My @BBMobile #KEYone, 10 Months and One Day Later
*UPDATED*
Not sure how I forgot this but worth mentioning.. Although it’s more an android/app annoyance than a KEYone. What’s with apps like YouTube and Facebook refreshing and taking you back to the top of the feed when you return to the App after it was minimized?
Side note: I swore that early yesterday @BBMobile liked my tweet for this post then the ‘like’ was gone later in the day. Hopefully I didn’t piss anyone off. Interestingly enough my battery is getting battered this morning. Some sort of revenge? Lol. I kid.
I should also mention that I am a die hard fan and look forward to the KEYtwo.
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Ok so this post was supposed to happen yesterday and then life got in the way. So why not wait 2 more months and do a ‘year later’ review? Well, I don’t think anything will change in the next two months. Atleast I don’t think so. If things change then I will post another update.
No huge revelations will come out of this post. Just my experience.
I guess the best way to approach this is a pros and cons list.
Pros
The phone is gorgeous. Beautiful looking and great quality. BBmobile needs to continue to make quality BlackBerry phones. None of that DTEK series nonsense.
The physical keyboard is pure awesomeness. I cannot do without a pkb. I just simply love the feel of the keys. I am a complete superstar writing on the KEYone.
The added features that come along with this great pkb like flicking words onto screen. Swiping back to erase words. Using the pkb as a mouse. Last but not least the fact you can create shortcuts both long and short for each key. I have so many shortcuts set up. So, so convenient.
The split screen feature. Most of the time I use it because I am watching a YouTube video but want to be able to scroll through my twitter feed. BB10 was far superior at this but heck atleast we got something.
The App ecosystem. I put this out here because almost every single BB elite out there that is pushing old time BB users of OS7 and BB10 use this as the main argument to jump on the blackdroid bandwagon. Personally I am not huge on apps. I have the few I use regularly but that’s about it. Instagram, twitter and FB are the main three with a small handful of others. What I will say is that, yes, it is exciting, I guess, to always have these apps getting updated on a regular basis.
Battery life. Amazing that I don’t have to bring my charger with me. Ever.
Cons (or annoyances)
Apps freezing up and getting the dreaded ‘App has stopped working’ window. So annoying. I don’t recall ever experiencing this with BB10.
I feel like I need to throw this one in. The Facebook App on android is pure unadulterated garbage. 99% of the time it is sluggish as shit. Thank God I rarely use it. Unfortunately the few time I do use it, it’s pure hell.
There are times when u press on either the circle, triangle or square and it takes a few cracks before there is a response. The square seems to be the worse.
General lag in responsiveness. It doesn’t happen often but when the phone slows down, it slows down to a crawl and it is the WORST!! There have been times that it was so bad I wanted to launch the phone across a room and into a wall. I have not done it and will never because I can’t bring myself to damaging such a beautiful phone 😀. I recall one time wanting to show an iPhone user friend of mine a video and it took so long to fire up he commented that we would have already watched it on his iPhone. I had no comeback. I mean how can I possibly convince people to join the blackdroid world when shit like this happens.
Battery life. Yes, this is in my Cons list as well. Although I don’t need my charger, battery life is not like it used to be. Seems to have changed somewhat since the last OS update. When it comes to my phone usage during my work week nothing has changed. I rarely use my phone during my work day yet my battery drains at a faster rate than in the past. I start my day at 6am and finish work at 430pm. There was a time when my battery would be in the low to mid 80s. Now it’s low 50s and at time in the 40s. Sure I reboot and get maybe one good day but then it’s back to what seems to be the new norm of low to mid 50s. Mostly the android system is chewing up all the battery life. I get that over time batteries can’t keep their charge like they used to but it hasn’t even been a year yet. Something has to change here. Why do I have to be forced to reboot my phone frequently to hope to get better battery life?
That’s all folks. For the most part my experience with Android has been good but at this point I can still argue that it’s no BB10. At some point I imagine I will no longer be able to say that.
My Random Thoughts 