboi and would never even think of switching (completely untrue). I mentioned somewhere else that it may be a blessing in disguise that in the U.S. you won't be able to get the phone until March as it will allow for a couple of software patches and app releases - I mean that. But, as someone who has had a PlayBook since launch day, I'm not going to buy something on the promise of future functionality.

This thread however, was about "Why are you disappointed?" which I simply explained. You wanted me to clarify and explain my reasons, which I did. Maybe by the time I can get the phone there will be solutions in place, in which case I'll pick up the phone, or maybe there won't and I'll look elsewhere.