Passport Early Experiences Blog

No I'm not starting this thread with the most commonly used line "I received my Passport and I love it!!!". Because I don't love it (yet?), and I hope I'm only suffering from the "early Passport days syndrome" as described in other threads.

I know it's way too early to make a final conclusion after day 1, but I decided to start my personal blog about the experiences that I'm making, and to publish it here - maybe others can benefit from it. If not, just ignore the thread and move on to a more convenient one.

I'm also not going to "review" the PP, as there are so many reviews out there already. I'm just noting down my impressions, and by no means is this meant to be a complete product overview.

My BB background: BB user from the early BBOS days on. Also owned and used all Z (except Z3) and Q devices, but I also have some Nokia and WP history. Do not like Android, Whatsapp, Facebook, not overly excited about iOS. I am a terrible touchscreen typist, and therefore was looking forward to the PP. So enjoy - or not:

Day1

Keyboard - typing: tricky. Transitioning from physical to virtual keyboard and back is more difficult than I thought. Sometimes the virtual KB stays on, too long for my taste, and I have to type with a really small text window, or to manually close the KB, both is irritating.

I also often find myself hitting characters on the virtual bar when pressing a physical key in row 1.
My thumbs hurt, after practising! Too cramped holding the PP, will have to find the perfect position.



Keyboard as a trackpad: for sure fascinating technology, but it makes trouble for me on day 1. I often find both of my thumbs resting on the keyboard, and when I then want to perform a KB trackpad action, it gets irritated by my right thumb swiping on the keyboard, while the left one still rests on it.

I also feel that the 3 rows don't offer enough space, as flicking words doesn't really work for me. Always hitting the shift or another key from the virtual keys bar.

However, I remember the first BB with the optical trackpad, and how I felt when migrating from a track ball....thinking this will never work for me. And eventually it worked fine. I guess this will also happen with the PP's key(pad/board).
Oh yes, keyboard scrolling on websites in "landscape mode" is really great.



10.3: so-so. Great features (hub instant actions, calendar display of appointments in month view, etc.) but also confusing ones, e.g. the Assistant: apparently I can no longer just type & go on the home screen, without the assistant coming up (yes I turned everything off in settings, but it's still there!). I would like to do exactly the same as on 10.2, and then, later on, look into the Assistant, once everything else works fine. But not being forced into using the Assistant right away. "call XXX" or "sms xxx" seems to no longer work!? OS Stability & performance: not overly exciting, seems a bit laggy, possibly due to indexing after initital setup. I also had one auto-reboot out of the blue. BeBuzz does no longer play sounds for BBM-messages, did so in the beginning, all other apps still do. Don't know if that is OS related, but it worked fine on 10.2.



Screen (resolution/colours/sharpness AND width): great, but not as sensational as I thought after the initital reviews. It is "better" than the Z30's, but not significantly (I have to admit, that unlike a few others, I always liked the Z30's screen, and never found it to be pixelated, even when looking a t it from a very short distance. OK ok the eyesight of these people might be better than mine, I'm happy for them and can live with that). The wider display helps in some cases, but many text blocks on websites and emails still don't fit entirely and I still have to scroll (I had to increase the system font size to 9 from 8 to improve readability, maybe that is one reason). I still desperately miss the good old BES email formatting from BBOS, was hoping for this to be resolved on the PP, it's better now but still not as good as on BBOS.



Pocketability & grip: yes it fits into (not overly tight) blue jeans front pockets, but I still feel a Z30 slides in & out more smoothly. It also still feels strange to pick it up and hold it while making a phone call, due to its width. Back cover material is non-slippery, which is good, but I constantly feel concerned I might drop it due to its width.



Other observations: BBM transition was not smooth. All my contacts reported they couldn't reach me in the beginning, and when I BBMed them, I got a red x. Only after re-sending the messages, the connections got reestablished (both directions).

