[outlooker]

Okay so I was browsing through Android Central's article about how they bought a BlackBerry Z10 and are describing it (mainly negatively). What's your opinion on what they said? Here's the link to the article From the Editor's Desk: Whoops - I bought a BlackBerry | Android Central
I haven't used the Z10 again but from what they're saying the Z10 sounds awful. Like "Windows Phone is way ahead of BB10" and "Android is light-years ahead of BlackBerry". What do you have to say about this? Any opinions? I still haven't decided whether or not to get the Z10 and this article is discouraging me. So I'm just wondering about your opinion.
Thanks!

[homl]

I am an ex-Android user. I like the Z10 better.
Why believe what others say? Try it yourself.

Posted via CB10

[weekengyip]

I am currently using a Galaxy Note 2 and owned 2 HTC devices before that. In terms of the UI, the BB10 would definitely have a strong edge. The gesture based of the Z10 is a killer! Android and Apple is getting really dull but these 2 massive ecosystem can and will continue to stay relevant. It will be interesting to see what are in their sleeves

[greenberry666]

I came from Android. BB10 is better. Better UI, better keyboard (MUCH better than swype), less "Clunky ". After using BB10 for a while I actually hate using my android phone and tablets now.

Having said that, android us better for apps.

I didn't bother reading the forum thread but I'm guessing it's some kind of self fellacio?

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[qbnkelt]

First thing that really bothers me is the inability to customise the screens....I want to arrange icons to display in a certain way and although I can move them around and delete what I don't use, I was surprised this morning to find that all my changes from last night were gone this morning when I unlocked the device.

No widgets, like the FB widget on Android....pain in the neck. I was really used to that.

OK.....abysmal app situation. No "blackberry people do" kind of apps like banking (BofA, BBT, Wells Fargo) or insurance (Geico.) These are not games folks, these are task/day managing apps. And of course, no Instagram. WhatsApp is not finding my WhatsAppp contacts.....REALLY?!!!??

Device build is absolutely EXCELLENT. Biggest surprise EVER.

I know that this keyboard is being touted as the Second Coming, but I miss Swype.

Gestures were a no brainer. Got used to them in the first minute. QUITE literally.

[silly_sysiphus]

It's definitely not as customization-friendly as Android, but the UI is far more elegant, and the gestures are wonderful. It feels like the grown-up, faster, mature older brother of WebOS--and I mean that as a high compliment, as I LOVED WebOS, and fully bought into that ecosystem. The app selection is abysmal compared to the competition, but beyond the built-in tools, all I really need is an RPN calculator, with bonuses in an RSS reader, Kindle, and MLB At Bat. Given that all that is out there (MLB is promised by the beginning of the regular season), I'm not concerned. I didn't think I'd hop on the early-adopter bandwagon, I'd really meant to hold out for the Q10, but I'm really loving this little bugger. Also, hi qbnkelt, thanks again for your help in tiding me over until BB10 got here

Oh, and the holes in BB10's app library are more than compensated for by built-in Exchange Activesync capability, instead of requiring an expensive BES plan, at least for this student budget

[qbnkelt]

It's definitely not as customization-friendly as Android, but the UI is far more elegant, and the gestures are wonderful. It feels like the grown-up, faster, mature older brother of WebOS--and I mean that as a high compliment, as I LOVED WebOS, and fully bought into that ecosystem. The app selection is abysmal compared to the competition, but beyond the built-in tools, all I really need is an RPN calculator, with bonuses in an RSS reader, Kindle, and MLB At Bat. Given that all that is out there (MLB is promised by the beginning of the regular season), I'm not concerned. I didn't think I'd hop on the early-adopter bandwagon, I'd really meant to hold out for the Q10, but I'm really loving this little bugger. Also, hi qbnkelt, thanks again for your help in tiding me over until BB10 got here

Oh, and the holes in BB10's app library are more than compensated for by built-in Exchange Activesync capability, instead of requiring an expensive BES plan, at least for this student budget

HI!!!!! Happy for you! Hope all is well.

