How Black is this Berry ? - A User's view of the new BlackBerry Q10

Upto 2007, I used to eye BlackBerry instruments in others’ hands, wondering whether I would ever own one. Then, in 2008, my employers gave me one – and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Over the last couple of years, however, it was difficult not to be exasperated with the obvious flaws in the operating system… Android and Windows were never options for me, so I had to be content with my Nokia phones and their Symbian drivers;  I was, therefore, mightily pleased when the BB 10 finally arrived, late though it was. I passed up the Z10, since big screens have never been my thing, and picked up my Q10 in June this year, shortly after it hit the markets.

This, then, is a user experience discourse. I’m not going to get technical at all, you can find all the specs you want  on innumerable websites. I’d just like to share my views with other BlackBerry fans, and with potential BB users who are trying to decide whether they should switch.

Here it is, then, briefly and baldly laid out:

What’s different

·       
 Well, the operating system, naturally. The BB10 is a whole new interface with a great look and feel, and a number of interesting features. For all that, it’s not complicated, and doesn’t take too much time to learn.

·         For those of you who don’t like external memory card, the onboard memory is a boon – at 16 GB, you won’t need more space unless you want to convert your phone into a camera or a music player

·         The desktop software is completely different – no more BlackBerry Desktop Manager : there’s BlackBerry Link instead, which does the same job, but looks a lot sleeker and comes with additional functionality. The other good news is that the file format is unchanged, so your older BB backups can be saved in Link just as easily.

·         Good bye to the BlackBerry Internet Plan. Like any other smartphone, be it Android or windows, you have to take a normal 3G or 2G plan that suits you

·         One effect of the new OS is that you get to sync all your contacts – so, when you review your Contacts list, you will find ALL your contacts – be they from your phone, from Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp or LinkedIn. You can even switch off contact display functionality of some of these apps, if it suits you

What’s good

Lots of things, but I’m going to talk only about a few of the everyday stuff:

·         At last you can listen to music on your BB : the Q10’s speaker  gives you rich, crystal-clear stereo-quality sound. It’s not Bose, naturally, but it’s not Bad, either.

·         The Q10’s voice clarity is far superior to all BlackBerry phones till date. In a clear-signal area, even the lowest volume may well be too loud for you !

·         Predictive text input, where whole words come up and the system “learns” words as you type new ones, is a welcome imitation from the Samsung Galaxy range of phones

·         I’ve always been a BB camera fan – if you hold the phone steady, you get a reasonably good picture. The Q10’s camera, in pixel-power, focus and clarity, is a significant improvement, so you’re likely to always leave your digicam at home if you’re an amateur shooter.  There’s even a photo-editing software thrown in

·         The BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has been enhanced to offer video chat, thereby making a good thing even better. Naturally, you can use this feature only with other BB10 users, but at least it has arrived.

·         With an expanded memory, the hanging problem is finally solved.

·         The appearance is a winner – slim, sleek, beautifully contoured, with a steel frame and a glass-weave anti-slip back, the new look beats the Bold 3 by a yard and then some. The keyboard is completely reengineered and has a great feel, apart from ensuring faster typing. The screen is a beautiful piece of work, allowing you to see clearly even in bright sunlight.

What’s bad

Ah, well : it may glitter, but it’s not gold – yet ! Here are a few of the things to get worked up about:

·         Battery life, while vastly improved, could still have been a lot better. Active-use time is 10 to 11 hours, which means that, if you have a standard 12-hour office day, you’re going to run out of juice before you get home.  While the Company isn’t saying this upfront, their outlets are discreetly suggesting that buying the BB battery pack wuld be a good idea - which is very revealing. This is one phone which you’ll have to charge for 2 hours every morning  and another 2 every night, unless you want it going dead while you’re asleep or while you’re on the way home.

·         The Q10 heats up alarmingly at unpredictable moments – in fact, it actually gets so warm that you really don’t feel comfortable holding it ! Fortunately, it cools down pretty fast as well. I haven’t found a causative trend – but it seems to happen more when the network is consistently poor, or when Bluetooth / NFC etc are on

·         The touchscreen is over-sensitive – if you’re not careful, you’ll end up redialing the last number dialed on a regular basis.  This necessitates a screen lock, which can be a bit fiddly if you need to use your phone in a hurry.

·         While the phone doesn’t hang, it hesitates for a long couple of seconds whenever you hit the “Settings” button. We are informed that the next update of the software will sort this out

·         As you probably already know, the App collection isn’t really there yet. This is not a problem, but yes, it IS a wish-list item. For example, I would love to use my Q10 to play Scrabble or Lexulous on the go – but that’s just not possible at the moment.

What’s the alternative

If you’re still a diehard BlackBerry fan, you have the option of buying the Q5.
The benefits ? Different colours, a sub-Rs 25,000/- price tag, and the BlackBerry 10 system.
The downside ? The battery is “fixed”, so you can’t take it out unless you go to a service centre. Also, if you’re an appearances person, you’ll be interested to know that the BB outlet that sold me the phone observed that the Q5’s look and feel simply doesn’t have the class of the Q10.