UNfortunately, several apps that worked fine on Z and Q devices, do not work properly or need some overhaul due to the new screen resolution. E.g. Blaq doesn't format the timeline properly, however, it's readable. Other apps that I used a lot don't work any longer at all, as parts of the screens get cut off and there is no way of how to scroll there. I really hope for very fast resolution, this is a big issue for me.

The lock screen doesn't show when pressing a key on the left half of the keyboard. THis was a great feature on the Qs, and I miss that a lot!

Reception and phone sound quality has been outstanding so far.

WiFi, Bluetooth, PC-connection works flawlessly (have not yet tried Blend-will do so tomorrow!).



Conclusion after day 1: I am confused, and using the PP is making me nervous. No warm & cosy feeling (yet?). A new OS, a new form factor that I am not at all used to, a keyboard that - so far - slowed me down rather than speeding my typing up, and that also makes me produce more typos than before.

If I had to make a decision RIGHT NOW, I would give up and wait for the Classic. Or stick to the Z30.

But I think I won't give up that soon, and give it some more days (weeks?) to grow on me, hoping for the "growth effect" to arrive soon.

To be continued....

Thank you for the honest report. It's always helpful to get real world experience.

I'm very surprised that you find very few positive things to say about the passport.

Sent from my outdated Z10

Originally Posted by Zmain

I'm very surprised that you find very few positive things to say about the passport.

Sent from my outdated Z10

Same here... I'm on day 2 and this phone is amazing!
Didn't have a single transition issue though, these people must just be unlucky... :/

Praise be unto our Lord Squircle | Passport SQW100-1/10.3.0.1154

I would echo everything that you have said. When I got the passport I didn't love it at all. It was strange, as before I actually got it, I'd convinced myself that I was in love with the phone. I'd read so much about it and seen so many pictures that I just had to have it! I also much prefer a keypad on a phone, so this was a no brainer.

When I got the phone, I found it too big, I didn't enjoy the typing experience and I honestly wasn't sure if I wanted to keep it.
I've had mine now since launch day so nearly 2 full weeks. And my oh my. I love it. I actually think that I type faster on this than I did on my Q10! And I typed like a demon on that thing. It's all just about getting used to the phone and it's dimensions which are obviously completely different to anything else out there.

Once you nail it though, I assure you you will love it.

Don't get me wrong though, I didn't just wake up one day after a few days in and think oh I love it now! I just got used to it and used it as normal before I sat down and just thought, wow I'm really enjoying using this device now! It all just kinda falls into place naturally. If it doesn't for you after more than a week, you know it's not for you! It won't be everyone's 'thing' at the end of the day!

Good luck! Keep us posted!

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by gnirkatto

Conclusion after day 1: I am confused, and using the PP is making me nervous. No warm & cosy feeling (yet?).

LOL!

I'm half a day in and other than getting used to a physical keyboard again, I'm really loving this beauty. Everything is so fast and getting it up and running was a breeze. I'm still unclear as to how my contacts just appeared on the device, but they did. Any thoughts?

Posted via my BlackBerry Passport

Day 1. Set up was easy. Contact links were a bit messed up. Account transfer was okay, but some minor issue with new account that the Passport recognized. I just deleted them. Camera is best in class ; love the features and especially panoramic. Display is nice. Keyboard is okay, but I need to practice. Track pad feature works in some select apps ; disappointed. Swiping words is not as fast as my Z30 or Z10 and wish that you can delete more than one word with additional fingers like the touch screen devices. BlackBerry Assistant is very precise. Icons are definitely better.
BlackBerry Blend is sweet! One of the best features of 10.3. Some apps don't work correctly, so I deleted them. They don't fit the screen and look distorted.

8.5/10 due to slower typing speed, but I think I can get faster with some practice.



Posted from my secure Z30

100% in agreement, but the biggest problem is the size of it and the flicking from the KB. If its a word in the middle I can never flick that one instead I always press the explanation mark! IMO, should have been 10mm thinner with another row of keys, Im hoping a case may balance the top heavy situation, if not I may tape a lead weight to the bottom!

