[DavisW]

Hey all,

Having been a lurker for the better part of a couple months, I thought id share my experiences of moving from a iPhone 4 to a Blackberry Z10. I was originally going to wait for the Q10, but the wait was just too much for me. Im with rogers and calling customer retention helped me get the Z10 for 139 which was great considering I still had a year left on my contract. They also hooked me up with a sweet plan for $65 dollars which includes 3gb data, unlimited text messages (pic,video etc), unlimited canada wide minutes, caller id and voicemail. This to me is an awesome plan, but let me know if you have got something better. Another thing to note, im a big apple fan i've had everything apple and moving to bb was a big leap of confidence.

Pro's
- Overall the Z10 is a great device, the hub and peek are much better than the ios notification system as well as email and facebook notifications come through much better
- for anyone with a bunch of apple devices you know that if you get a notification on facebook, then you would get your iphone, ipad and macbook all beeping and buzzing like a fricken orchestra. Best part with the z10 is that if i have read the message on the computer i won't get another useless notification on my z10. Really like that.
- Facebook app is just as good as it was on the iPhone and you could argue that its even better
- Browser is obviously better than the iphone 4, but its better than the iPhone 5 as well
- texting and the keyboard are the best ive seen on a touchscreen device. I think the z10 is great for people who are slow at texting cause the swipe up motion speed it up for sure
- Touch and feel of the device is excellent, has a great weight to it and feels really really solid in the hand
- Battery charging bundle is awesome, definitely worth the 50 bucks
- Love the led notifications
- Overall look of the phone is slick
- With a 64gb sd card, my phone has 80gb storage for a lot cheaper than a comparable iPhone 5 with only 64 gb storage.
Con's
- If your contacts are on icloud good luck... I haven't found a way to transfer them over so ive just been relying on the facebook contacts that transferred over and about a 100 or so that I did manually. If anyone knows how to transfer them off icloud and a mac let me know, cause i don't want to manually put in another 1000+ contacts lol
- Battery life isn't the best, but these days no phone really has great battery life. I know a bunch of people that complain about the iPhone 5 battery life and while the Z10 isn't worse, it doesn't seem that much better. This is why the battery charging bundle is 100% worth it.
- I miss having the percentage of battery life next to the battery icon, hate using the app
- BBM for me is useless, cause everyone I once knew who had a blackberry has now switched to android or ios.
- Lack of versatility with profiles and alarm settings.
- Lack of big name apps, i don't care it doesn't have a million apps.
- What happens if someone drops their phone and breaks the screen or wrecks something else on it. With iPhones u walk to your apple store and exchange it with apple care or pay like a 150 for a new one. A problem I see with blackberry is what do I do if my screen breaks? Do i take it to rogers and wait for a couple weeks and use some old loaner phone in the meantime? Can I buy a warranty that is similar to apple care?

Overall though its worth upgrading to over a iPhone 5. None of the con's are deal breakers and I see future software upgrades really making a big difference. One major concern is with the 2 year wait for BB10, there should of been more apps. BB should of spent its money and gotten apps like netflix, skype, whatsapp, flipboard, and popular games like temple run, draw something etc etc. If the BB would of had just another 10-20 big name apps it would of sold A LOT better. Blackberry failed miserably on this part, it doesn't need 500,000 apps! But it does need a couple hundred solid apps. I see this phone doing really well with younger people (highschool, university etc), cause the keyboard is amazing and so is the notification system with HUB. A big problem in my opinion is not many people have bbm anymore, which once was a big selling point. For the phone to sell again with younger kids, i think blackberry will have to put the bbm messaging service into some sort of application which android, windows and ios users can download (even if it is 5 dollars etc). Make the app super basic, but make the app. So when people start downloading this app and getting a list of friends on bbm, it will cause them to start buying blackberries. Is it risky? Sure. But I don't see the Z10 turning blackberry around and making it compete for the top 2 spots. The z10 will stop people from leaving and it will increase its users, but not but that much. Main thing is I recommend buying the Blackberry Z10 over any device on the market.

