The KEYone got me out of CrackBerry retirement and using a BlackBerry Smartphone again (and loving it!). I have no shortage of phones at my disposal and can reach for an iPhone or Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy whenever I want. Since picking up the KEYone, I’ve never felt that urge. What more can be said than that? With battery life that will last you all day and night (and well into the next day) and a smart physical keyboard that makes typing on buttons feel new school again, it’s a communication-centric phone that power users will love.
The keyboard BlackBerry phones are the phones I wish were more popular, but really aren’t. The Priv had QA and update issues (it’s still on an old version of Android), and this one isn’t exactly my personal cup of tea because I’d much rather have a slider (preferably a horizontal slider). Still, I hope these phones somehow manage to find a small, but perhaps profitable niche so they can keep throwing time and development at them.
No updates aren’t as bad ,bad updates are!
On 5.0 the PRIV was bearable, now that it’s 6.0. The system is slow, some useful original ui elements are missing. Then they kill the beta program. Android pay can take a long time just to be able to pay. Its not Blackberry, it’s android. They keep on hammering out new numbers that don’t fix any actual issues. Had the same kind of problems with my old flagship. The priv is unrootable , so I can tell you. It’s not the manufacturer doing crap job. Instead Google keeps on doing anti user things like enforce all kinds of wacky security. Like asking for permissions when an app needs access. It’s stupid, temporarily turn off overlays, then retry the permission, if you can get the dip switch to work. Blackberry just needs to fork android! I hate to think that, but it’s a mess. The priv is a nice big screen, keyboard that doesn’t lag compared to digitizer. I love scrolling with the keyboard, it doesn’t lag like when you use the digitizer, so many problems….
The Priv is slower since the marshmallow update, but tbh I’m not sure it’s the OS’s fault – the main issue I have is actually Google Maps. Since they rejiggered the UI and added the new “near me” feature at the bottom of the screen the thing is a RAM pig, and sometimes just freezes on the loading screen, and that’s what slows me down the most. My solution is to always clear all my background apps before starting Maps, that usually does the trick. Still, it used to be a lot smoother, before Google ^A§”$^A§ed it up. They should really release a “Maps Lite” or something that works better on older hardware.
As for the asking permissions, that was one of my killer features for Marshmallow. I love the fact that I can hinder individual applications from doing certain things and sending certain alerts, exactly customized to my wishes. No more adware-like alerts! No more spying on my location if I don’t want you to! In that respect I am really happy about Marshmallow.
It’s just too bad they didn’t manage to bring Nougat to the Priv – a surprise, really, considering they already worked on it for the KeyOne. Supposedly Nougat would have brought some new performance pluses, including faster restarts after an update (no more “optimizing” step) and deep-sleeping background apps.
I am definitely eying the KeyOne since it updates everything that is great about the Priv. However with the 3GB of RAM I fear that Google Maps will still be an issue. Oh well…
If it’s possible to disable/remove Google Play Services and still have a functioning phone, this may be my next device. I love my Passport and plan to keep it for the foreseeable future, but I still need an upgrade path eventually. I’ve enjoyed using BB10 and the ability to have Android apps via F-Droid, but the day will come when the Android 4.3 base is no longer supported by most Android apps, even open source projects.
Wasn’t “kept up to date” one of BB’s Android selling features? Sad to hear they’re already failing on that aspect.
My HTC One m9 was updated to 7.0 at the beginning of the year, and I have very low expectations for HTC. They’ve done surprisingly well at keeping the updates flowing.
I still use a Passport. I hope they at least make a re-release of a similar phone, even if it had Android. The big screen and roomy keyboard are excellent, and for someone with larger hands the width is much more useful than extra height.