What’s the verdict

I’m a guy who believes in using his phone to call, text (sms, BBM, WhatsApp, whatever), take pictures, set alarms and play the occasional basic game when I’m waiting in a line – or something.  I don’t like fancy functionalities, complex apps and large screens that allow the world and their mother to read your private communiqués from a distance of five feet.

If you’re like me, and if you’re willing to spend what others would on an iPhone or a high-end Galaxy or Lumia, then buy the Q10, it’s as good as a Blackberry can get.

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Disclaimer: This does not purport to be an accurate description of the BlackBerry Q10's functioning and attributes. This is simply a first-person account of an actual user experience and is not intended to either promote or downgrade the BlackBerry or any of its competitor products. 

Can Bean Counters Write ?

One of the Alumni Associations to which I belong,  recently sent me an interesting set of questions on the subject of  “numbers” people also being “wordsmiths”. I sent across my answers, and the interview, as it were, was published in their newsletter.

It occurred to me that some of the readers of this blog might have similar questions in their minds, so I thought I’d post that interview up here . If you still have questions, feel free to ask !

·         They say that people who work with numbers are not as good with words. How did you develop the hobby to write?

I started writing at 12. It was in the genes, I guess - my mother comes from a newspaper family; besides, writing as a hobby and as a form of communication was practically a default option during my schooldays - phone calls were expensive and phone use strictly monitored, there were no mobiles, there was no Internet or cable TV,  and there were no e-books. But there was a lot of imagination; imagination spawned ideas; ideas needed to be translated into words; words came from reading books at a prodigious rate and growing  vocabulary; and that's how the writing hobby took off.

In my case, two other things helped: I was painfully shy and diffident until a fairly late age, so writing was my preferred mode of expression anyway. Secondly, I had some really inspiring English teachers, who were quick to recognise my complete absorption with creative writing, and enthusiastically nurtured and grew that absorption. I soon found that people appeared to enjoy reading what I wrote, so the habit stuck.

To address your other point, some of the most brilliant wordsmiths I have met have all been people who are also good with numbers (I, however, have never been so!). Numbers people are logical people; logic may lead them to crosswords; and that habit may go on to writing. So, I do not think the two attributes are really mutually exclusive.....but good reading always helps.

·         One of the most difficult things for any writer is to get the humour right. Your writings are not only funny but also thought provoking. How did you nurture this style, does it come to you naturally?

I was brought up on a strict diet of humorous reading - Richard Armour, P G Wodehouse, George Mikes, MAD magazine, Asterix and Tintin, among others. I used to laugh until I wept, and it didn't take long for me to figure out that any reader who chuckles out loud while reading, is going to be a very happy reader at the end of his / her experience. Then I read "The Fountainhead" and Ellsworth's Toohey's observations on never losing one's sense of humour, and I realised then that I had found my writing genre.

 I suppose the style comes to me naturally, now. The way I started was to look closely at a person, thing or situation, and try and do a flippant take on whatever I observed. I used sarcasm initially, but dropped that in favour of subtlety, and eventually settled for a mix of the two. It worked, because when you really think about it, everything in life has its strange, funny or ludicrous side - and laughter really is the best medicine.

·         With your busy schedule, how do you find time for your hobby? Any time management traits you'd like to share with our readers?

I'm a late-night person. When the sky turns black and the stars come out, the creativity werewolf in me emerges for a few hours ! Having said that, I think it is true for nearly everyone that one will find time, come what may, to do that which one enjoys - whether it is once a day, or once a month.  There's no time management needed here, simply the determination to create that time slot. 

·         Would you say that advent of blogs has changed the way we write?

It certainly has. Blogs always existed, in the form of diaries or personal notebooks - but these were private, either not seen by any or only by a select few. But with the advent of blogs, what you put out there is read by hundreds at a time, across the globe - you can't choose your readership, or control what they read or say. Many of these people post comments and opinions. The writer in turn, is motivated to respond by writing more often and delivering more content, sometimes catering to what his / her readership wants. As a result, a blog that started out as autobiographical or opinionated, morphs over a period of time into something else altogether.
 

·         There's a budding writer in many of us. Any words of advice on how one should get started?

I agree with you - in fact, I would go so far as to say that there is a writer in every one of us; but some people are not comfortable with expression, and hence let that writer languish within; others let it escape and take them over. This is probably why Epictetus, the Greek Stoic, once said, "If you wish to be a writer, write".

To those who really wish to write, but have no clue where to begin, I would suggest that you take the "micro-fiction" route. First think of an incident you would like to narrate or a subject you would like to hold forth on. Then, wipe your mind clean of any ideas about "good" and "bad" writing, since there ain't no such animal. In step three, describe the incident or write on that subject as if you were narrating it to a friend - simply let the words flow. Keep it as long or as short as you would like. Finally, once you're done, put in paragraphs and punctuation, eliminate colloquialisms, tweak vocabulary, and give it a title. Believe me, you will be surprised at the result. After you've done this six or seven times, you're ready to go for a 1000-word article. Good luck !