Two weeks with my Z10 - Battery life, camera quality, restarts
I'm not going to make this overly long or detailed because I feel like many folks have covered their issues at length, but after two weeks with the Z10, I am loving this phone more and more.
Some quick observations: Over two weeks...
- Battery life has improved significantly. I am a moderate user and at the end of a day, still have ~60% of my battery left. The Z10 gets better battery life than my old 9930 and I am very pleased.
- Fluidity and overall performance continue to increase. There was some choppiness in the beginning, but things just keep getting better, smoother, faster.
- Little issues have gone away. My phone is no longer randomly restarting (and I'm on Verizon) and the issue of the screen dimming for a half second while the phone "thinks" is gone. Those were my two annoyances that have since corrected themselves.
I see a lot of people using the phone for a few days and complaining that it's not what they wanted or that BB has "lost their way" over the legacy OS, and then claiming to return it. I was excited to get the Z10 because I've been following it for so long, but truly, I am far happier with this phone than I ever thought I would be. In my experience, it just gets better and better as time goes on so I would recommend using the phone for at least a full week or two before you make a decision to return it. After using the Z10, using the iPhone's home button and in-and-out-of-app structure feels downright primitive.
Before I purchased my Z10, I also read some reviews from folks who are disappointed with the camera, and that made me very apprehensive. After owning the phone and taking numerous pictures, I have no idea what the fuss is about. This camera takes pictures that are easily as good as those on the iP5 and SG3. I have done numerous side-by-side comparisons and the Z10 has stellar image quality. Dim lighting is a struggle, but that is the case for every smartphone.
I'm frustrated that Instagram still hasn't shown up, but I feel like the Z10 is such a strong first step for BB10 that it's only a matter of time until the platform gains big name apps like Instagram, Skype, Vine, etc.
Also on a sidenote, I've converted 4 iPhone owners and 2 SG3 owners to the Z10 in the last two weeks, and that wasn't even with a sales pitch. I've had people ask to use the phone and it seems like that's all it takes: once people have this device in their hands, they're sold! BB needs to do some type of ad campaign around this, IMO.