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[acadia1106]

Bb10 is the ****! Nuff said, all seriousness, I'm not interested in customizing my phone to the extent android allows, I have other things to do. Bb10 does lag in this department and the number of apps is far behind, but the OS itself is amazing.

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[world traveler and former ceo]

Z10 is aweome and apps are coming daily and its just a matter of time for more of the big names to establish native apps for the Z10 ... so I aqm very pleased and also happy to be getting great battery life also!

[mrfreetruth]

I'm an ex android user. I had the sg3 and now I have a z10 that beats the sg3 on every single metric. Yes android has a ton more fat apps but that's it. The z10 is the best phone on the market hands down. It's to bad people are puppets of propaganda and are unable to think for themselves .


Sent with my z10 while my sg3 collects dust.

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[ubizmo]

OK.....abysmal app situation. No "blackberry people do" kind of apps like banking (BofA, BBT, Wells Fargo) or insurance (Geico.) These are not games folks, these are task/day managing apps. And of course, no Instagram. WhatsApp is not finding my WhatsAppp contacts.....REALLY?!!!??

Device build is absolutely EXCELLENT. Biggest surprise EVER.

I know that this keyboard is being touted as the Second Coming, but I miss Swype.

I may finally have a Z10 tomorrow, if T-mobile finally starts selling them.

I expect to miss Swype as well, but after reading the thread about the way the keyboard works, I'm at least a bit reassured. Swype works by tracking keyboard regions, or key clusters, and mapping possible words onto sequences of them. That's why you don't have to be terribly accurate with how you Swype. When I first started with Swype, I was slow because I was overly careful about being accurate. It took me a while (few days to a week, I guess) to learn to trust it. From what I've been reading, the Z10 keyboard works the same way, and the trick is to stop worrying about accuracy and just let it do its thing. I'll know more when I actually have one but this would explain the many reports of vastly improved typing speed after a few days to a week.

That said, we can hope for a flow/Swype option in a future update. The keyboard engine clearly has the guts to do it.

Concerning things like banking apps, now that Pageonce is in, I'm less concerned about these. The only thing I use my Android Wells Fargo app for these days is transferring funds from one WF account to another, and for that the mobile web app should be just fine. For bill alerts and paying, and tracking balances etc., Pageonce does it all. A very valuable app.

I'm more disappointed in the absence of Audible, but somewhat cheered knowing a BB10 is in development, at least. They're notoriously slow.

There are some small apps that I use, such as DaTuner and Anki Flash Cards, and I'm happy to see that they are in BB World, so I should be okay.

But here's a question: As I understand it, the diagonal swipe from the bottom bezel works as a back gesture on Android ports, correct? Or, one can down-swipe, get a menu and press a back button. Since BB World is going to be dominated by Android ports for the foreseeable future, would it make sense for BBRY to make the diagonal swipe a universal back gesture, even for native apps--just for the sake of consistency?

[randall2580]

I committed to holding off saying much about Z10 until I use it as my primary phone for 2 weeks based on Chris U's article but I will say Qbnkelt's post is not much different than the one I would have written were I to do so.

The first week I am not going to sideload and depending on how I feel at the end I might do that the 2nd because there are somethings I find myself missing - I will say this device desperately needs a Tasker or Locale type app if there is a dev who has the capability out there can get an app like that to BBWorld quickly I think you would see a lot of demand for it. If there is one out there already that I missed - and I thought I combed the market pretty well, please let me know I would buy it in a NY minute.

[hxcellent]

The keyboard took a while to get to actually. What I learn is to just do a quick slide on the "area" around the suggestive word. You don't have be on the exact word . After doing that, it's a breeze and you will find yourself sliding the suggestive words all the time.

I find it's much faster than old physical Blackberry and Android Swype - could be as fast as typing on the normal keyboard for the real PC.

I have been using a Galaxy Note with Swype for 3 years but I have been developing for BB 10 for over 5 months now. In the first few months, I didn't know how to use the keyboard so it's pretty slow.

