Why my BlackBerry Priv is the best BlackBerry I ever had
Why my BlackBerry Priv is the best BlackBerry I ever had
And why all my previous BlackBerry were the best too
It all started back in 2008. At that time, I was a student and like many others, I had a Motorola v3i. After getting my first job, I was able to afford a phone with a contract and bought a BlackBerry Bold 9000.
This was a revelation for me: where some of my friends were still texting me in SMS language on their old-fashioned Nokia, I was able to type emails, SMS, take pictures and share them in an instant. I still remember our typing competitions when they used to mock my “big phone” that looked like a remote control. Didn’t matter: the facts were talking for themselves: I was already the most productive guy among my friends when talking about “getting things done”.
This is around that time that iPhone was born and I couldn’t understand why some people thought this was a revolution. To me, the phone was a screen: designed to consume content with no concept of productivity. Does any of you remember the first iPhone? Seriously, the device didn’t have a copy-paste functionality and didn’t support MMS. Yes – Ask Google!
I was really happy with my bold and I believe I kept it at least 2 years, until I bought myself a BlackBerry Bold 9780. Smaller, faster and for the first time with a track pad, I was in love and convinced the device was better than its big brother.
I think I kept my Bold 9780 an additional two years (or maybe a bit less), until the Bold 9900 was release. At that time, and to me, this was the true revolution: the first BlackBerry ever made that combined the power of a physical keyboard and the magic of a touch screen. Best BlackBerry ever! Until I bought my next one, again, something around 2 years later.
When I first used my Q10, I had the feeling that BlackBerry had reinvented itself: no trackpad, no phone and BlackBerry physical button and a brand new OS. BB10.1 was born and I did believe, at that time, that this OS was simply the best OS ever seen on a mobile device. Of course, the device had all the usual stuff that made me love BlackBerry: physical keyboard, touch screen, USB connection and a good camera…
My Q10 was the best BlackBerry I ever had until I bought my beloved Classic: the trackpad and the usual BlackBerry buttons were back in the most productive OS in the world. Jackpot. Once again, I thought I finally had the ultimate device.
Until last week…
I bought the Priv without seeing or testing it before. Living in Australia, all I could do was reading reviews on Internet and trust what I read. I knew I took a risk. First Android device ever released by BlackBerry, I was afraid I could lose some of my favourite BlackBerry features.
I have been using the Priv for one week now and I do believe this is the best BlackBerry device I ever owned. It is actually the first time I have a large touch-screen phone and, believe me, it does makes a difference in terms of user experience: everything is bigger and I can finally see my pictures on a 16:9 screen. But this is not it, coming with a slider keyboard, this phone is definitely the perfect device for me: large touch screen, fantastic keyboard, Google Play store application catalogue, and all the nice to have BlackBerry power under the hood. I am definitely in love. Special mention to the ability to use multiple keyboard and different languages: there is no need to switch between two keyboards and the device automatically recognises the language I am using before correcting. The keyboard setup on my phone is “French/English (Australia)” and it really makes me feel like nothing has changed between my Classic and my Priv in terms of language: I can still type in both languages, very easily, without typing mistakes. The Hub is here, and I love it. The password picture is here, and I love it. The usual BlackBerry security when booting the OS is here and I love it. The automatic Googles updates are here and released on day 1 and I love it.
Long story short: if any BlackBerry user is considering buying a Priv, there is no doubt: this phone is a must have!