[bb10adopter111]

Yeah, I wouldn't presume to have done any better. As a businessman, tho, my kneejerk reaction almost always leans toward preserving existing customer base while expanding into new ventures. Hard to expand while contracting. Lol.

Water under the bridge... (bridge under the water?? Lol) at this point. Best we can hope for, at this point, is LE, imo. Far from best ever but mostly best typing experience CURRENTLY available. Imo. Still time for someone, somewhere, (TCL??) To get a living 9900 in hand and discover some possibly profitable tid bits of exceptional proficiency. Some of today's consumers may eventually become tomorrow's producers... producers who may find "real time" typed collaboration as essential as SOME of us still do...

For me, it's the producer/communications-focused workflow and UX that BlackBerry offered, and the PKB is only a reflection of that approach. I enjoyed the PKBs and VKB equally, as I found them to have different and complementary strengths.

I'm afraid that you're right that no one is looking to serve the small segment of people who don't want to spend money or time on mobile for anything other than productive.

[BigBadWulf]

people who don't want to spend money or time on mobile for anything other than productive.

But your definition of productive is different than mine, and mine is different than _____, etc.

Nearly all of BBOS UI experience is now lost to history. Our 9900's represent a living example of that exquisit accomplishment. A living example condemned to involuntary euthanasia within a year. SOoo too many will then never know the proficiency they never knew. Imo. Lol.

To me the 99xx was the pinnacle of input design. I can't say hardware on a whole, as the camera was lackluster. The UI however peaked at OS5. Beyond that while more stable, you gave up a lot of customizing that provided folks a theme which best suited their productive needs.

[idssteve]

Ahha... 9900 camera is truly awful. Lol. Indicative of the intended use case feature prioritization, imo. We still have some non-camera 99s carried when visiting certain facilities.

Certain releases of os5 were quite stable and represented my fave for 9650. Never found an os6 flavor that wasn't "laggy" in 9650. Os7.0 in early 99s was so miserable that most of my crew reverted to 9650, for a time. We even jumped into initial Z/Q10 for a year (2013) before returning to 99. 7.1 was an improvement and final release of 7.1 has been superb for 99, these past 5 years. I've long suspected that "spinning clock" complaints about 99s might have been attributed to early 7.0 experience? ?

Interesting to note, my fastest ever type rate has been with "tiny" 9650. Slightly better (about 105%) than even 9900! In my hand, at least. If typing were my only priority, I'd still be using 9650. Once again, smaller makes for faster PKB typing!

Alas, 9650's 10 minute boot times makes battery swaps too painful. 9900's 1.2 Ghz processor hard boots that sweetheart in 2 minutes, 40 seconds after battery swap. Fastest 0 to 100% battery restore!

Additionally, 9900's trackpad/toolbelt implementation has no peer for text selection/editing. Especially spreadsheets! Classic comes closest but BB10 never included "insert row" provision. AFAIK. Go figure. Lol.

Whether accident, or design, BB got SOoo many things SOooo "Goldilocks" right with Dakota! Imo. Only to toss the hard won accomplishment "out with the bath water" ... lol. It truly represented an exquisitely competent package that simply hasn't been replicated since. Far, FAR more to that experience than simply slapping a PKB to the bottom of an already oversized slab. Like I said earlier, "they broke the mould" after creating Dakota.

Again, under MY thumb (with grasp enhancing belt clip fitted), LE represents best available typing experience. Imo. Certainly not best ever, tho. Imo. Fwiw.

[retsub60]

I'm going to hold out for the Key3 before leaving on the A-train (android). Maybe even if ATT begins selling LE at a reasonable price (less than $250). We'll see; hopefully soon before end of 1Q.

[Chuck Finley69]

I'm going to hold out for the Key3 before leaving on the A-train (android). Maybe even if ATT begins selling LE at a reasonable price (less than $250). We'll see; hopefully soon before end of 1Q.

Seriously, I’m on AT&T... do you serious think LE will be offered anywhere below $400 if that’s what they sell KEYone for?

[anon(10512033)]

Seriously, I’m on AT&T... do you serious think LE will be offered anywhere below $400 if that’s what they sell KEYone for?

