Quick Impressions - BB Classic User
I passed by an AT&T store today to take a look at the new Priv. I am a heavy BB Classic business user (on Verizon) and, while the Classic has some minor bugs and inefficiencies, overalI I really like my Classic and OS10 in general. FYI - I usually use 4-6 hours of talk time per day + 1 exchange e-mail account with 150+ e-mails coming in each day. I only use my phone for calls, e-mails, and texts. Here are my quick impressions:
- The phone was thinner than I expected. When the reviews say it's thin it's literally as thin as a normal phone. You would never know a keyboard is hiding underneath.
- The keyboard was slightly wider but significantly shorter in height than the Classic, making the keys "squished down" but slightly wider. I made less typing errors than I anticipated but I did find it cramped, especially when hitting the top row vs bumping up at the top with my fingers. Overall I was expecting the keyboard to be cramped and I did think it was cramped but it's probably useable (it's borderline for me). I would still like to see it be a little less squished to make it much more useable. It struck me as a lot better than the Torch keyboard but I never owned a Torch so I could be wrong about that.
- Really nice and big screen that is on par with other modern Android phones.
- The 2 biggest problems I had with the phone were some lag at times and efficiency of the usability/flow. It could have been the demo phone at the store but, at times, I would go into the Hub, for example, and try to click on the menu but it would literally take 7-10 seconds (no exaggeration) until the phone was willing to register my tap. It didn't register 7-10 seconds later - it just wouldn't do anything when I trying to tapping for the first 7-10 seconds, as if I wasn't tapping on the screen at all. This happened in multiple places (Hub, dialer, etc). Not sure if maybe something was slowing the phone down or if it's just the OS. As for the efficiency of the usability/flow, I have gotten accustomed to the BB Flow and it's just soooo efficient for the most part. It's clearly designed for business users and efficiency. Android is designed to cater to everyone and to be able to do anything but clearly isn't a focused business tool (and it's not meant to be). That's not a good thing from my perspective, as I suspect it would bog me down compared to OS10. Now, I FULLY realize that perhaps I would get used to it, as I only used it for 15-20 mins, but my initial impression is that it can do a lot more than my Classic but those capabilities take away from the business/efficiency focus, which is a net negative for me. I hope that makes sense.
- I missed the trackpad, as I found that sometimes the keyboard swiping worked and sometimes it didn't (depended on where I was in the OS). OS10 did a mostly good job of integrating the trackpad into each screen and I use it a lot, making the Priv a tricker phone for me to use.
Now that BB is leaking the Vienna I'm thinking that OS10 is on borrowed time and that future BBs will be based on Android. If that's true then I'm going to wait to try the Vienna, as a non-slider with smaller screen (but hopefully bigger keyboard!) is the better fit for me. And if I don't like it then I will probably buy several Classics and use them until they all die/break. I did that with the Motorola Q9c (I literally used one until last year!) and it served me well. But I just can't see myself choosing Android over OS10 as a heavy business user unless I am forced to do so, which I am guessing will eventually happen.
I hope this was helpful for Classic users...