One month and a half with my Q10

Posted on June 19, 2013 Updated on June 19, 2013

So it’s been a little over a month since I got my blackberry Q10 and I figured it was time I wrote about what I think of it. In case I haven’t really made it obvious by some of my past posts I am a true blackberry fanboy. I have been a fan since I first laid eyes on one but couldn’t afford it ;).. my first blackberry was a bold 9000 then I went to the bold 9900. I am huge on a keypad… have to have one. I love the feel and the clicking noise, Damn it I just love the clicking. Lol. I am also a pro at typing. A pro, I tell you. I thought that the keypad on the 9000 was fantastic, then came the 9900 and I was in love and now the Q10.. well I am in love all over again. The look and feel of this keypad is amazing!!! Notice how I start with the keypad… it’s all about the keypad. Did I mention that it’s all about the keypad! Lol. The phone itself is great looking. Losing the track pad was not a big deal at all. I really love the form factor of the phone. Of course, the added real estate gained by the removal of the track pad area does a lot of good.
I follow a significant amount of blogs dedicated to the blackberry. Mostly I spend my time on crackberry.com and I do spend a lot of time reading the comments made by users as well as the reviews that are out there. I must say that it’s so frustrating to read ‘reviews’ of the phone done based on hours or maybe a day or two of phone use. How can you really review a phone spending so little time on it? You need to spend quality time using the phone, any phone, before you can really decide if it’s for you or not. You need to use it in the ‘real world’, you need to use it often. I consider myself a power user.. for one, I am addicted to it so by default that makes me a power user ;). I think that I should mention that I don’t consider myself a gamer.. I mean I do enjoy playing games but when I do play, it would not be on a phone.. it’s either on a tablet or console.. that’s it.. so I don’t look at gaming as a criteria for a phone.
Am I upset that #netflix doesn’t have an app for BB10? Yes, I’m upset that they are being stubborn and silly about it.. personally I don’t care.. I don’t see myself watching a movie on the #Q10 but hell if they decide to create an app then of course I will get it. Am I upset that #instagram does not have a native app for BB10? Not really. We live in a world of way too many duck lip selfies… we don’t need another person added to the list; namely me. The haters complain that there aren’t enough apps.. how many apps does one really need? Is it important to have 1million apps when you will only use or install a fraction of these apps? Such a weak argument for one and secondly you can start to see that even those who created apps for the other platforms are starting to see the benefits to coming to #BB10.
Any blackberry user coming from OS5,6 or 7 will be floored by the difference. It’s night and day different. The speed, no more hourglass, no more reboots on app installs. For anyone coming from another platform they will be greeted with the same type of performance. There is no doubt in my mind..it’s just my gut here because I have not used any other smartphone but a blackberry.
There are several things I like about this new OS and experience. The fact that everything is gesture based is amazing. The gestures themselves are very simple and easy to remember. Anyone finding the gestures complicated …well… I am afraid then you are not too bright. The best thing about BB10 is the #hub… having everything consolidated in one place is amazing. honestly, I can get everything done thru the hub. I really don’t need to be running the apps individually. Another thing I like is the ‘instant action’ functionality… wanna email someone, type ’email’ + name and voila… wanna text someone, type ‘text’ + name and there u go… wanna tweet, type ‘tweet’ + whatever and bam u’ve tweeted… efficiency and productivity, that’s what it’s all about. It’s like their commercial… keep moving forward!! Last but not least I should mention the battery… battery life is amazing. When I had my bold i’d always be in a panic when it got down to 20% or less because it would drain super fast. Now, not a worry in the world. For one, the battery life is very good to begin with, secondly I could bring it down to its very last breath without having to scramble for my charger.
There are a lot more great features I can get into but for me, right now, a month later the above mentioned are by far what has me impressed.
Now having written this, not everything is rosey. It is a new OS after all and you have to expect some little quirks. There are times when apps like twitter and facebook stop refreshing… the feeds just stop coming in and only closing and re-launching gets things going again. Now is this an issue with the app itself or the OS or a bit of both? I don’t know. I tend to lean toward it being an app issue. There are times that yes, a reboot of the phone clears up some ‘issues’… but that is very rare. A couple of times I have seen an app crash and disappear on me… again, hasn’t happened often…There are also times when for whatever reason my gmail accounts gets disconnected.. Are any of these show stoppers for me? Absolutely not. That would be petty.

So there you have it; my #Q10 review… all in all I am very impressed with the BB10 platform, the #Q10 phone itself and I am looking forward to seeing where #blackberry is heading.

PS: i wrote up this post on … u guessed it… my #Q10