My biggest peeve right now is when I'm using the selector to move the cursor between text and when I start typing it goes haywire because of the touch sensitive keys, there should be like a double tap keyboard to stop the cursor or something -.-

Otherwise it's literally all sunshine and daisies! :P

Praise be unto our Lord Squircle | Passport SQW100-1/10.3.0.1154

Here's a tip for you about the virtual keyboard staying up too long. When you swipe down to bring up the symbols notice the keys are mapped. Instead of hitting a virtual key, hit the physical one. The virtual keyboard will disappear. It really helps. .

I found it took me a while to get used to the swiping, especially the middle one. I think the idea that works best is to swipe up from the bottom. Since I've been doing that I've had less trouble with hitting the virtual keys. It took a while but it is really working for me now. Can't say I love a machine but I really like the typing and accuracy of my new Passport.

One final thing. Thumb fatigue. Yesterday was tough. My thumbs were sore and I found the device heavy. Today, well I'm over it. Seems like my muscle memory is adjusting to the new way of typing. And it's working well. Just took a little time that's all.

Posted via CB10

Try Twittly, works so good on the Passport :)

Posted via CB10

I haaaate thee Laaag!

It's unbearable!!

The lag in delivery is really bad on the passport! BlackBerry needs to update this in future models!


(lol)

The most unimportant things you never need to know. Pin:C002F4C05

Originally Posted by CrackberryQ

I haaaate thee Laaag!

It's unbearable!!

The lag in delivery is really bad on the passport! BlackBerry needs to update this in future models!


(lol)

The most unimportant things you never need to know. Pin:C002F4C05

Attachment 304165

Praise be unto our Lord Squircle | Passport SQW100-1/10.3.0.1154

Wow.. never knew that about the swipe down on the keyboard to bring up mapped virtual keys. I have had the PP since last Friday and was not aware of this.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by alan510

Here's a tip for you about the virtual keyboard staying up too long. When you swipe down to bring up the symbols notice the keys are mapped. Instead of hitting a virtual key, hit the physical one. The virtual keyboard will disappear. It really helps. .

I found it took me a while to get used to the swiping, especially the middle one. I think the idea that works best is to swipe up from the bottom. Since I've been doing that I've had less trouble with hitting the virtual keys. It took a while but it is really working for me now. Can't say I love a machine but I really like the typing and accuracy of my new Passport.

One final thing. Thumb fatigue. Yesterday was tough. My thumbs were sore and I found the device heavy. Today, well I'm over it. Seems like my muscle memory is adjusting to the new way of typing. And it's working well. Just took a little time that's all.

Posted via CB10

I can understand the leap from a BBOS device to this would not be as smooth.

For me, I absolutely love having the keyboard back, though it does take a bit getting used to.

The only major gripe I have so far is the lack of a seamless app experience. I am having a hard time finding apps because a lot of the apps I used on my Z30 are no longer there or are just not compatible and ugly in the PP form factor

Posted via CB10

Interesting read but I guess my biggest disagreement with the OP is the screen. I found the Z30 screen resolution to be terrible. DPI wise it was barely better than the Bold 9900, and with all that real estate i found it to be very very dull in comparison to the Passport. The Passport's screen and brightness really stands out - night and day in my opinion.

The Microsoft Touch line of mice largely failed due to needing to raise left finger off mouse for right click to be registered.

There were two third party workarounds with various trade offs. Microsoft never incorporated either and now I have 3 of these annoying mice doing nothing.

So they may be able to fix the resting finger swipe issue through software algorithms, but it is complex for different user cases.

Hopefully they can improve on it at least.

Posted via CB10

First of all, to those fellow CB members who wondered why I didn't write too much positives about the PP, this is not a review, but a blog on my early experiences in day to day handling of the device. There are hundreds of "what a great device I love the screen the battery the form factor no it's not too big the keyboard is awesome" type threads out there, it almost gets boring.

