- I know BB Employees read these forums so, here is my personal feedback on my experience of being a Priv owner. Please read and pass on to relevant teams or, ignore, as you prefer!
Few of major complaints:
- Why the curved screen? Yeah it looks good but it’s annoying when reaching across to tap a screen item to find your palm has rolled on the side screen and done something else (something that doesn’t happen for me on normal square edge screens). To be fair, i've also had the same complaint from people at work with Samsung phones.
- The capacitive keyboard. annoying when it will randomly move the cursor somewhere else when you don’t want it to. Oh, and then when you WANT to slide the cursor around, it won’t.
- BlackBerry Hub. Possible the single biggest failure. As a company that built its reputation around Email, why does my Hub not get random Exchange emails? They show on my PC and OWA but not in the hub (There is an open thread about this on Crackberry – I’m not the only one!). I had to disable this and turn to Nine instead, which just works.
- And FFS! Which person in the design flipped the Alt and Shift keys around on the keyboard design!?!? As a touch-typist this is infuriating me!
Oh yeah, OTHER issues that have appeared since last night when I received a load of updates:
- BB distributed a bunch of BB app updates last night to my Middle East (Qatar)/STV100-4 . I now get repeat messages on my watch (notifications/Polar v800) about how my accounts are not Syncing. I have two options, CLEAR or SYNC, even when I press SYNC and sign in to the phone, there is nothing on the screen. If don't acknowledge on the watch and sign in to the phone there is no notification. ARGHH!!! …..x minutes later I get the message again. Any idea which App is doing this?
- Also, along with last nights updates, when I click the Google Now bar the VOICE prompt comes up and no amount of hitting the X (close) button will close it. WHY? It never used to come up and I liked it that way! Any idea how to set back my preference of the KEYBOARD?
I'm seriously worried about applying the MM update given all the threads I'm seeing and judging by last nights updates!
I soooo missed the days of hardware keyboards, I am faster with them but, seriously, BB screwed this up badly for me. Utterly unimpressed. I’m tempted to see if I can find some mug to buy it and flip back to a Samsung or something….
(Why do reviewers never experience issues like these?)
P.S. Qualcomm Battery Guru, awesome. Get through a day at work with around 40-50% battery remaining.Last edited by StuzaTheGreat; 04-27-16 at 06:28 AM.
04-27-16 01:33 AMLike 0 -
- Between the hardware design being outsourced and the underlying OS being Android, one has to wonder how much of the Priv experience is actually determined by BlackBerry employees.04-27-16 09:06 AMLike 3
- How about you update to Marshmallow and then judge the software? Don't you think that would be prudent considering all those app updates are optimized for Marshmallow?. Many changes and tons of positive reviews for people using MM on Priv.
Priv owner since Nov 6th 201504-27-16 09:27 AMLike 0 - I'm actually on MM... yes a big improvement but still issues as mentioned above.
Posted via BlackBerry Priv or Passport SEStuzaTheGreat likes this.04-27-16 09:29 AMLike 1 - Hi,
First off, thank you for providing your feedback on your experience with the phone. I have taken some of your comments and shared with my colleagues.
I shall try to add some color to your feedback where i can...
@Curved screen: Like you said, it looks great... It also aids with ease of sliding in/out of pockets (especially with slim pants) We totally get the issue you are facing with the palm rub and we have done a lot of tuning for false touching on the edge to reduce miss-clicks, however it is a very fine balance of being too sensitive and under responsive, everyone has different tolerances, but definitely is something we will look at for future tuning. (inevitably the curse of a device with a curved large screen and users with smaller hands)
@CKB cursor: With our updated M release, the teams have done a lot of work to improve touch points with the cursor. I recommend trying the updated keyboard and let us know if you still find the cursor hopping issue. (Also something we are constantly striving to improve)
@HUB: Appreciate your feedback but don't got any good answers for you, i have shared your feedback to our HUB guru. I will let you know if there is anything that can be done. (If you can share logs, that would be the first step in understanding what you are seeing and why many others are not - and hopefully find a solution)
@ALT and SHIFT KEY: I totally feel you on the keyboard struggles. But you mentioned that you are a touch typist and that is why the alt/shift paradigm is confusing. For physical keyboards on mobile devices(aka BlackBerry) the ALT has always been to the left and shift below. #physicalkeyboard (i am talking since the 1990s) and every physical keyboard made out there has followed that design. - check typo and Samsung keyboard)
@UPDATES: I am not sure what you are seeing here, I have not experience the issues you are seeing on my watch. However if you continue to see this issue, we can work together to capture logs and investigate further.
