Premium Theme Review: Blueye by BerryMobi
As outlined in a previous theme review, I am a mainly business user on BES, using a company-provided Tour 9630 on VZW's official 5.0.0.591 (MR2). I rely on my Tour as a major tool in my work life, but use it a great deal outside work days/hours as well. Personal interests have me involved in photography, technology and a long-time appreciation for design. I had the opportunity to do some Beta testing on this theme, and this review is for the final released version of Blueye.
Blueye by BerryMobi is a highly stylized homescreen theme, with a high level of consistency throughout. The look (to my eyes) is that of a retro-futuristic gauge/readout from a car, plane or spacecraft - it's tasty eye candy. Retro because of the brushed metal looking ring and pair of round "orbs" in the lower corners, and futuristic because of the fonts and graphical "readout" in the center.
The battery and signal meters are visually pleasing and easy to assess quickly. The appearance is that of a series of LEDs, which turn off as the battery and signal go down. The battery meter drops in 10% increments, the signal meter changes two segments at a time, so that the overall size/shape of the meters is consistent visually. These meters carry over into the banner visible when in the menus, call screen, message list, etc. - but the signal meter is shortened to five segments to ensure there is enough room for notifiers, etc.
The "LEDs" used for signal and battery meter go dark as battery reserve falls or signal weakens 
On the homescreen there are slots for eight app icons: six in the main display area, arranged in a semi-circle. There are "turn signal" (that's what they look like to me!
) locations for two more apps. I chose to put my weather app (BerryWeather) in one of these slots, seemed like a natural fit. All of the "stock" icons are themed, with minimal-style icons. These are slightly smaller than normal icons, and I found that my homescreen looked best with native app icons in the six slots which appear in the main display "eye."
A feature that many will appreciate is the "clickable" nature of the meters (Battery->Options, Signal->Manage Connections) and the clock. There is a navigable profile icon just above the clock, so users who prefer trackball/trackpad navigation vs. hotkeys/shortcuts will like Blueye for this alone. The lock screen carries the homescreen theme as well. There's space for the owner name, and up to four lines of "owner information."
Navigation on this theme is a little unusual for me. It works very well, but since the layout is circular it takes a few minutes to get used to. Main navigation is side-to-side across the eight icons (left "orb" <-> middle six <-> right "orb") Vertical movement on the trackball/trackpad toward either end of the main navigation will take you "up" a level to the meters+clock, and one more scroll up takes you to the profiles icon. This makes the profiles icon easy to access, but as noted it's a little unusual to scroll side-side and see the icon highlight take a "wave" motion as it moves up/down as well as side to side due to the semicircular layout of the main six center icons.
From a performance perspective, Blueye is quite good as well. The memory footprint on my 5.0 Tour is ~850k, not bad for a fully skinned theme with icons, custom buttons and fully integrated screens throughout. Performance is excellent. No lag on my phone whatsoever. There are transitions throughout, which add a little time to menu popus and such, but they are smooth and add to the premium look/feel of the theme.
Even though the homescreen is dominated by the "eyes," there's still some room for wallpaper expression 
Some additional personal comments/notes:
- For visual consistency with this theme, I would recommend BBAlpha Sans as your main font setting, size 8 or larger. Smaller fonts and BBAlpha Sans Condensed (or others) will work, but upset the appearance of the messages screen(s) a tiny bit (yes, I'm pretty picky - especially on a theme that is heavy on the visual aspect).
- No today or hidden today on this theme, which is either a blessing or a curse. I have a strong personal preference for a today or hidden today area for work days/hours, so this one probably won't be a work theme for me, but visually it's very professional and classy so it could easily be used for such.
- Due to the stylized design and shape, the notification area is relatively small. It looks like it may support no more than four notifiers. This may be plenty or insufficient, depending on your personal needs. BerryMobi did a nice job packing a great deal of info, meters, icons, etc. into that small space without looking too "crowded," but there are limitations.
In conclusion, I found Blueye to be a really visually pleasing yet fully functional theme. There is little trade-off of function for the unique visual benefit. As mentioned in the review, I probably won't use this one for my main business theme as a hidden today area is really key for my work day needs - but it's a great looking theme and I will be using it for sure on evenings/weekends or days when I don't have a heavy schedule. Like many CB users, I've purchased premium themes that have little glitches and issues here and there and often times they aren't resolved. I found the final release version of Blueye to be free from these types of issues (with the font caveat as noted above) and the developer seems to be highly responsive to feedback. I expect users to have excellent customer support as a result. I give Blueye and BerryMobi two solid thumbs-up.
Pros:
- Beautiful, highly stylized look - Lots of "wow!" factor if you're the type to show off your screen to other users or non-BB people
- True "premium feel," full custom icons and themed top-to-bottom (buttons, menus, etc)
- Fast performance, reasonable footprint for such a stylized theme with transitions and custom icons
- Highly navigable homescreen with lots of "hotspots" for access to functions/settings
Cons:
- Navigation takes a little getting used to, "feels" slightly odd at first
- Visual style (inside messaging) looks best with a font/size a little larger than I typically prefer
- No today/hidden today (can be a pro or con, depending on your preference or needs)
- Not super wallpaper-friendly (but looks great with pattern/color walls as pictured in this review)
For more info on Blueye and detailed shots of the various screens, you can visit the BerryMobi site:
BerryMobi
Blueye is normally priced at $5.99, but is on introductory sale @ $3.99 until May 30th.
Some wallpapers just look like they were made for Blueye 
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Premium Theme Review: Blueye by BerryMobi 
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