The LE *should* be less than US$400. It sells for CAD$360 with a plan on my carrier (Koodo) in Canada: https://www.koodomobile.com/phones/blackberry-key2-le

Of course, whether it actually *will* be less than US$400 is another story.

[Chuck Finley69]

The LE *should* be less than US$400. It sells for CAD$360 with a plan on my carrier (Koodo) in Canada: https://www.koodomobile.com/phones/blackberry-key2-le

Of course, whether it actually *will* be less than US$400 is another story.

We don’t bundle the plans anymore...... the plans are now heavily discounted and you pay the hardware separately but no longer discounted for contract terms...

[anon(10512033)]

We don’t bundle the plans anymore...... the plans are now heavily discounted and you pay the hardware separately but no longer discounted for contract terms...

Ours are kind of "fake bundles." You can cancel the plan within a month and just pay off the device at the plan price. Of course, they don't like this, but according to the deal hounds at RedFlagDeals.com, Koodo won't cancel your account until you've done this five times.

[TrumpetTiger]

Multi-year 9900 user seeking to upgrade; desire PKB, considering Classic or KEYone.
Primary needs: Sync to Outlook/work email, sync music to iTunes, text and talk, Yahoo email access. Rarely if ever access internet. Seek advice on what device would best serve my stated needs.

Retsub, if you are wanting to go Android with a KEYone or 2 that's certainly up to you, but pretty much everything you stated can be done with a Classic as well. It really depends on what you're feeling...having used a 9900 for so long I'm pretty sure you're not concerned with many of the features of the Blackberry Android devices, so it's a question of what you think you'd like more.



Posted via CB10

[conite]

I'm going to hold out for the Key3 before leaving on the A-train (android). Maybe even if ATT begins selling LE at a reasonable price (less than $250). We'll see; hopefully soon before end of 1Q.

I think the KEY² LE would be a no-brainer for you. 2½ more years of updates including Pie, and full access to a real, living ecosystem.

[bh7171]

Multi-year 9900 user seeking to upgrade; desire PKB, considering Classic or KEYone.
Primary needs: Sync to Outlook/work email, sync music to iTunes, text and talk, Yahoo email access. Rarely if ever access internet. Seek advice on what device would best serve my stated needs.

BE KeyOne is excellent. You will not be disappointed. Mine updated to OREO immediately and is now on the January 5th patch.

[bh7171]

294 for the US full warranty unlocked BE KeyOne from Amazon is a screaming deal. (I had a 50 dollar gift card so I am rocking mine for 244- and I am pleased with this device so far) I am on T-Mobile and visible voice mail is set up, signal has been great and I am REALLY enjoying having this physical capacitive keyboard. I was considering the LE. I am stoked with the BE. Happy hunting 😎😁

[the_boon]

I think the KEY² LE would be a no-brainer for you. 2½ more years of updates including Pie, and full access to a real, living ecosystem.

I'm an owner of two KEY2 LE's and I approve this message

[retsub60]

One final word from me....I took the plunge; my wife and I turned off our Blackberries and both got Samsung Galaxy J7. At the end of the day it came down to this for me...Blackberry phones don't exist any longer. What's taken their place are Chinese android phones with iffy physical keyboards. They're no longer running true BB OS and they're not made in Canada. If you think the Key one and company are Blackberries, you're just fooling yourself. I don't mean to sound ill mannered, it's just one man's opinion. However, I will continue to keep a watchful eye on Blackberry and hope for better days.

[BigBadWulf]

One final word from me....I took the plunge; my wife and I turned off our Blackberries and both got Samsung Galaxy J7. At the end of the day it came down to this for me...Blackberry phones don't exist any longer. What's taken their place are Chinese android phones with iffy physical keyboards. They're no longer running true BB OS and they're not made in Canada. If you think the Key one and company are Blackberries, you're just fooling yourself. I don't mean to sound ill mannered, it's just one man's opinion. However, I will continue to keep a watchful eye on Blackberry and hope for better days.

You may not mean to sound ill mannered, but the progression of this thread does nothing to dispute that. Before anyone decides to take the bait, I'm closing this discussion and hoping for better days myself.