@GOOGLEBAR: if you are tapping on the bar near the mic icon, it will go into listening mode, if you click on the "Google" icon it will make the listening sound and wait for you to speak or type. If you click anywhere else it will pull up google now and allow you to type your search
I hope i was able to answer/address some of your questions and do keep trying the device and exploring the features. We appreciate your feedback and support.
Cheers,
Dev
Product Manager - BlackBerry04-27-16 07:27 PMLike 7 - Good morning (Depending on your TZ!),
thank you for taking the time to respond, it's very much unexpected and very welcome!
I should point out that in the context of the response I am a first time BlackBerry user, I guess one of the many new customers you hope to bring on-board whilst you rebuild your devices arm of the business.
Hi,
@Curved screen: Like you said, it looks great... It also aids with ease of sliding in/out of pockets (especially with slim pants) We totally get the issue you are facing with the palm rub and we have done a lot of tuning for false touching on the edge to reduce miss-clicks, however it is a very fine balance of being too sensitive and under responsive, everyone has different tolerances, but definitely is something we will look at for future tuning. (inevitably the curse of a device with a curved large screen and users with smaller hands)
Hi,
@CKB cursor: With our updated M release, the teams have done a lot of work to improve touch points with the cursor. I recommend trying the updated keyboard and let us know if you still find the cursor hopping issue. (Also something we are constantly striving to improve)
Hi,
@HUB: Appreciate your feedback but don't got any good answers for you, i have shared your feedback to our HUB guru. I will let you know if there is anything that can be done. (If you can share logs, that would be the first step in understanding what you are seeing and why many others are not - and hopefully find a solution)
Check out the above link where Ryan and myself discuss this. Having said that, i've just put MM on and of course, it's updated Hub (a lot!) since I last used it so, maybe this bug has disappeared anyway. I'll update you in a few days. Either way, this only seemed to affect some corporate Exchange users so I'm thinking it must be some sort of setting on the Exchange server that some companies use and some don't. For example, it happened with my work email but not my personal Mail2Web hosted server.
Hi,
@ALT and SHIFT KEY: I totally feel you on the keyboard struggles. But you mentioned that you are a touch typist and that is why the alt/shift paradigm is confusing. For physical keyboards on mobile devices(aka BlackBerry) the ALT has always been to the left and shift below. #physicalkeyboard (i am talking since the 1990s) and every physical keyboard made out there has followed that design. - check typo and Samsung keyboard)
Acer M900
Toshiba G900
Dell Venue Pro
All pretty much follow a standard PC layout for this keys. As said, being new to BB I had no idea that the keyboard layout was a standard BB layout and a long running legacy design choice. I'd love to know why the person in the '90's decided to deviate away from a "standard" PC layout though! - I just checked Mac keyboard pictures on the internet and these also have the same layout as a PC, makes the decision even stranger!
So, I guess with this point BB are as we say "stuck between a rock and a hard place". Any "new to BB" users, such as myself, will be used to these keys the other way around but of course, you will have many users coming from older BB phones. Not sure what you can do here.... good luck! (An optional tickbox to flip them, maybe?)
edit: Watch Update.
I've a new symptom BUT, I think this related to Polar and it's v800 watch integration ...maybe. If I reboot the phone I get the FIRST message from the BlackBerry Hub appear on my watch but, after that, even if I clear the notification, I get no further messages. The reason I think it's Polar is because further Hub Notifications come through on the Android bar itself but these do not get pushed to the watch. Of course, I could be wrong but I'll try Factory Reset on the watch and re-install of Polar Flow first.
Hi,
@GOOGLEBAR: if you are tapping on the bar near the mic icon, it will go into listening mode, if you click on the "Google" icon it will make the listening sound and wait for you to speak or type. If you click anywhere else it will pull up google now and allow you to type your search
However, this issue has gone since the upgrade to MM. I now don't get this annoying prompt.
Again, thank you for your time and hope this all helps.Last edited by StuzaTheGreat; 04-28-16 at 02:52 AM.
Uzi likes this.04-28-16 12:39 AMLike 1 -
-
That's where User Requirements, Detailed Design (Functional/Non-functional design) and Verification/Validation come in to play, among other processes!
You don't have to build something to ensure it does what/how YOU want it to do.04-28-16 02:12 AMLike 0 - How about you update to Marshmallow and then judge the software? Don't you think that would be prudent considering all those app updates are optimized for Marshmallow?. Many changes and tons of positive reviews for people using MM on Priv.
