Anyone else rocking a BB10 device?

[thilanliyan]

I've got a Passport. The UI and navigation within it is much nicer than Android, iOS, or WP IMO (I've tried all 3, with Android and WP for extended periods of time). Apps is another story of course, although I'm running a hacked Google Services so I can get all the apps I need.

Gesture based navigation is so much nicer...pressing buttons feels so archaic lol. I had a Meego Nokia N9 before and same story...the gestures felt so much quicker and more natural than pressing buttons.

I think it has to do with the fact that you have to be somewhat accurate in where you press with buttons, whereas you don't have to be with gestures, like pressing letter by letter vs using Swiftkey on a keyboard, so navigation feels much quicker.

I know, I know, I'm a dinosaur

 

[Commodus]

Loads of BB10 fans say they think the interface is more intuitive than others, but I'd disagree... ever try to rapidly clear out messages? I imagine it might have changed since the last time I used BB10, but it was horribly awkward.

To me, Apple is mostly right in its approach to gestures: they should be optional features that enhance functionality, not core aspects of the UI. It's nice to swipe from the left to go back a screen... it's not so nice to swipe in order to visit the home screen in BB10.

 

[lupi]

Dropped BB when they stopped producing no-camera versions.

 

[smitbret]

I finally dropped my BB Z10 on May 6 in favor of a BB Priv. After a couple of months and many hours of fiddling, it is simply a fact that BB10 is easier to use than Android for almost anything. It takes about a week to really adjust to the BB10 OS but after that most things are as easy as breathing. There were probably a couple dozen times during my tenure with the BB10 that I would think "How would I do this on a BB10?". 9 out of 10 times my first impression was right. No Googling "How do I.......?" It is an awesome OS.

I just couldn't take the lack of app support. None of my banking apps would work, even with Android Runtime. Anything took forever to load and when it did, it was often choppy for the first few minutes until the app settled in and resources got properly allocated.

I just couldn't take it anymore. Crying shame and I still feel like a part of me has died.

 

[thilanliyan]

Loads of BB10 fans say they think the interface is more intuitive than others, but I'd disagree... ever try to rapidly clear out messages? I imagine it might have changed since the last time I used BB10, but it was horribly awkward.

To me, Apple is mostly right in its approach to gestures: they should be optional features that enhance functionality, not core aspects of the UI. It's nice to swipe from the left to go back a screen... it's not so nice to swipe in order to visit the home screen in BB10.

About deleting messages I don't follow?? There's a little delete button beside each email in my hub. I can instantly delete every email I want.

About swiping for the home screen, what do you mean 'not so nice'? In android or ios you have to press a button to go to the homescreen...in bb10 it's a swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Again, the swipe from anywhere below the screen seems easier than having to press a button.

 

[thilanliyan]

I just couldn't take the lack of app support. None of my banking apps would work, even with Android Runtime. Anything took forever to load and when it did, it was often choppy for the first few minutes until the app settled in and resources got properly allocated.

I just couldn't take it anymore. Crying shame and I still feel like a part of me has died.

The Passport is actually not bad running Android apps, but probably because the hardware is newer than the z30. Google maps for example runs just as well as it did on my previous android devices.

It is a bit of a pain the butt to have to hack to run these apps though.

 

[desura]

I've been using one as a music player.

The Z10 has pretty good sound. It is also really small, like comparable in size to an iphone 5. And it has a good case which integrates well with the phone.

 

[smitbret]

The Passport is actually not bad running Android apps, but probably because the hardware is newer than the z30. Google maps for example runs just as well as it did on my previous android devices.

It is a bit of a pain the butt to have to hack to run these apps though.

I thought about a Passport or Z30 but my problem was even getting a huge chunk of my apps to just load. It didn't matter which version of BB10 I was running. Most would just error out when I opened them or would freeze at a load screen. I was a wipe and reinstall with a fresh OS guy (every couple of months or so) so I know it wasn't a local issue and the problem just kept getting progressively worse over the last year. I finally had to throw in the towel.

I have spent a crazy amount of time customizing the Priv to Mimic BB10 as much as possible. I am pleased so far.

 

[thilanliyan]

I have spent a crazy amount of time customizing the Priv to Mimic BB10 as much as possible. I am pleased so far.

Can you get the hub to be the left homescreen? Or maybe a swipe left?

 

[desura]

The priv is too big and the screen is too high a resolution. Heck, I would have been okay with a 720p screen if it gave a two day battery life.

But with this 4k screen on a simple cell phone, it slows down operations needlessly and it kills battery life. All for negligible gains.

 

[core2slow]

As a BB10 user who merely uses his phone now as a call forwarding device to the personal phone, i disagree. I've even posted a thread here a few months back about the unintuitiveness of the UI and how it still unpolished on some of the common tasks for having been out much much later than Android/iOS.

If it fits the bill to you OP then by all means keep rocking it. Goes to show how much turd of an OS it was for BB to abandon and go the android route.

 

[thilanliyan]

Goes to show how much turd of an OS it was for BB to abandon and go the android route.

The best technical solution (not saying BB10 is it) doesn't always win out. There can be loads of other factors, like in this case the apps. It didn't help that BB was way too slow to the punch but IMO it didn't get abandoned because it was a "turd", but lack of devs making apps for it.