I can't wait to switch over BB10. Android irritates me.

[riverma]

I came from an s3... it may have been better I wouldn't know since the battery would never last me. That was the most frustrating thing about it.
App selection doesn't really bother me as mostly every app I used on my android can be found on bb10 ( the score, 8tracks, songza). Side loading helps too flip board is my Favourite app so it's good to have it.

It honestly depends what you do with your phone. I am a "Hyper connected " person.
Texting and emailing are my main two uses. The s3 was absolutely HORRIBLE for both. Texting was laggy, I am not the only one to think this as others have expressed the same concern and once seeing the z10 have considered switching. I hated when I would type to fast and the words appearing would be 10-15 keystrokes behind..

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[Grumblegrumble]

X Nexus/note/note2 user,

No way, BB10s UI is light years ahead. The phone is faster in every way, and so far its been stable as can be. Virtual KB is top end by far, lots of little advantages,and less steps to get there.

[DuexNoir]

First thing that really bothers me is the inability to customise the screens....I want to arrange icons to display in a certain way and although I can move them around and delete what I don't use, I was surprised this morning to find that all my changes from last night were gone this morning when I unlocked the device.

Curious to know what you mean here? Are your icons rearranged back to factory setting? Because that's not normal.

My carrier doesn't let me delete some of its apps, whenever I do it would send me an update to the OS that would install it right back. ):

(wait, I just accidentally hit a key that automatically inserted the time and date for me...how did I do that? Need to retrace steps...lol)



Posted via CB10 on my Z10

[qbnkelt]

Curious to know what you mean here? Are your icons rearranged back to factory setting? Because that's not normal.

My carrier doesn't let me delete some of its apps, whenever I do it would send me an update to the OS that would install it right back. ):

(wait, I just accidentally hit a key that automatically inserted the time and date for me...how did I do that? Need to retrace steps...lol)



Posted via CB10 on my Z10

Yes, it did. The prior configuration came back.



Posted via CB10

[21stNow]

Okay so I was browsing through Android Central's article about how they bought a BlackBerry Z10 and are describing it (mainly negatively). What's your opinion on what they said? Here's the link to the article From the Editor's Desk: Whoops - I bought a BlackBerry | Android Central
I haven't used the Z10 again but from what they're saying the Z10 sounds awful. Like "Windows Phone is way ahead of BB10" and "Android is light-years ahead of BlackBerry". What do you have to say about this? Any opinions? I still haven't decided whether or not to get the Z10 and this article is discouraging me. So I'm just wondering about your opinion.
Thanks!

I really think that it depends on how and why you use your Android devices and how deep into the Google ecosystem you are. Other posters have brought up valid points. I'll try to highlight some that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread.

1. Do you switch carriers often? I'm active on two carriers (for phones) and pick up others whenever I want to try another service. I have probably gone through six carriers in a twelve-month timeframe from 2011-2012. Being able to change the APN settings myself is important to me. I've heard (but didn't get a chance to check for myself) that you can't access the APN settings in BB10.

2. Do you use two-step verification for your GMail account? I do; I found out after I got the device that BB10 doesn't support two-step verification in GMail accounts. There is a workaround, though. I was able to get GMail synced. I tried for contacts and calendar and didn't succeed before I had to send the device back for other reasons.

3. When I spend the extra money on an unlocked smartphone, I don't expect carrier apps and logos to be on my phone. While the logo isn't on the hardware, of course, the startup screen loads based on the carrier of the SIM card that is inserted. Carrier apps also download to the phone. This is beyond irritating for the extra $150 that I spent on an unlocked device. Unlocked Android devices don't load carrier bloatware once the SIM card is inserted.

4. How heavily do you use Google Voice? There is no Google Voice app anymore. You can access Google Voice from the Z10's browser, but I don't know how that will work if you need to receive text message notifications. I also don't know how this would affect the ability to use Google Voice for your phone's voicemail instead of carrier voicemail.