Priv owner since Nov 6th 2015
(Until i forced the update last night (see previous post))04-28-16 02:14 AMLike 0 -
- Hey maybe the problem is them dam green men......after all in most of your posts it's the owner not the phone.
No Woof for you.04-28-16 10:31 AMLike 0 - Hey
I am glad that the M update has resulted in some improvements and hopefully with your further testing it will only get better...
quick comments
@HUB stuff, ill pass on the thread and information you shared and see if anythings comes from it. (ill keep you posted if i get something back)
@Keyboard: I guess i should have also clarified, there are a lot of devices out there that have keyboards, MANY of them are the full keyboard when a device is turned on the side, i totally get those devices should be following a PC keyboard layout. (i would imagine if BB ever made a device with a keyboard like that, we would do the same) However, BB is rooted in our keyboard design and I even started to ask around as to why we went with the alt/shift paradigm. the best answer i can provide at this time was that the shift key was not needed as the device was "smart" enough to handle capital letters. (double space would capitalize, software would recognize names/landmarks etc.) However, Alt was used for punctuation, special characters as well as numbers. Higher usage and natural feel must have resulted in the placement and as it became the "iconic keyboard design" for BB we have never changed and if we did now....woooo (that totally could be the wrong answer but thats all i got ) ...for now
Again i appreciate you taking the time to respond and share your feedback. I hope your experience with PRIV makes you a on-going BlackBerry user
Cheers
Dev
Product Manager - BlackBerryUzi likes this.04-28-16 11:15 AMLike 1 - A more open, vocal, and honest public presence would do BlackBerry a world of good. Consumers want verbal confirmation of commitment. That said, BlackBerry seems to have done an awfully good job with keeping the Priv up to snuff in terms of security. I just hope they're quicker this time with Andoid N.04-28-16 11:18 AMLike 0
-
- Thank you for being on the forum. Are we going to have the option for resized email view? I don't see a reason to open an email and it's zoomed in too much. Also, are we ever going to get all notification in the hub? I get some massaging apps will need integration,but a lot of notification are simple in nature. Thanks in advance
Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android04-28-16 11:44 AMLike 0 - I love the priv. The only feedback I have on the hub is please include automatic email resizing like on BB10. Genuinely miss that feature!! Also would appreciate some more work on speed, heat and battery life. Pretty good now but not as perfected as the passport.
In terms of hardware...the back plate is too big, causing creaks and squishy spots on the back. I fixed this by putting some black post-it note cuts into the very small gaps caused by he backplate. Overall I love the materials...the factory tolerances just need tightened up.
Great job and keep up the good work!
Posted via the CrackBerry App for Androidfadi.alsaidi likes this.04-28-16 11:50 AMLike 1 - It's Android! It'll always have issues. No one seems to remember how Android and Apple were slammed her for years. It only stopped when BB became Android04-28-16 03:23 PMLike 0
- So, I guess with this point BB are as we say "stuck between a rock and a hard place". Any "new to BB" users, such as myself, will be used to these keys the other way around but of course, you will have many users coming from older BB phones. Not sure what you can do here.... good luck! (An optional tickbox to flip them, maybe?)
I love the physical keyboard. I had the attitude of learning something new and fun. Fun it is!FF22 likes this.04-28-16 04:41 PMLike 1 - I would be very angry if you did anything different with the shift and alt keys. Just saying.
Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android04-28-16 07:14 PMLike 0 - ..
@Keyboard: I guess i should have also clarified, there are a lot of devices out there that have keyboards, MANY of them are the full keyboard when a device is turned on the side, i totally get those devices should be following a PC keyboard layout. (i would imagine if BB ever made a device with a keyboard like that, we would do the same) ...
..
However, BB is rooted in our keyboard design and I even started to ask around as to why we went with the alt/shift paradigm. the best answer i can provide at this time was that the shift key was not needed as the device was "smart" enough to handle capital letters. (double space would capitalize, software would recognize names/landmarks etc.)
..
However, Alt was used for punctuation, special characters as well as numbers. Higher usage and natural feel must have resulted in the placement and as it became the "iconic keyboard design" for BB we have never changed and if we did now....woooo (that totally could be the wrong answer but thats all i got ) ...for now
Again i appreciate you taking the time to respond and share your feedback. I hope your experience with PRIV makes you a on-going BlackBerry user
Cheers
Dev
Product Manager - BlackBerry
Any chance you can get a developer to help us computer users out and give us an alt/shift swap application?
BBHUB/typing
MM has reversed many odd things that came on my last update, thank you! (Thanks for correcting errors?)Last edited by StuzaTheGreat; 04-29-16 at 12:29 AM.
04-29-16 12:17 AMLike 0
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