BlackBerry 10 appreciation
With 2019 gone now, I thought I would, instead of complaining about what's missing, consider what I still have and why I continue to use my BB10 phone as primary device, which I single-carry.
(It's not based on blind loyalty. I have an iPhone, 2 'droids and 2 Windows 10 phones, all of them set up and ready to take over duties should the need arise).
Who knows, maybe someone will give me enough pointers to replicate my BB10 experience elsewhere!
I'm going to consider OS features as well any "app" that comes as a default load. I'm also not going to say the "Hub" or the keyboard. I agree but so does everyone else and it's the very first things that come to mind. (No wait, I'm going to ramble about the Hub anyways. I've so far found no way to always instantly get to my inbox from anywhere on any of the other platforms. You don't know what you miss until you don't have it!)
So in no particular order, some of the most under-rated features:
The Media Player
It's a highly competent media player that handles a wide variety of formats. Fully feature, yet easy to use. Yes, it has some glitches, but I've not tried anything that is perfect. It's so easy to add songs to playlists, play next, play last, etc. But what really does it for me over all the others is the hard button functionality. I can skip forward, reverse and pause without even looking at my phone.
Yes, I'm aware there are some options for Android, but they generally have limitations or is an extra paid app. (I have one for Android, when it works it works, but sometimes it doesn't...). It's nice knowing this feature is built in for free and it just works. And I'm fairly confident this feature is not leaking data to anyone...
The Calendar
Yup, the humble little calendar. It does its job, easy to use and can still handle syncing with online calendars. I've yet to think of a feature I miss yet. The growing dot or bar feature is still unmatched. At a glance it lets me see which days have appointments and roughly when in the day it is occurring. And another neat trick that I still haven't found elsewhere? Try turning your all-touch BlackBerry 10 to landscape mode. You can see the entire month on one side and your appointments for the selected day on the other.
I do have iPhone, Android and Windows 10. On all 3 I've settled on Microsoft Outlook as the best choice for now, but it's not a match for BB10's Hub+Calendar.
Bedside mode
I can't believe it's not standard feature on the other platforms yet. It's more than just a silent or do-not-disturb mode. I can choose to turn off radios or not, to let through specific contacts either by voice or text or whatever. I really don't know how I'm going to deal with this if I have to move off BB10. You can sort of quickly get at it in iPhone by setting up a Shortcut to Do Not Disturb, but even that feature is limited compared to Bedside mode.
Weather app
Yeah, really. It's so easy to swipe between days and cities or get the hourly breakdown along with all the details I need. I'm actually surprised I use it so much, but it works so easily and it's much faster than hitting the web site when I need to plan activities for the week. I might consider Windows 10's app a strong contender, it's not quite as smooth and slick to use but it can present a lot more info. I know the iPhone app is sort of similar but for some reason the navigation is kind of hit and miss, maybe because it has so many "hot spots" that a swipe doesn't always do what you want.
Remember
It may not be flashy, but it's still amazing. Not only can I have local folders & lists, but I can also sync to the cloud (e.g. Outlook.com). There's a wealth of features including reminders & recurrence, folders, tags. And not just text, I can add camera pictures, voice and other file attachments. Flagged messages show up here with a link to the email itself. Outstanding! Some stuff on other platforms (e.g. Microsoft To-Do on Android) is getting pretty close, but Remember still gets my vote, it's not a 2nd choice.
Notification LED
Yup, I know, a couple of my non-BlackBerry phones technically have coloured notification LED's. Good luck being able to control them. There are apps available, but since they are pretty generic, designed to work with any phone, they don't have the tight integration and level of control I have with BB10. Without even turning on the screen I already know what kind of message it is and who sent it. I've reserved specific colours for the most important people so I know if I can safely ignore the message for a couple of hours and focus on the task at hand.
Oleophobic screens
You know, pretty much every phone is supposed to have these. I carry my BB10 phones "naked" and despite years of getting shoved in various pockets without protection, they're still perfect. The Lumia phones I have are pretty good too but the other ones I have, including the iPhone, catch grease like crazy and require work to clean off. Judging by what I've found online, I'm not alone. It seems even iPhones are prone to having that coating wear off quite quickly. I've replaced brand new OEM glass on my Xperia and it still isn't as good as my old BlackBerry devices.
Automatic Low Power Mode
Having it automatically kick in below a specified level is great for extending battery life. My Xperia phone has this feature but this is not the norm amongst many Android devices. My Lumia's also have this feature but not the iPhone. I've sort of worked around it by using "Shortcuts" again to provide a quick button to turn on/off the low power mode.
Is there anything else you like about your BB10 phone? (Is anyone still using it as their one-and-only?)
Any tips for getting the same experience on other platforms?