1. anon(5597702)'s Avatar
    My wife's Q10 (assembled from many replacement parts by yours truly) gave up the ghost. We initially tried to migrate her to a regifted Moto Play but it didn't work out on any level, so I gave her my Q10 and she's back up and running again (and was reminded how smoothly the device switch goes when you stick w/ the same platform!) I used my backup Passport for awhile but got annoyed with it -- it's a beautiful device in so many ways but the format makes it unusable long term for me (I'd struggle with the Titan, I'm sure).

    This coincided with a nice deal on Ebay for the Keyone BE: $130 CAD with shipping. I decided to go for it. I'm only a day in but here are initial impressions:

    • I actually love the build quality. While I prefer the smaller Q10, the BE's size is a welcome change from the Passport. Keyboard feels great to type on and was an easy transition from the Q10 especially. (The capacitive bit is cool but more novelty for me. Likely to be used more as I look things up on the web.
    • Android "comfort" still remains to be seen. I decided to disable all the Hub(bub) services as I read varying reports on battery life. I didn't expect to get something as integrative as BB10 hub and other baked in stuff, but Android feels so scattered. I have used lots of versions of Android from 2.3.3 on my first phone, 7.1 on my current TV box (perfect for that), and now 8.1 on the Keyone. I'll give myself more time to adjust. It's funny...I have a tinkerer mentality but I think I've grown to appreciate a phone that works well out of the box. BB10 always did that for me. Android just feels like a project. But I appreciate that they went with a pretty clean version and there's not a lot of bloat to contend with. I will say I'm particularly enjoying Textra for SMS/MMS. Nice app with customizations. And it is pretty cool to be able to run apps natively. Kiwi browser flies too. (One annoyance: I can't see emoji from my wife. BlackBerry 10 issue, I believe, as they didn't use the standard emoji protocols. If anyone has a decent workaround, I'd appreciate it.)
    • Absolutely HATE the Content Transfer app. It appears to work but there's no indication that it restored any of my files at all. A reminder that it's best to do a manual migration wherever possible. (SMS Backup worked nicely going from BB10 to Android, though.)
    • Battery life...very nice. Phone arrived with a partial charge. It got me through the first day! Haven't put it through the paces too much, but I was doing a lot of first time setup. Very impressed with what I've seen there so far.
    • Call quality is serviceable. Sounds is pretty good. Not as tinny as I thought it might be, and I played a video or two and it sounded a-ok to me. I look forward to loading it up with podcasts (open to bPod esque app suggestions too. I miss that app already.) Not sure about reception yet but seemed okay on every call I've made so far.


    So, lots of positives, but the overall Android bit is what gives me pause. I have a drawer full of Q10 parts...I'm almost tempted to just jump back into the BB10 saddle and create a Franken-Q10 again. BB10 is like an old comfortable shoe at this point, and I gravitate towards comfort. But I'm going to try to hang in with the Keyone and see how it goes. It's early days, way too early to make up my mind, but I wanted to provide some initial impressions.

    Open to any and all suggestions from this great community too, especially anything that helped ease the transition over from BB10. Tried and tested optimizations appreciated, too (I believe @the_boon has some great guidance there), latest autoloader, etc.
    Last edited by mh1983; 01-15-20 at 02:44 PM.
    the_boon likes this.
    01-15-20 02:23 PM
  2. dxvigne's Avatar
    Welcome to KeyOne! Same scenario happened to me. I had the Classic and my wife the Q10. We both loved the devices but migrated to the KeyOne.. I still remember the challenges with the Content Transfer App, a bit of a nightmare but patience won the day. This will no longer be an issue: Google cloud / backup!
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-15-20 02:30 PM
  3. Chuck Finley69's Avatar
    My wife's Q10 (assembled from many replacement parts by yours truly) gave up the ghost. We initially tried to migrate her to a regifted Moto Play but it didn't work out on any level, so I gave her my Q10 and she's back up and running again (and was reminded how smoothly the device switch goes when you stick w/ the same platform!) I used my backup Passport for awhile but got annoyed with it -- it's a beautiful device in so many ways but the format makes it unusable long term for me (I'd struggle with the Titan, I'm sure).

