[Tjalsma]

Hello Everyone,

I am thinking of changing over from Windows Phone to BB. I've been on Windows Phone since, literally, the first day. I love it but need something a little more productive and secure. I am an insurance agent - I use my phone a ton for texts, email, PDFs, etc. I am primarily looking at a Z10.

I have some questions hopefully you could help me out with:

Has the battery life improved? I read that it was lackluster at least in the beginning.
What has been updated since 10.0? Just a quick rundown on what features have been fixed/updated since 10.0.
Can you combine personal emails into one account and multiple business emails into one?
Can you attach files to emails?
What "major" apps are missing? I am not a huge app person but just curious.
Is there any info on further updates and what that might entail?
How is Blackberry Maps as far as turn by turn navigation? I deliver pizzas part-time and a decent map app is a must. Nokia has a fabulous navigation app on WP.
Is the lock screen customizable? For instance, can I have weather, etc. displayed on it?
How is the future of BB looking? I understand it may have been a bit rocky for a while there.
How is hardware reliability? Any known issues that have crept up that I should look out for?

Any other information would be great appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

[anon8430100]

Has the battery life improved? I read that it was lackluster at least in the beginning.
- Battery life is on par or better compared to the latest Note 3.0 or GS4 in my experience


What has been updated since 10.0? Just a quick rundown on what features have been fixed/updated since 10.0.
- The big ones are the regular stability, battery life, etc improvements. 10.2 brought the ability to run android apps, BBM Channels, and a few other small things around the UI

Can you combine personal emails into one account and multiple business emails into one?
- Blackberry Hub brings everything into one inbox. 10.2 brings priority inbox, which you should be able to separate personal vs business


Can you attach files to emails?
- yep. Never had any problems

What "major" apps are missing? I am not a huge app person but just curious.
- 10.2 brings android apps to berry. Not much is missing anymore

Is there any info on further updates and what that might entail?
- any updates and features are always speculation. Sorry for the vague statement, but that's unfortunately the way it is. There are usually OS Leaks that give away info though


How is Blackberry Maps as far as turn by turn navigation? I deliver pizzas part-time and a decent map app is a must. Nokia has a fabulous navigation app on WP.
- I have not had any major issues with it, but its something you will need to try out and see. You will have access to Google maps though


Is the lock screen customizable? For instance, can I have weather, etc. displayed on it?
- nothing that I have seen. Just calendar appointments, time, and notifications


How is the future of BB looking? I understand it may have been a bit rocky for a while there.
- company-wise, they are recovering. The devices no longer rely on BIS though, so even IF they did go under, everything would still work just fine


How is hardware reliability? Any known issues that have crept up that I should look out for?
- Some people have reported occasionally a double type on the Q10,but I have not seen it.



Posted via CB10

[eldricho]

Hello Everyone,

I am thinking of changing over from Windows Phone to BB. I've been on Windows Phone since, literally, the first day. I love it but need something a little more productive and secure. I am an insurance agent - I use my phone a ton for texts, email, PDFs, etc. I am primarily looking at a Z10.

I have some questions hopefully you could help me out with:

Has the battery life improved? I read that it was lackluster at least in the beginning.

- Battery life of the Z10 has been somewhat limited, but I've found that it has really improved since I got it back in August. If you're looking for a physical keyboard, the Q10 battery is better, but if you're going for all-touch, I recommend the Z30. It beats the Z10 in most categories and it has the best battery life a BlackBerry has enjoyed to date.

What has been updated since 10.0? Just a quick rundown on what features have been fixed/updated since 10.0.

- http://m.crackberry.com/blackberry-10-master-change-log

Can you combine personal emails into one account and multiple business emails into one?

-Don't use this, sorry

Can you attach files to emails?

-Yup, this can be done from the share menu or just from the Hub

What "major" apps are missing? I am not a huge app person but just curious.

-With the 10.2.1. update that has just been released, you can now install alternate Android app stores on the device (No Google Play yet) or just download apks and install these Android apps to use. Not all apps work, but I have found a lot of them to work just like they should
Still there is nothing that beats native. Native apps that are missing are apps like Netflix, Instagram, Path, Vine, Snapchat and some more
However there are some of these apps that have great alternatives 3rd party apps available! I.e. Whine (for Vine), iGrann (for Instagram), Snap2Chat (for Snapchat) and a couple more in progress

Is there any info on further updates and what that might entail?

