- Oct 4, 2013
- 10
- 0
- 0
long read ahead. I'll give my first impressions as someone who's completely new to the platform, and go through what I liked and disliked about it
So... I have had a Blackberry for the past several years. Be it the 9700 or the Bold 9900(both bold models), and then the Z10 and finally the Q10, I really loved my blackberry phones, especially the tactile keyboard ones. I sold the z10 a few months ago and got a Q10 because I thought I couldn't live without the physical keyboard. Then I missed the extra screen real estate.
Anyhow, I sold my Q10 last week and reluctantly got an iPhone 5. I love my macbook Pro and and Mini but I could never hop on the iPhone bandwagon because I hate having the same sh*t everyone else has. As we all know everyone and their mother has an iPhone these days. Still, I decided it was time to give Apple a chance. First things first, the iPhone 5 screen turned out to be MUCH SMALLER than what I was expecting. For the record I don't like the Galaxy phones because they're imo too damn big. Having said that, I found the iPhone's screen to be a bit too small for my liking. Keep in mind I am coming from a Q10. Then... there's the notification center... it's useful but not as useful as the "HUB". I can't really respond directly from there, the phone takes me to either Facebook/iMessage/etc in order to reply. But I guess most of you already knew BB10's biggest strength is indeed messaging. Again, I must reiterate that I've never owned a smart phone not made by Blackberry/RIM so this is all new to me. The multitasking... man, I really hate having press twice that home button. It's not that I hate pressing buttons(I love legacy BBRRY devices DUH!), it's just that the iPhone's home button feels very fragile and every time I push it, I feel like I might break it. Then there's the iPhone's keyboard.... Obviously I went from a z10 to a q10 because I preferred the physical keyboard but I still appreciated the z10 keyboard. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the iPhone's keyboard. It's just not as well designed and convenient as the Z10's. For instance you can't combine two languages when inputting text on iOS7. The only way to get around this is to manually change the keyboard to a different language, and every time you wanna switch languages, you have to repeat this process. Nothing major but again, it's annoying, nonetheless I love being able to use the voice dictation. It's very convenient. Then of course I one of the things I miss the most is the red LED. Man! like I said I've never owned anything but blackberries so I'm used to that flashing red light, which I don't have anymore. Then there's this minor function that I used quite often on BB10 devices and that's missing from iOS7....which is being able to access the wifi app directly from their "control center", unlike on BB10, I can only turn wifi on and off but I can't access the list of wifi connections available(for that, we have to go to setting and so forth) The same applies to being able to specify the type of network one wants to use(Edge/3G/4G/LTE), on the iPhone all I have is an option to turn on LTE.
Now, on to the things I really like about the iPhone... The icons, I've read in other apple foums that they're almost uniformly hated by iphone users but I like colorful design, so I dig them.
Then, the fluidity and snapiness(for lack of a better word). Everything runs so smooth, a lot smoother than BB10. The apps(obviously optimized for this platform) run with such fluidity... really, I can only praise Apple in this aspect.
And yes, there's a ton of apps and they're all the real thing(no knock-offs) but that's not something that matters too much for me. I was able to sideload apps like instagram and crunchyroll on my q10 and z10(I must admit that running them on the q10 was a horrible experience because they were no made for such a small screen). The thing is they run much better on iOS, which again, it's something everyone already knew, it's another thing to actually see/experience it live though. The Skype app for instance is a delight to use on the iPhone, on the z10/q10 not so much.
I also like having the option to choose a different wallpaper for the lock screen and the homescreen--and while there is a way to do this in BB10 but it's not something that's natively implemented in the OS.
Still, having the chance to pick only one phone, I would stick with the Z10. To me, it's the perfect size, it's sleek, yet not too flashy. I like how simple most things are on BB10, though everything could and should run smoother.
Having said all that, I don't regret my purchase... I plan on keeping the iPhone for a couple of months and see how it goes, in the end I'll probably end up selling it and we all know for a fact that they retain their value much better than other smart phones. We'll see what the state of Blackberry is at that point, hopefully much better than what it is now(fingers crossed).