[robtanz]

Hey all,

Having been a lurker for the better part of a couple months, I thought id share my experiences of moving from a iPhone 4 to a Blackberry Z10. I was originally going to wait for the Q10, but the wait was just too much for me. Im with rogers and calling customer retention helped me get the Z10 for 139 which was great considering I still had a year left on my contract. They also hooked me up with a sweet plan for $65 dollars which includes 3gb data, unlimited text messages (pic,video etc), unlimited canada wide minutes, caller id and voicemail. This to me is an awesome plan, but let me know if you have got something better. Another thing to note, im a big apple fan i've had everything apple and moving to bb was a big leap of confidence.

Pro's
- Overall the Z10 is a great device, the hub and peek are much better than the ios notification system as well as email and facebook notifications come through much better
- for anyone with a bunch of apple devices you know that if you get a notification on facebook, then you would get your iphone, ipad and macbook all beeping and buzzing like a fricken orchestra. Best part with the z10 is that if i have read the message on the computer i won't get another useless notification on my z10. Really like that.
- Facebook app is just as good as it was on the iPhone and you could argue that its even better
- Browser is obviously better than the iphone 4, but its better than the iPhone 5 as well
- texting and the keyboard are the best ive seen on a touchscreen device. I think the z10 is great for people who are slow at texting cause the swipe up motion speed it up for sure
- Touch and feel of the device is excellent, has a great weight to it and feels really really solid in the hand
- Battery charging bundle is awesome, definitely worth the 50 bucks
- Love the led notifications
- Overall look of the phone is slick
- With a 64gb sd card, my phone has 80gb storage for a lot cheaper than a comparable iPhone 5 with only 64 gb storage.
Con's
- If your contacts are on icloud good luck... I haven't found a way to transfer them over so ive just been relying on the facebook contacts that transferred over and about a 100 or so that I did manually. If anyone knows how to transfer them off icloud and a mac let me know, cause i don't want to manually put in another 1000+ contacts lol
- Battery life isn't the best, but these days no phone really has great battery life. I know a bunch of people that complain about the iPhone 5 battery life and while the Z10 isn't worse, it doesn't seem that much better. This is why the battery charging bundle is 100% worth it.
- I miss having the percentage of battery life next to the battery icon, hate using the app
- BBM for me is useless, cause everyone I once knew who had a blackberry has now switched to android or ios.
- Lack of versatility with profiles and alarm settings.
- Lack of big name apps, i don't care it doesn't have a million apps.
- What happens if someone drops their phone and breaks the screen or wrecks something else on it. With iPhones u walk to your apple store and exchange it with apple care or pay like a 150 for a new one. A problem I see with blackberry is what do I do if my screen breaks? Do i take it to rogers and wait for a couple weeks and use some old loaner phone in the meantime? Can I buy a warranty that is similar to apple care?

Overall though its worth upgrading to over a iPhone 5. None of the con's are deal breakers and I see future software upgrades really making a big difference. One major concern is with the 2 year wait for BB10, there should of been more apps. BB should of spent its money and gotten apps like netflix, skype, whatsapp, flipboard, and popular games like temple run, draw something etc etc. If the BB would of had just another 10-20 big name apps it would of sold A LOT better. Blackberry failed miserably on this part, it doesn't need 500,000 apps! But it does need a couple hundred solid apps. I see this phone doing really well with younger people (highschool, university etc), cause the keyboard is amazing and so is the notification system with HUB. A big problem in my opinion is not many people have bbm anymore, which once was a big selling point. For the phone to sell again with younger kids, i think blackberry will have to put the bbm messaging service into some sort of application which android, windows and ios users can download (even if it is 5 dollars etc). Make the app super basic, but make the app. So when people start downloading this app and getting a list of friends on bbm, it will cause them to start buying blackberries. Is it risky? Sure. But I don't see the Z10 turning blackberry around and making it compete for the top 2 spots. The z10 will stop people from leaving and it will increase its users, but not but that much. Main thing is I recommend buying the Blackberry Z10 over any device on the market.

nice review.

[dbmalloy]

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the effort to give us your feedback....

[Emu the Foo]

Welcome and thanks for your view. I deff agree about the software updates in the future. Glad you like it enough and maybe a bit more. Only time will tell

[Snap51]

I will support that.

[Mr_F]

Thanks for taking the the time to post your thoughts. I hope you continue to enjoy using the phone. Welcome to CrackBerry!

[Thunderbuck]

What a great, thoughtful evaluation! Thanks, OP.

I was reading that it's possible to export your contacts out of iCloud to a PC, then import them again into a different webmail product (Gmail, Outlook.com). Copying manually sounds like a minor nightmare.

[FSeverino]

Hey all,

Having been a lurker for the better part of a couple months, I thought id share my experiences of moving from a iPhone 4 to a Blackberry Z10. I was originally going to wait for the Q10, but the wait was just too much for me. Im with rogers and calling customer retention helped me get the Z10 for 139 which was great considering I still had a year left on my contract. They also hooked me up with a sweet plan for $65 dollars which includes 3gb data, unlimited text messages (pic,video etc), unlimited canada wide minutes, caller id and voicemail. This to me is an awesome plan, but let me know if you have got something better. Another thing to note, im a big apple fan i've had everything apple and moving to bb was a big leap of confidence.

Pro's
- Overall the Z10 is a great device, the hub and peek are much better than the ios notification system as well as email and facebook notifications come through much better
- for anyone with a bunch of apple devices you know that if you get a notification on facebook, then you would get your iphone, ipad and macbook all beeping and buzzing like a fricken orchestra. Best part with the z10 is that if i have read the message on the computer i won't get another useless notification on my z10. Really like that.
- Facebook app is just as good as it was on the iPhone and you could argue that its even better
- Browser is obviously better than the iphone 4, but its better than the iPhone 5 as well
- texting and the keyboard are the best ive seen on a touchscreen device. I think the z10 is great for people who are slow at texting cause the swipe up motion speed it up for sure
- Touch and feel of the device is excellent, has a great weight to it and feels really really solid in the hand
- Battery charging bundle is awesome, definitely worth the 50 bucks (got it for $25!)
- Love the led notifications
- Overall look of the phone is slick
- With a 64gb sd card, my phone has 80gb storage for a lot cheaper than a comparable iPhone 5 with only 64 gb storage.
Con's
- If your contacts are on icloud good luck... I haven't found a way to transfer them over so ive just been relying on the facebook contacts that transferred over and about a 100 or so that I did manually. If anyone knows how to transfer them off icloud and a mac let me know, cause i don't want to manually put in another 1000+ contacts lol
- Battery life isn't the best, but these days no phone really has great battery life. I know a bunch of people that complain about the iPhone 5 battery life and while the Z10 isn't worse, it doesn't seem that much better. This is why the battery charging bundle is 100% worth it.
- I miss having the percentage of battery life next to the battery icon, hate using the app - I do miss this, but only a little
- BBM for me is useless, cause everyone I once knew who had a blackberry has now switched to android or ios. - this is not really a 'con' because it isnt something BAD, you jsut arent using something GOOD
- Lack of versatility with profiles and alarm settings.
- Lack of big name apps, i don't care it doesn't have a million apps. - give it time, and you can also use the great browser to do pretty much anything
- What happens if someone drops their phone and breaks the screen or wrecks something else on it. With iPhones u walk to your apple store and exchange it with apple care or pay like a 150 for a new one. A problem I see with blackberry is what do I do if my screen breaks? Do i take it to rogers and wait for a couple weeks and use some old loaner phone in the meantime? Can I buy a warranty that is similar to apple care?

Overall though its worth upgrading to over a iPhone 5. None of the con's are deal breakers and I see future software upgrades really making a big difference. One major concern is with the 2 year wait for BB10, there should of been more apps. BB should of spent its money and gotten apps like netflix, skype, whatsapp, flipboard, and popular games like temple run, draw something etc etc. If the BB would of had just another 10-20 big name apps it would of sold A LOT better. Blackberry failed miserably on this part, it doesn't need 500,000 apps! But it does need a couple hundred solid apps. I see this phone doing really well with younger people (highschool, university etc), cause the keyboard is amazing and so is the notification system with HUB. A big problem in my opinion is not many people have bbm anymore, which once was a big selling point. For the phone to sell again with younger kids, i think blackberry will have to put the bbm messaging service into some sort of application which android, windows and ios users can download (even if it is 5 dollars etc). Make the app super basic, but make the app. So when people start downloading this app and getting a list of friends on bbm, it will cause them to start buying blackberries. Is it risky? Sure. But I don't see the Z10 turning blackberry around and making it compete for the top 2 spots. The z10 will stop people from leaving and it will increase its users, but not but that much. Main thing is I recommend buying the Blackberry Z10 over any device on the market.

This is pretty much how I feel also coming from the iPhone 4. Although I dont really care about apps or about appealing to teens, i do know that it needs to happen. I think it will take some time, but it will get done. If you need help there is a great community here.

Also, if you want to use Flipboard you can sideload the android version. Check the link in my signature for a bunch of android apps.

[FSeverino]

What a great, thoughtful evaluation! Thanks, OP.

I was reading that it's possible to export your contacts out of iCloud to a PC, then import them again into a different webmail product (Gmail, Outlook.com). Copying manually sounds like a minor nightmare.

I dont have a lot of contacts, but I have done the manual copy every time i get a new phone... i use it as a way to kick out the people i dont actually need. If they arent worth the 20 seconds it will take to add them to the new phone then THEY ARE OUT.

I got rid of 30 contacts from iphone 4 - Z10 lol

[BBVegasGirl80]

Thanks OP, for your insightful and helpful review. Welcome to CB! :-) I agree with you about BBM. It would be nice to have some BBM buddies from other platforms on my new phone.

I don't use a ton of apps, but having things like Instagram and GetGlue would be awesome. Also, I read in one of the blog posts a while back that BB partnered with Visa to take payments with the Z10. I definitely need some kind of Square-type card reader to use to transact retail payments.

I'm glad you mentioned the 80GB storage too. All this info I'm reading, both good and bad, will help me so much when I purchase my Z10. :-)

[Rooster99]

This is what I'm looking for - real user feedback. Thanks for this.

- R.

[Deu2e]

Thanks for a solid and well thought out review. Welcome to CB!

[NYPDinformant]

- Facebook app is just as good as it was on the iPhone and you could argue that its even better

LOL, stopped reading after this comment.

[FSeverino]

LOL, stopped reading after this comment.

why... you can view everything just fine.

[DavisW]

LOL, stopped reading after this comment.

Not sure why you would think the Facebook app isn't as good, but whatever floats your boat. Coming from someone who loves apple products, everyone knows the facebook app is one of the worst ones out there for social media. Its gotten better over the years but its still nothing special. The Z10 app is no different at all and has all the same features. With the added bonus of being connected through hub from which you can view all notifications, message people and update your status (all without going into the facebook app). Thats pretty impressive I would say and something the iPhone lacks on facebook integration. Cause you cannot do anything facebook related without going into the app itself on the iPhone. Furthermore, the contacts download a lot better onto the Z10 contact list compared to the iPhone. But too any facebook users out there who are thinking of getting the Z10, the app is not much different at all and certainly not worse. I think using facebook is better on the Z10 because of the bb Hub.

[silversun10]

BlackBerry Z10, Apple iPhone iOS 6 compared | Business Insider | Financial Post

BlackBerry’s last-chance play was to introduce BlackBerry 10, a reimagined mobile operating system for its devices.

At first blush, it’s an appealing way to interact with your device. It’s visually pleasing, it’s straightforward, and since it was built from scratch, it offers you a brand new user experience.