-There's not much info on 10.3 yet, but if history repeats itself, we should be seeing an OS leak in the coming months where we can see what is upcoming

How is Blackberry Maps as far as turn by turn navigation? I deliver pizzas part-time and a decent map app is a must. Nokia has a fabulous navigation app on WP.

-Don't use Maps

Is the lock screen customizable? For instance, can I have weather, etc. displayed on it?

-Lockscreen is not customizable, but there is a built in feature where you can open notifications directly from the home screen. Don?t think the api's for the lockscreen are available to developers.

How is the future of BB looking? I understand it may have been a bit rocky for a while there.

-It's looking better now that John Chen has taken the helm. They are going to be focusing on enterprise users, but will not rule out their consumers.

How is hardware reliability? Any known issues that have crept up that I should look out for?

-Never had a hardware problem with my device yet, so can't complain a bit about the hardware reliability.

Any other information would be great appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

-I'd say to go out and try it at a local carrier store. BlackBerry 10 is hard to explain in words. It is only till you use it for a extended time that you see how awesome it really is. The Hub is probably the most awesome part of the device, coupled with the file manager, the browser with flash support and call quality.[/QUOTE]



Posted via CB10

[davinci4real]

Hello Everyone,

I am thinking of changing over from Windows Phone to BB. I've been on Windows Phone since, literally, the first day. I love it but need something a little more productive and secure. I am an insurance agent - I use my phone a ton for texts, email, PDFs, etc. I am primarily looking at a Z10.

I have some questions hopefully you could help me out with:

Has the battery life improved? I read that it was lackluster at least in the beginning.
What has been updated since 10.0? Just a quick rundown on what features have been fixed/updated since 10.0.
Can you combine personal emails into one account and multiple business emails into one?
Can you attach files to emails?
What "major" apps are missing? I am not a huge app person but just curious.
Is there any info on further updates and what that might entail?
How is Blackberry Maps as far as turn by turn navigation? I deliver pizzas part-time and a decent map app is a must. Nokia has a fabulous navigation app on WP.
Is the lock screen customizable? For instance, can I have weather, etc. displayed on it?
How is the future of BB looking? I understand it may have been a bit rocky for a while there.
How is hardware reliability? Any known issues that have crept up that I should look out for?

Any other information would be great appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

I came from a Nokia too. Trust me. BlackBerry is the light. Since you use your phone for text, email and pdf, you would love the keyboard, and the hub of the BlackBerry.
I know how much battery life means to you, since you're coming from a Nokia. The Z10 was my perfect device. But I'm a very heavy user. So I had to get the Z30. Which always (ALWAYS) Gives me nothing less than 13 hours.
I don't really understand what you mean by combine multiple emails into one. But I do know the BlackBerry Hub does a lot of combining for you, without messing things up.
Attaching files to email is best done on a blackberry, you should see the attachment view. It's awesome!
I'm a huge app person! And I have all the apps I want (probably more than I want) because we can now install android apps directly unto our phones.
Turn by turn navigation? Gaddamn! I only started using this feature last week. And since I left Nokia, I always told my friends that Ovi maps was the best when it came to turn by turn navigation...until I met BlackBerry maps last week. People complain about the maps, but they can never complain about the turn by turn navigation. It's that good.
Customization isn't really blackberry's fort. But if a young person like me can like the simplicity, then I'm pretty sure, you'll love it too.
People just hate BlackBerry for some reason. Forgot what the media says. Give the device a try. It wouldn't hurt. We have a new CEO now, who means business. So yes, you can have faith in the future of BlackBerry. Oh, and the Z10 just won a design award, and I cannot begin to tell you how elegant my Z30 looks.

From Zarafet my Z30.

[Tjalsma]

Thanks for all the info so far, guys. I don't think the Z30 is available through AT&T quite yet so maybe I'll keep an eye out as to when they may stop dragging their feet.

Regarding the combining of email accounts. For instance, on my Windows Phone, I can combine all of my personal emails (Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc.) into one hub. So, I can check my "personal" email all at once. And I can combine any work emails as well. It just makes it easier for me as I can set my personal ones to fetch data every 4 hours when my work emails fetch data as it's received.