    This coincided with a nice deal on Ebay for the Keyone BE: $130 CAD with shipping. I decided to go for it. I'm only a day in but here are initial impressions:

    • I actually love the build quality. While I prefer the smaller Q10, the BE's size is a welcome change from the Passport. Keyboard feels great to type on and was an easy transition from the Q10 especially. (The capacitive bit is cool but more novelty for me. Likely to be used more as I look things up on the web.
    • Android "comfort" still remains to be seen. I decided to disable all the Hub(bub) services as I read varying reports on battery life. I didn't expect to get something as integrative as BB10 hub and other baked in stuff, but Android feels so scattered. I have used lots of versions of Android from 2.3.3 on my first phone, 7.1 on my current TV box (perfect for that), and now 8.1 on the Keyone. I'll give myself more time to adjust. It's funny...I have a tinkerer mentality but I think I've grown to appreciate a phone that works well out of the box. BB10 always did that for me. Android just feels like a project. But I appreciate that they went with a pretty clean version and there's not a lot of bloat to contend with. I will say I'm particularly enjoying Textra for SMS/MMS. Nice app with customizations. And it is pretty cool to be able to run apps natively. Kiwi browser flies too. (One annoyance: I can't see emoji from my wife. BlackBerry 10 issue, I believe, as they didn't use the standard emoji protocols. If anyone has a decent workaround, I'd appreciate it.)
    • Absolutely HATE the Content Transfer app. It appears to work but there's no indication that it restored any of my files at all. A reminder that it's best to do a manual migration wherever possible. (SMS Backup worked nicely going from BB10 to Android, though.)
    • Battery life...very nice. Phone arrived with a partial charge. It got me through the first day! Haven't put it through the paces too much, but I was doing a lot of first time setup. Very impressed with what I've seen there so far.
    • Call quality is serviceable. Sounds is pretty good. Not as tinny as I thought it might be, and I played a video or two and it sounded a-ok to me. I look forward to loading it up with podcasts (open to bPod esque app suggestions too. I miss that app already.) Not sure about reception yet but seemed okay on every call I've made so far.


    So, lots of positives, but the overall Android bit is what gives me pause. I have a drawer full of Q10 parts...I'm almost tempted to just jump back into the BB10 saddle and create a Franken-Q10 again. BB10 is like an old comfortable shoe at this point, and I gravitate towards comfort. But I'm going to try to hang in with the Keyone and see how it goes. It's early days, way too early to make up my mind, but I wanted to provide some initial impressions.

    Open to any and all suggestions from this great community too, especially anything that helped ease the transition over from BB10.
    Biggest thing is don’t try and mimic BB10 like many do. BBAndroid is more Android than BB10 and that’s just how things are.

    Stick with first party well known apps
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-15-20 02:32 PM
  4. anon(5597702)'s Avatar
    Biggest thing is don’t try and mimic BB10 like many do. BBAndroid is more Android than BB10 and that’s just how things are.

    Stick with first party well known apps
    I know the "don't mimic" point is probably good advice. Not sure I'll follow it to the letter right away. It's striking to me that Android if infinitely customizable, and yet emulating the BB10 look and feel is still out of its grasp. But your point is well made all the same!
    01-15-20 02:47 PM
  5. anon(5597702)'s Avatar
    Welcome to KeyOne! Same scenario happened to me. I had the Classic and my wife the Q10. We both loved the devices but migrated to the KeyOne.. I still remember the challenges with the Content Transfer App, a bit of a nightmare but patience won the day. This will no longer be an issue: Google cloud / backup!
    Glad you can relate! Thanks for sharing your experience. To the cloud I go!
    01-15-20 02:47 PM
  6. Dunt Dunt Dunt's Avatar
    I know the "don't mimic" point is probably good advice. Not sure I'll follow it to the letter right away. It's striking to me that Android if infinitely customizable, and yet emulating the BB10 look and feel is still out of its grasp. But your point is well made all the same!
    It's not really out of its grasp.... there was a guy here working on a BB10 Launcher that was very impressive for one small team. But they stopped and didn't go any further as there was no money in it. BlackBerry's goal wasn't to make Android like BB10, it was to offer a suite of apps that Android users (enterprise mostly) would use. So being more Android was better than being more BB10...

    PKB lover that doesn't want to let go of BB10.... I don't know what you do at this point.
    01-15-20 03:14 PM
  7. bh7171's Avatar
    Enjoy your Black Edition Blackberry KeyOne. Excellent PKB smartphone. give yourself a week to adjust and you'll be A-OK. Turn on developer options and reduce animations to .5 and go to the Blokada website and download Blokada app and your good to go!!
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-15-20 03:21 PM
  8. the_boon's Avatar
    Enjoy your KEYone BE!!!