But will it be enough to topple iOS, one of the giants in the mobile space? Here’s a look at how the new BlackBerry compares with an iPhone:
Related

What Is Twitter For?
iPhone 4S Users: Update Your Phone Now!
Here's All The Technical Data You Could Ever Want On The Pebble Smartwatch

Default apps are nearly identical

Both iOS 6 and BlackBerry 10 have nearly identical offerings with the out-of-the-box apps. You got your email (both integrate perfectly with Gmail and Yahoo!), calendar, maps, alarms, and the like. Of course Apple’s maps app is something of a pariah now, but going either way on this will net you pretty much identical results.

default-apps-are-pretty-identical

iOS has better apps and games

This is almost entirely a function of having been around so much longer. Apple’s App Store now several hundreds of thousands of apps while BB10 launched with just 70,000 apps available.

Furthermore, if you want to use apps and play games that are in the public consciousness, you’re almost certainly going to want an iPhone.
Kevin Smith/Business Insider
Kevin Smith/Business Insider

Notifications

BB10′s notifications are all channeled through “the Hub,” a landing spot for your emails, texts, Facebook messages, Twitter mentions, and the like. Apple’s Notification Center functions the same way, except that BB10′s Hub allows you to read and reply to your alerts without opening the corresponding app.

However, BB10 does not offer pop-up notifications like you’ve seen with iOS. You have to rely on some sort of alarm to go off, whether it’s an audible sound effect or vibration.
Business Insider
Business Insider

What really sets one apart from the other?

The major comparison is that while iOS is a mobile operating system that’s been slowly improved and updated over the years, BB10 was built from scratch and can offer its users a brand new experience.

This may be enough of a call to get disillusioned Android and iOS users to drop their phones.

[Dugganm]

- Facebook app is just as good as it was on the iPhone and you could argue that its even better

Sorry, having used the Facebook App on iOS and Android I can safely say that the version on BB10 is the worst of the bunch. It just doesnt have all of the features that the other apps offer. Yes it looks and feels the same but not all of the functionality is there. I dont doubt that it will be updated and will end up identical, but at the moment (other than being faster) it doesnt compare.

- What happens if someone drops their phone and breaks the screen or wrecks something else on it. With iPhones u walk to your apple store and exchange it with apple care or pay like a 150 for a new one. A problem I see with blackberry is what do I do if my screen breaks? Do i take it to rogers and wait for a couple weeks and use some old loaner phone in the meantime? Can I buy a warranty that is similar to apple care?

This isnt something I had ever thought about before but is a very valid point. Do consumers think about this when buying a new phone? I know people always seem to be impressed by Apple support, particularly in the Apple Store's...and I have a few friends who have recieved a new iPhone after dropping theirs, so will that stop people from moving away from Apple? I know I didnt even consider what I would do should I break my phone. I know in the UK we need to take out mobile insurance but its not something I ever take out. Hmmmm...you've got me thinking now!

Other than the facebook app, a very thorough and honest review. Thank you!

[iToya]

Nice review OP! Welcome to the community, get comfy, kick up your feet.

That last bit about Apple Care got me thinking. Siri freaked out on my friend's iPhone 5 (just yammering about any old thing.."I found this for you!" "Siri, no one asked you for anything!") We went to an Apple store..replaced it..no money exchanged hands or anything..

I know for my BBs I purchased insurance through AT&T. Phone would get over-nighted and I would have something to fall back on out of my shoe box of "old phones past"

This has got me thinking though..If BB10 took off like selling crack type of take off, would they invest in more BB stores? Would they offer services like Apple? Meh, it's hard to see it happening in the near future, but it would be cool to hang out in the BlackBerry Store for hours on end playing with all the new tablets, phones and there should be a QNX Bentley to test drive just because.

[bbmme]

welcome and awesome review eh

[BBwild]

I have always been with Orange here in the UK, & covered all my phones with their insurance. From the 9000, to a 9800 & currently the 9900, I have paid �6 per month, & if there's been a problem with the phone, whether it be faulty or I accidentally broke the screen, a quick phone call to Orange would get me a new replacement phone the next day. I'm currently waiting for the Q10 & I will continue with my insurance arrangements moving forwards.

Nice review though OP....

[silversmith75]

nice job good review