Thank you very much for the information as well on the turn by turn navigation.

Also, I am not huge on customization. I do like weather on my lock screen though...but that's not a huge issue - looking outside isn't a horrible alternative, haha.

Lastly, regarding the Android apps that can be installed on BB10 devices. Is there any really bad noticeable lag? Do they run native within the OS or do you have to work a "little magic" or launch them from a separate location?

[eddy_berry]

Battery life has improved but the Z10 has a battery that is a bit underwhelming.

Other than what karkarmarklar said toast notifications and lock screen notifications have come since 10.2. You can choose to read and reply to texts or IM right in the notification rather than opening up the hub. Don't even need to minimize the app you are in. They can be suppressed if you ever connect your device to an external display via HDMI. Sharing can be done from anywhere through any medium you like. Took a picture and want to share it with a friend or social media? Do it straight from the camera app. Lot's of good things there.

You will like the Hub. It is customizable enough that you can get your work emails in the priority hub and your personal emails in the main hub along with texts, IM, or social media. Whatever floats your boat. Everything can be separated or all together. Should be what you are looking for in some capacity.

Emails and attachments go hand in hand. It also puts all your downloaded attachments sent to you in one convenient place.

What major apps would you like? If you want major apps you can find an Android APK file and install it. You can do that from your browser. Easiest way is to get an Amazon account and download the Amazon store app via Amazon's website. All done from the best mobile browser ever. The other way is sideloading an app called snap which is native access to Google Play. It needs to be sideloaded with a PC because it is not an officially supported app, but is probably the greatest thing to happen to anyone who spent hours figuring out how to sideload Android apps like we did before.

You probably won't like BlackBerry Maps all that much. It does the job for most people but is lacking behind competitors versions. You can always get map apps via an Android store. I still use BB Maps over Google Maps because it is quite easy to set up and follow and it does the job pretty well most of the time while driving.

The Z10 doesn't really have much hardware issues. It was plagued with what could only have been software issues in 10.0 that damaged batteries resulting in overheating batteries even after the software was patched. But that only affects you if you are planning on buying your Z10 cheap and heavily used. If you have a tendency to drop your phone then keep it in some kind of case. Protect that screen. If it cracks the digitizer is useless. That is really the only major hardware issues with a Z10 that I can remember. Doesn't really make a difference though the Z10 is still a great phone.

You might like it more than you think. Give it some time to grow on you. I would suggest finding a Z30 if possible where you are. That would be recommended.

[u4ria]

If you're near the Canadian border, get a Z30 from craigslist or kijiji. They'll all be around $500 or less. Make sure to have the seller include a old micro sim as well. That way you are never at the mercy of American carriers for updates. Once an update comes out, you pop that sucker in, go on wifi and the update appears. That's how I keep my phone up to date even though I'm running on the T-Mobile network.

Regarding email accounts, there's pretty much nothing you can't do. Remember, it's a BlackBerry. It was made for this type of thing. You can even add multiple email accounts from the same company. For example multiple gmail accounts. Heck, even if you had multiple hotmail and yahoo accounts, you can add them too. Have LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter? Feel like having them show up in the Hub? Yup, can do that as well.
Don't worry about when the accounts fetch data as well. During the dead simple set up (of each email account), you can specify how often they sync. If you happen to forget, you can just swipe down, go into the settings and change it for whichever account you want. Heck, you can even tell it which folders to sync. Let's say you have multiple folders in your email account and only want certain folders to appear, you can set that as well. You just click on which ever folder you want to be synced. Oh, best of all, you can decide how long the emails remain visible in that folder (from your Hub) as well.
Next up, you can colour code each account as well. So if you want to quickly visualize what email is from gmail or whatever email account, you assign it a colour. For example, gmail is red, hotmail is blue. When an email arrives, if it's from gmail, you'll see on the left hand side, a red vertical bar. For hotmail, it would be a blue vertical bar. BlackBerry is highly customizable when it comes to messaging. Trust me, once you use the Hub, you'll wonder how you ever managed your messaging before.

As for maps, it does the job. I've never had a problem with it. It does turn by turn navigation. It's not as good as google maps, but it does the job.