That said, I'm not saying the PP is a bad thing, but it has some annoyances (for me, maybe not for others!), and I'm on a quest to figure out which of those will go away after a few days of usage, and which ones will persist, and if some persisit, will they be significant enough for me to give up on the PP or not.



Please look at it from that perspective. And everything is MY opinion which nobody else has to share. And now, with no further ado,



Days 2 & 3 & 4



Keyboard & Typing: this improved significantly. They physical keyboard is the best ever. SOmetimes I just type to enjoy typing. Thanks to @Alan510, I'm now much better at flicking words, as I start to flick from the bottom bezel, rather than from the bottom KB row. However, there are 2 limitations:



1. PKB is great as long as I can stay on PKB. Whenever I have to go to the touch-KB, it gets nasty for me. With my clumsy thumbs, I almost never hit the right character. SO I better use an index finger, but then I have to change the way how I hold the PP. ONce the char got selected, I have to change the grip back to 2 thumbs typing mode. Yes I tried to memorize the most commonly used chars mapped to the PKB, like - or & or %, and I became quite good at these. But everything else is causing pain. As per today, I am not sure if this is something that will improve over time.



2. Like somebody said in another thread: PP typing works best when the PP is in a horizontal position. I don't think this is related to the angle at which the fingertips hit the keys. I think this is because in horizontal position, the PP rests safely on the fingers. The more it has to be moved into a vertical position, the more the pinkies have to begin supporting the bottom end of the PP. And the situation gets more and more unstable. Then, almost automatically, the thumbs try to give it more stability, by resting (and therefore tapping) on the KB. Which then leads to unwanted popping up of the text selector, micro-movements of the screen content and more. By this, character selection on the touchscreen gets even more tricky.

When lying in bed or at the couch, it gets almost impossible for me to type, because the PP is in an upright vertical position.



So far, I have not found a holding position to avoid these problems, and I don't know if this will improve for me after a few more days.



Keyboard as a trackpad: it is not really possible for me to give this feature a fair rating, as it does not always work. Sometimes, in one app, it works. Then, a few minutes later, in the same app, it no longer works. E.g. I found myself scrolling on a website on the KB, then I remembered the other option, moved to "landscape", and the KB did no longer react. And ,in some apps where it would make perfect sense, it doesn't work at all.

I know this is mainly related to the early nature of this feature, but at the moment, in its current condition, and considering the thumb-rest-text-marker-problem, I would rather be able to switch this feature off than to deal with its issues.



10.3: the assistant is really quite confusing - and it spoils the great old BB feature of type and go on a PKB BB for me. SOmetimes, it just works, and the assistant presents me the contact after entering its name on the home screen. Sometimes it doesn't and shows me the Assistant main screen, and although I can select from there where I want it to look for something and then search again, this is an addition of SEVERAL steps of how to get to the desired information.



And, I still wasn't able to figure out how to get the short homescreen commands like "call john" or "sms frank" back. Could it be this just doesn't work any longer !?



I encountered a couple of bugs in 10.3 but don't want to go into that here, maybe in another thread. BUt nothing was significant imho (except the Assistant issues), and I think it runs remarkably stable for a new version.



I can't help but still find the system to be a bit laggier than 10.2, it just does not yet run as buttery smooth as I hoped for. And the indexing should be over by now I think.....it's not really bad, but noticeable.



BeBuzz is still driving me crazy, sometimes it notifies me, sometimes it doesn't.



Screen (resolution/colours/sharpness) AND witdth: I have to correct myself and agree with @sophace. THe PP's screen IS better than the Z30's, from a resolution/colour/sharpness/outdoor visibility perspective. It is actually outstanding. I think I only noticed when looking back at my Z30 - didn't feel too much improvement when moving "up" to the PP from the Z30.



BUT, and people with totally perfect eyesight might not care, but I do: everything seems to be - or actually is - smaller than on the Z30. With both devices set to a system font of 9, I can read my favourite newspaper perfectly well on the Z30, but not on the PP, because it squeezes more onto the square screen. OK, I could increase the font size on the PP even further, but then it would need more left & right scrolling when reading through the lines. WHich again limits the benefits of the wider screen.

THere are some apps that try to squeeze more content on the higher resolution screen of the PP, but then this content becomes smaller and is more difficult to read or to handle. Example: the Remember app. On the Z30, there are huge folder icons on the screen, which I can easily hit with one thumb. ON the PP, the same icons are less than half of the size, which means that 1stly I need to read and look for the right folder and 2ndly I sometimes miss with my thumb.

As I'm e.g. running shopping lists on Remember, this is often a problem, when being in a hectic situation in the supermarket, carrying shopping bags and driving shopping carts, while looking for the goods I need to buy.



Pocketability & Grip: the PP being shorter than e.g. the Z30 helps when sitting down. On the other handside, its width may become a problem for some. I found myself hitting items with the protruding corners of the PP, while carrying it in my pants' front pocket.

When taking it out from the pocket, it is often a problem to grab it on its left and right edges, and so I try to grab it with my thumb and index finger, on the back and the keyboard. I think this also might explain why BB did not implement the feature of showing the lock screen when pushing certain keys. With this most commonly used "pocket access method" of index finger and thumb, one would constantly turn the screen on, when taking the PP out of the pocket.



Conclusions after day 4: the PP is no longer making me nervous, but the warm & cosy feeling has still not arrived. THis is mainly related to the form factor when carrying it (the Z30 still feels way more familiar & convenient), and to the issues I'm still having with touch screen and the touch sensitive keyboard. And, to the issues with typing and stability, when having to move the PP in a more vertical position.



I still hope to overcome at least some of these issues, as I want to keep this great piece of technology.

Day 4 and it is only getting better.

Keyboard shortcuts are a nice touch. T,B,R,F,C. Swipe down to access the number and symbols on screen keystrokes.
Assistant is very accurate, but it crashed on a couple of occasions. I'm sure that it is user error.
Speed Dial keys.
Camera quality is excellent. Panoramic feature is great.
BlackBerry Blend is awesome! My laptop connects and voila... emails, SMS, and BBM are on it and my Passport doesn't need to be used.
Advance Interactions are neat. Flip to mute, pick up to wake, and face down for standby.
Battery life is slightly better than my Z30, but I have been using it more and setting it up and making it work.
Holding it is awkward and my hands hurt. I've never had a full Qwerty BlackBerry before. I do like the accuracy and swiping.
I love the reactions. It is very funny to see people lose their minds.

I need a car / dash holder. Got the protective case.

9.5/10

Posted on my BlackBerry Passport :-)

Just discovered how extensive the keyboard shortcuts are. Virtual keys can be selected from the keyboard just like using the Alt key. Also there are shortcuts to compose a message and each account has an assigned letter.

Alt key is swipe down on the keyboard.

This Passport gets better every day.

Posted on my BlackBerry Passport.

After a week of use I am falling in Love with the Passport. First phase was 'intrigue'. Second phase was 'discovery'. Now 'love'

Posted via CB10

I was so pumped about this device and I got it and boy was I in love! The hardware is so sweet! But, alas, after four days, I don't know if I can continue to use the PP. As the OP said, it's very hard to type lying down. While I love the weight & the size (in theory) it is KILLING my thumbs & pinkies (ESPECIALLY my pinky that ends up holding the weight of the phone). I've had a tad of trouble getting accustomed to using a PKB & a touch-KB in conjunction with each other but feel in time I could over-come that. Another annoyance is the fact that no matter how I handle the phone, the screen comes on & by-passes the lock screen with the least bit of touching. Anyone else have that happening? That's something else I could deal with. But I'm so sad because I just don't think I can find a different way to hold the device to alleviate the weight on my pinky. I love love love the form factor but it is killing my hands. I wanted so badly for the PP to work for me because it has so many awesome features about it :crying: