Flashback: The BlackBerry Z10 was a new start for the company that proved to be a dead end
- T
- ThunderCrackR
- SvB
- 09 Feb 2020
Difficult gestures? Blackberry, Nokia N9 and Palm are the ones who invented all these gesture navigation systems. Everyone, starting with Apple, just copied them. I cannot understand why it was more difficult back then than it is now to use these gestures.
- Mr. Machuman
- 6p}
- 09 Feb 2020
[deleted post]But first of all you still need android to gain trust of nokia's old fanbase and attract new ones...I thought nokia is coming back when hmd launched first gen of its smartphones but they failed to keep the consistency and I really gave up my hope till 2026 when the original nokia will comeback to smartphone industry
- b
- babak
- gxZ
- 09 Feb 2020
blackberry if wants to comeback again sbould come with a highend device, upto now they only released midranger with high quality. sd636 wasnt even useful for keyone at all. come up with a new phone with sd 865 and hiend specs and people will buy and bb can grow again
- Mr. Machuman
- uNV
- 09 Feb 2020
Tbh I want to get rid of this android-ios duopolism...though both of them are matured enough but I want to taste something new...something like windows mobile/firefox os thouge they are dead but somehow Sailfish is still alive :) and i really want to check it
- F
- Feco
- Nue
- 09 Feb 2020
I miss the good old days of BlackBerry.. But one thing is sure, on changing to a new phone (andriod), downloading the BlackBerry keyboard app is the first thing I have always done. Its the best keyboard I have used and still will be using
- YUKI93
- IW1
- 09 Feb 2020
It really is a shame to see another mobile OS had lost the battle to Android-iOS duopoly because I actually love those dead alternatives. I'm actually still rocking both my Microsoft Lumia 950 XL and my BlackBerry Passport as my daily driver to this day.
- B
- BlackBerry Fan
- pVw
- 09 Feb 2020
I am reading this on my Blackberry Z10.
So tragedic that this company is already dead
- e
- evilmessiah
- YPg
- 09 Feb 2020
The Z10 was one of the best phones that I had used- period. It had almost everything that I wanted:
1) A handy form factor. Very easy to carry around. Very well designed too. Everything on this phone had a clear purpose.
2) Built well. Had a magnesium steel chassis under the durable plastic body. Buttons were made out of aluminum and the back was removable.
3) It had a removable battery. I had the external battery charger (which could charge the device too!) and a spare battery. Was super convenient for me.
4) I loved this device's 8MP camera. Took some really nice shots with it.
5) Very smooth and fluid UI. Very responsive and powerful. The gestures were natural- took me all of 5 minutes to learn them. The hub was a very very convenient feature for me. One of the most secure OS-es ever (No concerns of privacy about my personal data getting misused). Later versions of BB10 added support to install Android apk files, though this was a bit of a hit and miss- some would work, others wouldn't. This was an OS that was way ahead of its time. Apple and Android later copied the swipe gestures in BB10 in its later versions (that too a year or too later, IIRC)
6) Best email client I had ever used. Nothing after that came close- not even the Gmail app in Android.
7) One might not believe it, but this had surprisingly good sound quality. Speakers were good and the audio out of headphones was also pretty good. There was even automatic line-out in this thing! This also had aptX- back in those days!
8) WhatsApp and BBM worked very well. BBM in particular was also ahead of its time. It had message deletion from both ends as well as timed messages and stickers. Pity- met with a sad end.
9) Though only a 720p screen, it was tack sharp on the 4.2 inch screen. The screen itself was of a very high quality.
10) The best touchscreen keyboard that I have used. Swiping up to put the suggestions into the main body rocked. I still prefer this keyboard to the GBoard.
There were some glaring drawbacks to this phone:
1) Horrible app support. Also, Blackberry world sucked. I couldn't even make payment to purchase any apps that I needed in India. Lacked a ton of essential apps too.
2) No decent navigation app. Blackberry Maps is one of the worst that I have used. I have never able to get it to work a single time during the period of my ownership.
Lack of platform support by devs ultimately killed BB10. I would have continued using this phone were it not for WhatsApp discontinuing support by the end of 2017. This was one of the few phones I had used for a long time- about 2 years. It was still in a very good condition- I would have continued using it if WhatApp continued support for it for a while more. This timeline did get extended, but I had already sold this phone and went for a Redmi Note 3 (another amazing phone that is still with me today). Android also matured well by then. It was kind of revelation to realize what all apps I had been missing all this while.
The Z10 was a wonderful phone that was ahead of its time. No one's going to make them like those anymore, though. Rest in peace, old friend.
- H
- Har Har Mahadev
- YQS
- 09 Feb 2020
Man I miss the good ol days of Blackberry.. Honestly I have only used 1 Blackberry device in my whole life and that was The BlackBerry Priv, one of the finest smartphone designed in this era. The only way to make a big comeback for BB is to re release the BB Priv with upgraded internals while retaining the same design.