Now, for Android apps, it all depends on which app you load. There's no one all encompassing answer to that. I've loaded the Bank of America app and it works fine. I've got Amazon app as well and haven't experienced any issues. It'll all depend on which one you load. I'm not a big apps person but native BlackBerry apps are much better. Visually they're better, they have better sharing options, integrate with BBM and best of all, no stupid annoying ads. There's no magic you have to do. Just download, and install. They run just like any other app. You click on them and they launch as like any other app. Note though you have to install Snap in order to access Google Play. There's a step by step guide to doing that, written by the CrackBerry staff. It'll take you about 2 minutes to follow the guide step by step, set up your system and install Snap. It's that easy...2 minutes max.

[cjcampbell]

Thanks for all the info so far, guys. I don't think the Z30 is available through AT&T quite yet so maybe I'll keep an eye out as to when they may stop dragging their feet.

Regarding the combining of email accounts. For instance, on my Windows Phone, I can combine all of my personal emails (Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc.) into one hub. So, I can check my "personal" email all at once. And I can combine any work emails as well. It just makes it easier for me as I can set my personal ones to fetch data every 4 hours when my work emails fetch data as it's received.

Thank you very much for the information as well on the turn by turn navigation.

Also, I am not huge on customization. I do like weather on my lock screen though...but that's not a huge issue - looking outside isn't a horrible alternative, haha.

Lastly, regarding the Android apps that can be installed on BB10 devices. Is there any really bad noticeable lag? Do they run native within the OS or do you have to work a "little magic" or launch them from a separate location?

Most of the questions have been answered pretty well and I will conquer that for battery life, you should find yourself a Z30. I'm not sure but I think you can order it direct from BlackBerry if you're in the US.

What I wanted to add, is that the hub is your message/email OP Centre. The main hub brings in everything (email/text/BBM/WhatsApp/FB/Twitter etc) or you can pick and choose what comes in. I choose to only have email, text and BBM come to my main hub. Everything else is simply off to the side. Plus, pull down in the hub and you get your upcoming events and notifications from the calendar. Attached is a pic to show you what I mean.....


Attachment 247626

[Tornado99]

For maps, there is a very good third party made for BlackBerry called Don't Panic from Mireo...it does not use data plan while in use...all maps are downloaded to.your phone after installation.

I have a second nav app BE Maps Pro that has public transit, biking and walking turn by turn....not just cars on streets.

There's basically nothing you've brought up that should prevent you from enjoying a z10. No one has mentioned the bbm experience on a BlackBerry ..it is very good indeed....now with channels, x-platform versions, file sharing, screen sharing, voice and video calls over wifi.


Flicked out via Zed10

[12Danny123]

Hey man. I suggest you should wait out until you're really sure you want to switch. BB10 is an excellent OS. Top of the line. But since WP8.1 is coming out very soon with tones of new features I suggest you wait until you played with each OS until you make a decision.

Posted via CB10

[Tjalsma]

Hey man. I suggest you should wait out until you're really sure you want to switch. BB10 is an excellent OS. Top of the line. But since WP8.1 is coming out very soon with tones of new features I suggest you wait until you played with each OS until you make a decision.

Posted via CB10

I was thinking of the same thing. However, we have 4 Windows Phones in my house. We almost always keep our old phones so I would not be getting rid of my Lumia 920.

Thanks for all of your input guys. My only decision now is z10 now or z30 later through AT&T...it doesn't appear as though I can purchase one through BB.com.

[crackbrry fan]

Do it, do it now! ;-)

Posted via CB10

[spikesolie]

Hey man. I suggest you should wait out until you're really sure you want to switch. BB10 is an excellent OS. Top of the line. But since WP8.1 is coming out very soon with tones of new features I suggest you wait until you played with each OS until you make a decision.

Posted via CB10

Excellent suggestions..only seems the OP is big on emails and such.. which if we are honest no one beats blackberry. Still he's keeping the phone so we can't do wrong ah

Posted via CB10

[Tjalsma]

Last question and then I am off to the AT&T store. The guy seemed confused when I asked if they had any Z10's in stock, haha.

With my Nokia phone, there was a fairly easy way to always bypass carrier updates and get them before AT&T released them. With info that T-Mobile may not be carrying BBs anymore, I worry that AT&T will get even worse (if that's possible) in regards to releasing timely updates.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback and information.

[thurask]

Last question and then I am off to the AT&T store. The guy seemed confused when I asked if they had any Z10's in stock, haha.

