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Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

arstechnica.com

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Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#51

Post by kunai »

wvenable wrote: post #47
kunai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you even read the review? This isn't related AT ALL to the old OS7 Bold or any other Blackberry line, which were awful. BB10 can do much more than an iPhone and be just as productive while providing a rich media experience.

> BB10 can do much more than an iPhone Really? That's not the impression that I get. It might be able to meet the current features and abilities of iOS and Android but I haven't see anything that indicates it can do "so much more". There doesn't seem to be enough here to justify purchasing a device from a 3rd place manufacturer with brand new software.

Real time task scheduling, a much better keyboard, an excellent multitasking UI, full push email support, a better web browser and better benchmarks, to name a few.

The reasons I listed above are directed at BB's biggest userbase: businesses. That doesn't mean that the average consumer won't be able to take advantage of these features, though. QNX is real-time. That is huge. The performance of the OS should be unmatched by both Android and iOS simply because of that. Also, the UI is clean and refreshing compared to the standard crop of boring, button-nav, clone gridmapped interfaces out there. Gestures are the future. We saw them with Ubuntu Phone, and we're seeing them in BB10 now, too.

There's a lot of potential here if you look beyond the tangible.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#52

Post by fusiongyro »

janlukacs wrote: post #30

i think people should give it a chance, too much negativity due to fanboyism.

Is it fanboyism, or could it instead be:

- I need a phone that works

- I only need one phone

- I don't want a phone from a defunct manufacturer

- App availability is more significant than platform quality

The first one means I don't want to debug your beta product. The second one prevents me from experimentally getting a bunch of different phones and seeing which one I like better. The third gives me pause when dealing with Blackberry, who have been having huge corporate troubles for years. The fourth is a reminder that if I were to switch there are lots of apps I'd be giving up with no replacement (SmartGo Books comes to mind).

The idea that Apple has everyone brainwashed is really quite absurd. Overpriced? Maybe. Overhyped? Probably. Bad? No.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#53

Post by Dirlewanger »

arbitrage wrote: post #7
tlack wrote: post #2

Anyone got the inside info on why they are waiting so long to release these in America? Should have been available unlocked at launch if they really wanted to regain the hearts and minds of the fickle American consumer.

Is an unlocked phone really that important to the majority of American consumers? They've showed quite readily in the past that they really don't care that much.

No. Majority would give you a blank stare if you mentioned a mobile phone being locked/unlocked.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#54

Post by dean »

untog wrote: post #16
kunai wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you even read the review? This isn't related AT ALL to the old OS7 Bold or any other Blackberry line, which were awful. BB10 can do much more than an iPhone and be just as productive while providing a rich media experience.

It's still relevant. Increasingly, mobile OSes are less about where they are now than where they will be. Apple have been outstanding in that regard- providing OS updates to really quite old phones. Vanilla Android has been just as great, but individual Android manufacturers less so. MS has been terrible. BB has a history of being terrible. So, Blackberry's past is relevant. No, they might not repeat it, but absent o…

"Apple have been outstanding in that regard- providing OS updates to really quite old phones."

Yes, like the iOS 4 update for my 3G -- which made my phone so slow as to be almost useless. Came close to smashing it in frustration many, many times. So in my case at least, Apple providing an update to an old phone is definitely nothing to brag about. However, it did force me to upgrade the phone, and I'm guessing that was the point.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#55

Post by easternmonk »

Blackberry has done a good job. It may not be iPhone/Android killer but it is definitely at par with the best in the league. Had BB come up with this 2 years back it would have been great. But I am willing to give them a chance. I hope the voice and screen sharing works good.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#56

Post by papsosouid »

compilercreator wrote: post #5
bambax wrote: post #3

I'm not sure about gestures (can they be done with one hand?) but the unified inbox ("hub") sounds like a fantastic idea. I don't understand why I can't see all messages from all my email accounts in one window, together with voice messages and texts (Tweets may be a little overwhelming, but they can be filtered out). This really sounds great -- although it's probably not hard to replicate on another platform.

I got my Z10 yesterday and I can confirm that the phone (and all the gestures) are completely usable with just one hand. The phone size was selected pretty intelligently. I don't think the UI design would have worked with a bigger phone.

Sorry to single you out for this question, but you're the first person I've seen who actually has one. Does the unified inbox thing support RSS? The concept seems great, but without RSS support it isn't that useful to me.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#57

Post by freehunter »

druiid wrote: post #41
freehunter wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've just described how many on HN view Windows Phone. It doesn't matter how good it is, remember how bad it used to be?

And I'd say that's a bit sad. As someone whom uses the WP platform I have to say as far as software goes, MS really developed a great product. Everything just WORKS, whereas with my Android phone it ends up being the platform to 'tinker' with because things randomly crash, or run slow, etc. In my experience WP has been well integrated and there's not really any need to tinker with anything (which I suppose some don't…

That's been my experience with WP7 and WP8. It's the platform where you don't need any apps. Everything you expect a smartphone to do comes baked in. The default featureset is quite impressive. Any extra apps are just that, extras.

The problem is in getting people to give it a fair go. I hear a lot of iOS and Android complaints that don't exist on WP, and when I bring it up people just laugh.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#58

Post by garagemc2 »

kunai wrote: post #51
wvenable wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> BB10 can do much more than an iPhone Really? That's not the impression that I get. It might be able to meet the current features and abilities of iOS and Android but I haven't see anything that indicates it can do "so much more". There doesn't seem to be enough here to justify purchasing a device from a 3rd place manufacturer with brand new software.

Real time task scheduling, a much better keyboard, an excellent multitasking UI, full push email support, a better web browser and better benchmarks, to name a few. The reasons I listed above are directed at BB's biggest userbase: businesses. That doesn't mean that the average consumer won't be able to take advantage of these features, though. QNX is real-time. That is huge. The performance of the OS should be unmatc…

"QNX is real-time. That is huge."

Why? What's the benefit?

P.S. I have a playbook if you can use examples from that (if it has RTOS)

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#59

Post by zmmmmm »

It's great to see a fully gesture based phone. I've always thought this would be the most natural way to interact with a touch based device, and it's always the gesture based apps and interactions that I enjoy using most on my phone. My only hesitation is whether gestures interfere with normal use of the phone. Will it confuse interactions in the game I am playing with the swipe to go back to the home screen, for example? If it does, it's going to be hugely problematic. But if it's done well it will be the most enjoyable and natural interface out there, I think.

Re: Review: BlackBerry 10 is better, much better, late than never

#60

Post by icki »

zmmmmm wrote: post #59

It's great to see a fully gesture based phone. I've always thought this would be the most natural way to interact with a touch based device, and it's always the gesture based apps and interactions that I enjoy using most on my phone. My only hesitation is whether gestures interfere with normal use of the phone. Will it confuse interactions in the game I am playing with the swipe to go back to the home screen, for exa…

I'd have to agree with you that gesture interactions tend to feel more natural then typical button pressing (e.g. pinch-to-zoom), but can be a little awkward for first time users. A customer who stops by a mobile phone kiosk while walking through their local mall might not know how to handle a BB10 device without assistance from a sales associate. However, gestures often become second-nature, and users rarely find themselves asking "how do I do this again?"

Swipe-upwards to unlock/return to homescreen requires initial contact with the screen's bezel, which should mitigate the number of times this gesture is unnecessarily actuated.

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