    Not much to do aside from lowering the animations to 0.5x in the developer options and disabling any BlackBerry and Google apps you don't need.
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-15-20 03:45 PM
  9. anon(5597702)'s Avatar
    It's not really out of its grasp.... there was a guy here working on a BB10 Launcher that was very impressive for one small team. But they stopped and didn't go any further as there was no money in it. BlackBerry's goal wasn't to make Android like BB10, it was to offer a suite of apps that Android users (enterprise mostly) would use. So being more Android was better than being more BB10...

    PKB lover that doesn't want to let go of BB10.... I don't know what you do at this point.
    Really was just expressing an opinion above. I actually looked at the work on the BB10 launcher. Impressive! No doubt a flexible platform.

    I get the goal of BlackBerry throwing their hat in the Android ring and I already said I'm remaining open getting used to this phone. I'm just hyper aware of how different the platform is from BB10 and ,as mentioned, I've used Android extensively.
    Last edited by mh1983; 01-15-20 at 06:02 PM.
    Dunt Dunt Dunt likes this.
    01-15-20 05:15 PM
  10. anon(5597702)'s Avatar
    Here's an annoyance: the indefinite "Waiting for Wi-Fi" message when trying to download an app from Play Store. I'm on Wi-Fi and have good signal. what gives?
    01-15-20 05:34 PM
  11. Dunt Dunt Dunt's Avatar
    Here's an annoyance: the indefinite "Waiting for Wi-Fi" message when trying to download an app from Play Store. I'm on Wi-Fi and have good signal. what gives?
    1) Reboot Phone
    2) Clear Play Store data and cache
    3) Reset Google Play Store
    4) Update Google Play Store
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-16-20 09:46 AM
  12. jackcarr's Avatar
    I've been off of BB10 for a while now. Had a number of BB10 devices. Q10, Z10, Passport. Finally made th jump to a Priv and liked it very much. My Priv was less troublesome than most from what I read. Now my wife has my Motion and I'm on a KEYone BE that I bought new off of an Amazon seller. Been enjoying the heck out of it.
    anon(5597702), the_boon and bh7171 like this.
    01-16-20 04:20 PM
  13. IceCreamPlz's Avatar
    I put the productivity tab on the left side of the screen and set up email as the default view. that gives me a "swipe right" to quick peek at email, like BB10.
    bh7171 likes this.
    01-17-20 08:03 AM
  14. bh7171's Avatar
    One other suggestion is to disable Google Chrome and use Samsung, Firefox, Brave or Duck Duck Go for Browsing. For me it made the longest lasting smartphone I have owned even better on battery consumption. (My personal preference to date has been Samsung Browser BUT I am going to try out the new secure Chromium based Microsoft Edge browser)
    01-18-20 02:06 PM
  15. Exedorable's Avatar
    But I'm going to try to hang in with the Keyone and see how it goes
    Grats on a sweet purchase! KEYone was, and is, an amazing phone, I'm actually typing this out on mine right now (silver tho, hehe). I also have a moto play that I used now and then (for my toddlers) that I've actually just "officially" retired. The significantly worse camera (than both my KEYone and Priv) and the poor typing experience (it's so narrow, even while 1hand use is easier) just got to me for the last time.

    I disabled gesture nav on pkb of both Priv and KEYone pretty early on. It was so sensitive that I couldn't rest my hand w/ out shifting a webpage etc ever so slightly but constantly. Just interfacing w/ the screen has never been an issue for me, and I love the screen size and how it's easy to reach all 4 corners w/ out a hassle. Only especially long YouT sessions are a negative against the screen (eye fatigue after 2+ hrs) but I rarely have that much time anymore anyway for just media.

    You'll love the speaker (quite loud) and I've never had an issue w/ the earpiece either (tho headphone jack, while decent, is no match for the Priv). I also love the key feel, travel (even phones of near identical dimensions tend to feel cramped for me), and button layout between power/volume rocker/conv key. And the battery remains epic, even after 2.5 years, and I've tried everything I can to kill it in a single day w/ no success (used GPS for everything, even unnecessarily; ran Bluetooth music while casting onto living room tv; ran my 95 song/6.5hr playlist at work; etc). I've had just a couple phones do better (moto g7 power made it past 15 hrs screen on time more than once) but I've never loved any of em nearly half as much as my KEYone (and this includes a recent LG v40 and Samsung Note10+).

    Enjoy it! Sincere congrats again!!
    anon(5597702) likes this.
    01-18-20 11:01 PM
  16. Exedorable's Avatar
    PS as far as suggestions go, since a BlackBerry is one of the few phones which don't require a Google search bar (you can start typing to immediately start a search, if you don't want short-press shortcuts) I'd recommend disabling the Google app altogether
    01-18-20 11:03 PM

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