With my Nokia phone, there was a fairly easy way to always bypass carrier updates and get them before AT&T released them. With info that T-Mobile may not be carrying BBs anymore, I worry that AT&T will get even worse (if that's possible) in regards to releasing timely updates.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback and information.

There's a few ways to bypass AT&T:

*Get another carrier's SIM (preferably a Canadian carrier, they're good with updates) and check for updates with that in
*Use Sachesi (very versatile tool over in the Leaked/Beta subforum) to download another carrier's OS and load that
*Download an autoloader (wipes the phone, but if done right, the best method)

Posted via CB10

[cjcampbell]

Last question and then I am off to the AT&T store. The guy seemed confused when I asked if they had any Z10's in stock, haha.

With my Nokia phone, there was a fairly easy way to always bypass carrier updates and get them before AT&T released them. With info that T-Mobile may not be carrying BBs anymore, I worry that AT&T will get even worse (if that's possible) in regards to releasing timely updates.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback and information.

If you are going to get the Z10, I advise getting a backup battery. Battery life is my only complaint on this phone.

Posted via CB10

[u4ria]

Last question and then I am off to the AT&T store. The guy seemed confused when I asked if they had any Z10's in stock, haha.

With my Nokia phone, there was a fairly easy way to always bypass carrier updates and get them before AT&T released them. With info that T-Mobile may not be carrying BBs anymore, I worry that AT&T will get even worse (if that's possible) in regards to releasing timely updates.

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the feedback and information.

Don't worry about updates. If you need, I can mail you my Canadian micro sim for you to borrow, in order for you to get updates. Once you're done, just mail it back to me (all it'll cost you is a postage stamp). I do that for all my friends and that keeps us up to date with all updates. Never be at the mercy of American carriers!

As others have suggested, buy a spare battery pack too if you can. Otherwise, keep it plugged in. That or just go with the monster Z30. Everyone raves about the battery life of that sucker.

[Tjalsma]

Don't worry about updates. If you need, I can mail you my Canadian micro sim for you to borrow, in order for you to get updates. Once you're done, just mail it back to me (all it'll cost you is a postage stamp). I do that for all my friends and that keeps us up to date with all updates. Never be at the mercy of American carriers!

As others have suggested, buy a spare battery pack too if you can. Otherwise, keep it plugged in. That or just go with the monster Z30. Everyone raves about the battery life of that sucker.

That would be fantastic as, it seems, as though I already will be behind an update being with AT&T.

I am surprised that, given the overall opinions on the battery, BB hasn't released a larger battery to replace the Z10 one.

[u4ria]

That would be fantastic as, it seems, as though I already will be behind an update being with AT&T.

I am surprised that, given the overall opinions on the battery, BB hasn't released a larger battery to replace the Z10 one.

You'd be at the stock version that shipped with the phone. But once you get the sim card from me (a couple of days via usps), you'd get the upgrade and be at the very latest and greates version that was released. Canadian carriers don't delay updates or there would be hell to pay. You could always go online and buy a micro sim from Canada. They cost like $10. Rogers, Telus, Koodo, Fido, Bell, EastLink, etc.. all have them. Either go online and buy or you can just head over to Canada and pick one up.

There's an aftermarket battery that you can buy that's something like 4200 mHa. But it would make your phone much more bulkier. The battery case everyone is talking about is the one made by BlackBerry. It's a nifty little thing. Just there for you to swap out your old battery in case it dies. I'd say with heavy heavy use, you'd be good for about 4-5 hrs. There are various tweaks you can make, such as dark theme, shutting off wifi when not in a wifi area, HSPA+ instead of LTE. Those kind of things that will help you get more battery life. But if you get the battery pack, who cares, do whatever you want. When battery dies, pop in new battery and you're good to go.

If you're not sure about what this battery pack/charger thing is, scroll through the site and you'll see they've done articles about it. I think James and others have written about it on numerous occassions.

[David Murray1]

This thread is tl;dr but yes you should switch, BlackBerry is such ridiculous amazing

[Playbook007]

If battery is a concern, the z10 is an 8-12 hour device. A Z30 is at least a 24 hour device with serious use. We all know there is no phone that has pure built in productivity than a BlackBerry device. If you don't mind a little bigger phone, I recommend the z30 over the z10 and Q10.

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