 

[Commodus]

As a BB10 user who merely uses his phone now as a call forwarding device to the personal phone, i disagree. I've even posted a thread here a few months back about the unintuitiveness of the UI and how it still unpolished on some of the common tasks for having been out much much later than Android/iOS.

If it fits the bill to you OP then by all means keep rocking it. Goes to show how much turd of an OS it was for BB to abandon and go the android route.

Some folks will be annoyed by the source, but Steve Jobs once noted that if you're going to overthrow an established product, you can't be just a little bit better... it has to be a huge leap. Otherwise, the advantages of sticking with what you know are too big to ignore.

And that's what felled BlackBerry 10, WebOS, Windows Phone... they all claimed to do something better than Android or iOS, but the differences were all iterative. This one has a unified messaging/notification hub! This one has a neat multitasking system! This one has Live Tiles! Sure, those were nice, but the big revolution happened when the iPhone was introduced in 2007, and when Google made an iPhone-like experience widely accessible with Android in 2008. There was no big reason to leave those platforms once they gained enough traction.

Showing up with a minor improvement (if that) years later was never going to turn the tide. If BlackBerry wanted to have a hope of fighting Apple and Google, it should have started work on BB10 the very second Jobs left the stage at the iPhone launch... having it available 6 years later just guaranteed that everyone, including developers, had moved on. Heck, it would have stood a much better chance in 2010!

 

[thilanliyan]

^I agree, BB10 was definitely too late to the party, and will likely completely die off (BB has not said they are putting all their eggs in the Android basket yet)...but I'll hang on to the bitter end lol...unless I can get a similar experience (mainly the HUB for me) from an Android device.

 

[desura]

If I were in charge of like Windows Phone, I'd focus on creating like a mega cheap MVNO that only worked on Windows phones. Like, have it span all of the carriers and also be cheap, $15/mo.

 

[core2slow]

The best technical solution (not saying BB10 is it) doesn't always win out. There can be loads of other factors, like in this case the apps. It didn't help that BB was way too slow to the punch but IMO it didn't get abandoned because it was a "turd", but lack of devs making apps for it.

I haven't even mention about the apps. Just the core BB10 apps alone are slow and unintuitive, so my criticism is just. Sorry, it's not an excuse when you have 2 of they biggest players to "learn" the process from and missed on both counts. Every simple action is met with swiping galore and sub-options, so that alone already tells me that it's a failed OS.

 

[poofyhairguy]

If BlackBerry wanted to have a hope of fighting Apple and Google, it should have started work on BB10 the very second Jobs left the stage at the iPhone launch...

What would have saved Blackberry:

1. The Torch failure should have been a "Come to Jesus" moment, when BB took it as "eh people prefer buttons anyway."

2. The Playbook should have never been released. All that effort should have gone somewhere else.

3. BB should have taken Android and skinned it with BB-specific features rather than making BB10 OS at all.

 

[thilanliyan]

I haven't even mention about the apps. Just the core BB10 apps alone are slow and unintuitive, so my criticism is just. Sorry, it's not an excuse when you have 2 of they biggest players to "learn" the process from and missed on both counts. Every simple action is met with swiping galore and sub-options, so that alone already tells me that it's a failed OS.

Which core apps are slow? The browser for example is very good and speedy, even with flash. I have firefox, dolphin, and chrome on my galaxy tab S and I wouldn't consider those to be any better.

 

[core2slow]

Which core apps are slow? The browser for example is very good and speedy, even with flash. I have firefox, dolphin, and chrome on my galaxy tab S and I wouldn't consider those to be any better.

The hub and the browser, mainly. Maybe good and speedy from 5 years ago but not so much now with so many multimedia-rich contents and mobile-optimized sites out there. Then again, having a phone (blackberry classic 2015) with a SoC from 2012 isn't going to help, either.

 

[thilanliyan]

The hub and the browser, mainly. Maybe good and speedy from 5 years ago but not so much now with so many multimedia-rich contents and mobile-optimized sites out there. Then again, having a phone (blackberry classic 2015) with a SoC from 2012 isn't going to help, either.

I use the BB browser and Hub (on my Passport) and the other Android browsers on my tablet daily, and I can't say the experience is worse. The majority of the time I find the BB browser to be faster. The Passport is a relatively powerful device though compared to the Classic, which in fact I have through work (and which I find slow), so maybe that's why I don't notice it on my Passport.

 

[3chordcharlie]

The hub and the browser, mainly. Maybe good and speedy from 5 years ago but not so much now with so many multimedia-rich contents and mobile-optimized sites out there. Then again, having a phone (blackberry classic 2015) with a SoC from 2012 isn't going to help, either.

You are just wrong. I mean, so many things are a matter of opinion, but this is not. You can hate the OS if that floats your boat, but the core apps are fine.

 

[core2slow]

You are absolutely correct. I mean, so many things are a matter of opinion, but this is so true. You can hate the OS if that floats your boat, but the core apps are horrible.

I'm glad we've come to the same conclusion, bro. My opinion was that the OS is horrible and I'm glad so many people felt the same way (otherwise they wouldn't have ditched BB10).

 

[3chordcharlie]

I'm glad we've come to the same conclusion, bro. My opinion was that the OS is horrible and I'm glad so many people felt the same way (otherwise they wouldn't have ditched BB10).

Very clever.

<---OT is over there don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[core2slow]

Very clever.

<---OT is over there don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Who hurt you?