I didn't like Windows Phone when I first tried it, but I have to be honest-one of the thoughts that went through my head when I had the Z10 was that maybe Windows Phone wasn't so bad after all. At least Windows Phone allowed the OEMs to put APN settings apps on the devices. I have no idea why Windows Phone didn't include a place to change APN settings in the OS.

I do have to mention one of the things that others have mentioned; I did miss Swype. I am awaiting a replacement device for the Z10. I want to give it a chance; I normally use a phone for two months before I make a firm decision on whether or not it's for me. My plan was to try the Z10 for at least a month as BlackBerry intended it. I wouldn't sideload Android apps and I would leave the keyboard in the default configuration. After that month, I wanted to try sideloading Android apps and to change the keyboard to have the word suggestions in columns to see if I would like that better. We'll see how it goes.

[dbmalloy]

I personally think these type for posts and reviews...each and everyone should be prefaced with "For me"...... I keep reading these "personalized" views of their needs but continually come across as a fact.... not enough customization... poor app selection etc... these are of a personal nature.... the OS and Hardware are facts... how people use them are personal.... For me...I see no issue with the apps available for the BB platform.... For me I have do not care about personalization... this would keep the flaming to a minimum....

[TgeekB]

First thing that really bothers me is the inability to customise the screens....I want to arrange icons to display in a certain way and although I can move them around and delete what I don't use, I was surprised this morning to find that all my changes from last night were gone this morning when I unlocked the device.

No widgets, like the FB widget on Android....pain in the neck. I was really used to that.

OK.....abysmal app situation. No "blackberry people do" kind of apps like banking (BofA, BBT, Wells Fargo) or insurance (Geico.) These are not games folks, these are task/day managing apps. And of course, no Instagram. WhatsApp is not finding my WhatsAppp contacts.....REALLY?!!!??

Device build is absolutely EXCELLENT. Biggest surprise EVER.

I know that this keyboard is being touted as the Second Coming, but I miss Swype.

Gestures were a no brainer. Got used to them in the first minute. QUITE literally.

Some valid points. The thing I have determined though, for myself, is that I am willing to give it time to develop. The UI feels a lot more natural to me than my SG2 did. I love this thing so far.

[pantlesspenguin]

I'm not interested in customizing my phone to the extent android allows, I have other things to do.

That's kind of the point of customizing your device, to SAVE TIME because you have things to get done. You put your most utilized information in a layout that makes sense to you. You know exactly where everything is on your homescreens, because that info doesn't move around. Your widgets constantly update and you can interact with them without leaving the home screen. That's definitely going to be what I'll miss most about Android. I wish the active frames could be "pinned" in certain locations. Like, if I could have my weather frame and my calendar frame always up top. That would help. I know I'm going to be heavily relying on the hub, and I think that's how BBRY wants us to interact with the phone.

I've played with it twice so far in the store. I love how buttery smooth it is. Everything seemed very stable. I'm looking forward to putting all of my accounts on it, because that's when I'll really start appreciating hub, etc. Also, maps aren't as bad as everyone made them out to be, so I was relieved at that. No, they're not as feature-rich as Google Maps, but I think they'll work just fine.

[West Coast Flavor]

I'm not really impressed. I see no reason to leave android. Probably a good phone for a fan of blackberry, or a cooperate user, but not my cup of tea. I'm more interested in the q10.

[acadia1106]

I'm not really impressed. I see no reason to leave android. Probably a good phone for a fan of blackberry, or a cooperate user, but not my cup of tea. I'm more interested in the q10.

The only difference between Q10 ad Z10 is physical keyboard and likely longer battery life, if you aren't interested in z10, why would you like the Q10?

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[goldie335]

It's definitely not as customization-friendly as Android, but the UI is far more elegant

How is pages of static tiles (that ios did 7 years ago) far more elegant?

[goldie335]

The only difference between Q10 ad Z10 is physical keyboard and likely longer battery life, if you aren't interested in z10, why would you like the Q10?

Posted via CB10

Try swiping on that small screen