[codegrind]

Hey, folks! Received my unlocked CDMA BBB100-3 earlier this week when things were too crazed to even unpack the box. Spent the last couple days getting started to get it set up, lol.

A few comments about the physical device for those who have not yet plunged:

1. size/weight: a little larger than my old classic, not as thick. Screen is as big as my whole iPhone-SE more or less, with a keyboard and a little extra width. You know you have it in your hand, and if it jumps out of your pocket you might notice its weight being gone. No complaints here on size/weight, it's feasible, and real ,and has a quality feel to it. (no, the screen hasn't jumped off, but this is a -3 so who knows what that means.)

2. shape/form-factor/etc: IMO they took a step backward from the classic in a couple respects, (a) the sides are rounded and slippery so good luck picking it up by the sides after laying it flat on a table, (b) the back isn't as rubbery as the classic, a little more plastic-like, not quite as good a grip.

[Both these issues are more than solved by adding some 3M grip-tape on the back and sides, i can carry it in my shirt-pocket and nearly stand on my head without it falling out, and it doesn't look grossly ugly.]

3. keyboard: nice key action like the classic, i haven't yet typed enough to get with the flick-thang, but that seems kind of nice when i remember to do it.

4. convenience key: i set it to "flashlight" but i found yesterday that it also works as a mute-button during a call (surprised me, oops!).

5. fingerprint reader: damn near instant, way faster than my iPhone or iPad. i double-click the wallpaper to put it to sleep usually, since the power/lock button is slightly too far to reach when i'm holding it in my right hand.

6. keyboard scrolling: yes, you can use the keyboard as a sort of touchpad to scroll, which is *really* nice in junk apps like google-news where every freaking square millimeter is some link or another.

7. VERY Disappointed that the keyboard scrolling doesn't act to move the cursor around the way it does on the classic. Not happy with that, but i'll get along without it.

8. the capacitive keys work just fine and do the usual android stuff as one would expect.

9. screen is big and bright and clear (though my vision sucks so i'm not as discriminating as some). i was pleased enough with the camera in my classic and this one seems better.

10. sound quality on calls is excellent imo, better than my classic or iphone.

11. since i'm on Verizon, visual voicemail doesn't work; not happy about that, but since hub tells me when i've missed a call i know when to check voicemail. hopefully verizon will get its head out pretty soon, or not; i really liked having visual voicemail on my classic and my iphone, but for the improvements i'll take what i can get, hardly anybody calls me anyway.

12. battery life: get real, my classic had a great battery and this one's supposed to be much better. don't have a feel for just how long i can go, still in the habit of charging nightly and too stupid to remember not to charge it for a few days. i could go for 2-3 days on my classic, this thing might last a week if i'm not using it constantly, dunno yet.

13. nothing has turned it on accidentally yet, which is the reason i abandoned my classic for an iphone, so that's all good.

14. it actually knows how to mount/unmount the sdcard, which is a very good thing imo. though there is no built-in file explorer i've found, if you go to settings>storage it lets you navigate around.

Those are the basics as far as i can think them up at the moment.

Android is android, but there are things i liked better about BBOS, for example hub seemed nicer on the classic, and most of the apps seemed "better" than the stuff in the playstore. Like "Browser" on os10, i'm using Chrome and i don't really like Chrome, never have, which of the android browsers is the best at handling bookmarks?

I'm not using many keyboard shortcuts yet, still getting re-oriented to android, but is there a way to set up a homescreen or keyboard shortcut to bring up a browser and go directly to a url? Like the crackberry login screen for example? I got used to Safari on the apple stuff, and a lot of it sucks, but bookmark handling is okay.

The Phone app's "favorites" and suchlike are these big goddamn squares that apparently are supposed to be pictures of all your ugly-faced relatives and friends or something, and i can't find a way to get it to display a simple list.

Lots of little things to learn. I'll probably keep my iphone just as a backup since it's a matter of swapping the sim.

Speaking of the sim, the sim and the sdcard are together in one long caddy, which is kind of funky, but it seems to work; i worry about bending it when taking the sdcard out to back it up on my laptop, but so far so good.

If it got destroyed somehow, i'd buy another one in an instant.

[howarmat]

thanks for the review!

[j21jam6]

Good write-up.

Welcome to the new BlackBerry. Seems like ages ago that I made the move to Android via the Priv.

BlackBerry 10 is EOL so I just moved on without looking back. Android is just fine once you get use to it.