[Allgoodnicknamesaretaken]

I was so excited yesterday that I was going to get home and find my passport waiting for me. It was so cruel to get home and find that the UPS guy had yet to deliver it. But about an hour later it arrived. I unboxed it and found it had about a 30% charge.

I connected to my wireless network and ran the device switch software to copy over my contacts and calendars from my iPhone 4s. That went without a hitch. The first thing everyone notices is the size. yeah it's big. But what I haven't seen mentioned in any reviews is that it is also really thin! I had zero problem getting it into any of my pockets. I haven't tried it in "skinny jeans" yet, but so far the size of it hasn't been an issue. I also was expecting it to be heavier, or at least to feel heavier. Yet I think the weight is very well distributed so that it feels very comfortable in the hand (I would say that I have average sized hands). I would have preferred rounded corners (for comfort), but I haven't had any problems.

Also, I quickly went through all the tutorials that play when you start the phone for the first time. I already knew everything in them from watching/reading countless reviews during my wait for it to ship. But I can say that they were very polished and professional. Very well done.

The screen is gorgeous! The default font size is much more small than I thought it would be, but the text is very crisp and I've had not trouble reading it.

I also had a 64 Gb Sandisc micros-SD card which I installed. Thus came my first hiccup. It wouldn't format. I tried again. and again. Apparently the third time was the charm. It worked.

Then off to AT&T. They were absolutely swamped. I finally got a tech who had no idea that blackberry was still making phones. I had to show him how to access the sim card tray (glad I installed the memory card already). It's actually not intuitively obvious that the top part comes off. Even knowing it, it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to lift it off the first time. In any case, he got the sim in and got it programmed. I got LTE working straight away with no issues. it's FAST! i'm so used to 4G on my old iPhone.

The browser. Phenomenal! Definitely the best web browsing experience I've had on any phone. It's almost as good as browsing on my iPad2, and of course it's not as heavy or bulky, so in a lot of ways it's actually a better experience than one gets from using a tablet.

I had previously owned a Z10 for about 10 days (but had to return it due to defective hardware). I was very pleased to see that when I logged into blackberry world that previous purchases still showed up there. Also logged in and downloaded a few android apps, they worked quite well.

Typing. It's frustrating. it's going to take me a few days. I think that I'm going to really like it once I get it figured out and get everything into my muscle memory. One thing took me way too long to figure out. I couldn't get words to flick up. my thumb kept activating the extra virtual row up above the words. I eventually figured out that I need to RAPIDLY swipe my fingers up. Then it works great. My natural rate seems to be just at the threshold between scrolling and flicking, so I had a very frustrating experience at first. I could see that being an issue if people try it and find that it doesn't seem to work. But once I got it figured out, it works brilliantly.

Blackberry assistant. It's a little slower than siri, but not so much that it would stop me from using it. I suspect that will improve at time. It's VERY accurate, understanding completely so far. It's also as versatile as siri in my experience. I have only dabbled with it, but so far it's really impressive.

Build Quality: It's outstanding. This is a very solid phone. It feels solid in the hand, without feeling uncomfortably heavy. The speakers were disappointing. I read so many reviews where people raved about the quality of the speakers, but I found the sound from them to be small and tinny. Of course, they are tiny little speakers. The sound, such as it is, is loud and clear. They are good cell phone speakers, I think I just had my expectations raised too far based on the reviews I had read. If I wanted to listen to music, I'd still use earbuds of plug the sound into a better speaker.

Blackberry Link *sighs* here's where my real hiccup started. When I had the zed 10, the blackberry link software synced everything with my computer flawlessly. Now, it can't seem to get my music synced. I have a huge music collection. When I try to synch, it copies a few new files onto the passport then craps to again.

I ended up trying blackberry blend, and manually transferred some of my music files over. that worked better, but it's slow going.

Speaking of blackberry blend, it's nice, but still too limited for me. I was frustrated that the file transfer wouldn't let me copy over folders. Hopefully more robust file management will come in future upgrades. I haven't played around yet with using it for BBM or text messaging and whatnot. In any case, I'm still frustrated that I can't get my music over easily. Oh well, if Ihave to copy it over piecemeal I guess that's what I'll do.

Also, I'm a bit concerned that I can't seem to access visual voice mail. It wants me to call some voice mail number and give a password. I have no idea what my voicemail password is, I guess I'll have to call AT&T later and get it sorted out.

So that's my blackberry experience so far. Mostly positive with a few negative quirks. The tone of this review may seem much more negative than it actually is meant to be. I knew going into this that it would probably take me a few days to get everything switched over and working the way I want. I'm not having any problem with being patient until I can get all these issues ironed out. This is absolutely a brilliant phone. I am thrilled to have it, and I am really enjoying using it. I think blackberry has a real winner on its hands. And I have zero regrets about switching from apple to blackberry. I have an absolutely beautiful phone which is truly innovative, distinctive, and fun!

[SeanSolo]

Nice early impressions recap...going through a lot of what you have today as mine arrived at 9am!!

It's gorgeous, solid hardware and people are freaking out at the site of it - some good/some not so good

There are some creature comforts with iOS that I really need to decide if I can live without.

[DocGo]

Yes. Have been using mine for the past 2 days. It is a beautiful device and I am now getting used to the keyboard and UI after having used iphones and android devices as well as the Z30 in the past.
Everyone who saw it at my work place wanted to hold it and play with it. I think I have converted a few folks back to BBs.

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[Frosty_Power]

I went thru the same typing frustrations as you did when I first got it. Takes awhile to get use to it but every day will get better. Now I absolutely love typing on it. I can't say I am quicker(than on my Z30 or ip5s) but I am more accurate and the feedback hitting the keys feels great like typing on my desktop keyboard. I don't mind banging out long emails or reply's with this thing. Love it. A lot of people say it takes a week or two to get use to it and then you will love it and I cannot agree more.

[Lightower]

Just wanted to add that I'm still not use to the keyboard but like the phone, that goodness for the Android app otherwise I wasn't going to keep it. Very solid beautiful phone.

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[netwerx1]

Just got mine...big and beautiful, and I know I'll be able to get used to the feel of it...but I just saw myself in the mirror with it held up to my face talking on the phone and whoa...I may have to go back to using a BT earpiece...as nerdy/douchey as that can look, it still would look less odd than with this monster next to my head.

[Lightower]

Update on impressions ? Just curious now that many of you have had it for sometime. The keyboard is very difficult to type with, should nativily support printing, gesture for browsing inquiry, software for camera needs improvement to increase focus speed, get on the band wagon and officially have android apps with Google play/ purchasing .

Why I like it -
Love Blackberry Blend

Hated itunes, this unit is simple, drag and drop music etc.

Workes perfectly with my qnap

Sound quality is better in my car which was a surprise !

I do like the screen size