So... I have had a Blackberry for the past several years. Be it the 9700 or the Bold 9900(both bold models), and then the Z10 and finally the Q10, I really loved my blackberry phones, especially the tactile keyboard ones. I sold the z10 a few months ago and got a Q10 because I thought I couldn't live without the physical keyboard. Then I missed the extra screen real estate.
Anyhow, I sold my Q10 last week and reluctantly got an iPhone 5. I love my macbook Pro and and Mini but I could never hop on the iPhone bandwagon because I hate having the same sh*t everyone else has. As we all know everyone and their mother has an iPhone these days. Still, I decided it was time to give Apple a chance. First things first, the iPhone 5 screen turned out to be MUCH SMALLER than what I was expecting. For the record I don't like the Galaxy phones because they're imo too damn big. Having said that, I found the iPhone's screen to be a bit too small for my liking. Keep in mind I am coming from a Q10. Then... there's the notification center... it's useful but not as useful as the "HUB". I can't really respond directly from there, the phone takes me to either Facebook/iMessage/etc in order to reply. But I guess most of you already knew BB10's biggest strength is indeed messaging. Again, I must reiterate that I've never owned a smart phone not made by Blackberry/RIM so this is all new to me. The multitasking... man, I really hate having press twice that home button. It's not that I hate pressing buttons(I love legacy BBRRY devices DUH!), it's just that the iPhone's home button feels very fragile and every time I push it, I feel like I might break it. Then there's the iPhone's keyboard.... Obviously I went from a z10 to a q10 because I preferred the physical keyboard but I still appreciated the z10 keyboard. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the iPhone's keyboard. It's just not as well designed and convenient as the Z10's. For instance you can't combine two languages when inputting text on iOS7. The only way to get around this is to manually change the keyboard to a different language, and every time you wanna switch languages, you have to repeat this process. Nothing major but again, it's annoying, nonetheless I love being able to use the voice dictation. It's very convenient. Then of course I one of the things I miss the most is the red LED. Man! like I said I've never owned anything but blackberries so I'm used to that flashing red light, which I don't have anymore. Then there's this minor function that I used quite often on BB10 devices and that's missing from iOS7....which is being able to access the wifi app directly from their "control center", unlike on BB10, I can only turn wifi on and off but I can't access the list of wifi connections available(for that, we have to go to setting and so forth) The same applies to being able to specify the type of network one wants to use(Edge/3G/4G/LTE), on the iPhone all I have is an option to turn on LTE.
Now, on to the things I really like about the iPhone... The icons, I've read in other apple foums that they're almost uniformly hated by iphone users but I like colorful design, so I dig them.
Then, the fluidity and snapiness(for lack of a better word). Everything runs so smooth, a lot smoother than BB10. The apps(obviously optimized for this platform) run with such fluidity... really, I can only praise Apple in this aspect.
And yes, there's a ton of apps and they're all the real thing(no knock-offs) but that's not something that matters too much for me. I was able to sideload apps like instagram and crunchyroll on my q10 and z10(I must admit that running them on the q10 was a horrible experience because they were no made for such a small screen). The thing is they run much better on iOS, which again, it's something everyone already knew, it's another thing to actually see/experience it live though. The Skype app for instance is a delight to use on the iPhone, on the z10/q10 not so much.
I also like having the option to choose a different wallpaper for the lock screen and the homescreen--and while there is a way to do this in BB10 but it's not something that's natively implemented in the OS.
Still, having the chance to pick only one phone, I would stick with the Z10. To me, it's the perfect size, it's sleek, yet not too flashy. I like how simple most things are on BB10, though everything could and should run smoother.
Having said all that, I don't regret my purchase... I plan on keeping the iPhone for a couple of months and see how it goes, in the end I'll probably end up selling it and we all know for a fact that they retain their value much better than other smart phones. We'll see what the state of Blackberry is at that point, hopefully much better than what it is now(fingers crossed).
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram