BlackBerry Classic: Review and Migration from Q10
I've been excited about the Q20 / BB Classic since it was first rumored to be in the works. The BlackBerry utility belt was my preferred way of interacting with the system, so it was huge letdown when the Q10 debuted without it.
My Classic came in the mail yesterday and I've spent the last few waking hours working on getting my data migrated from my Q10 and getting acquainted with the device. The experience so far has been "interesting", as things haven't gone the way I expected...
First Contact
I ordered my Classic from Amazon and it came in a black cardboard box wrapped with a white 'band' of card stock. The box was more difficult to open than I had expected it to be as it has a lot of friction. I had to pry my fingers in the sides of the box and pull down hard.
Once the box was open, I found the phone at the top of the box. There was no padding protecting the phone, it was just 'snug' in the box. I did see some sticky plastic wrap protecting the screen and back of the phone from scuff marks.
The plastic protectors didn't leave me feeling too confident about the build quality of the phone as I was able to chip a tiny piece of the bezel when using my fingernail to peel the plastic protector back far enough to pull it off.
For reference, my Classic's model number is SQC100-4
Basic Setup and Initial Tutorial
There were a few booklets in English, Spanish and French that describe the basic device setup. It was fairly easy for me to follow the directions to pull out the SIM and SD card trays. My biggest complaint here is that the booklet was not clear on where the 'tool' is to open the trays. I ended up using a paper clip and only found the tool after I was finished with the setup. For reference, here's where the SIM Tool is (right beneath the phone):
Powering on the device was not a pleasant experience as the power button at the top juts out a fair bit, unlike the Q10's which is more flush. The Classic's power button also has a cheap feel to it as there is too much wobble when I push it.
Once booted, I was able to get through the initial setup without difficulty. This is the same setup I'd been through a couple times before with both my Z10 and Q10 devices. I appreciate how quick and straight forward the gestures tutorial is and think that it probably helps people who are new to the BB10 experience.
Usability Thoughts
After powering on the device I played around with the browser, hub and Settings and tried out the trackpad. I've got to say: I love the trackpad! Browsing web pages not designed for mobile devices is much improved with the mouse cursor. I don't have to wonder what I'm tapping on when I can know what I'm clicking on.
The device itself is pretty speedy, on par with my Q10 in terms of overall performance. The disappointing thing here is that BlackBerry chose to use old technology here. I don't see many non-BlackBerry fans feeling excited about 2 year old technology at the $449 price point.
Another quibble I have is with the HDMI/USB port. I dislike how there is only one port for both functions. Also, having the USB port on the bottom of the phone makes it much more difficult to use when in bed or on the couch as I can't rest the bottom edge of the phone on anything. I have to keep it held up with my hands which can be fatiguing given the angles involved.
This phone uses the white theme by default and I haven't found a way to get it to be black yet. I've never liked the white-background theme as it just looks tacky to me. If anyone knows how to switch over to the black theme like the Q10 uses, please let me know in the comments below. :)
The battery is bigger than the one in my Q10, which is kind of nice until you realize that it is not user replaceable. While I know that the trend is towards non-removable batteries it doesn't make the blow sting any less. :/
T-Mobile USA
I use T-Mobile for my mobile phone provider because I'm cheap and don't want to pay a fortune for a phone plan. Fortunately for me my Classic is Factory Unlocked and supports the LTE bands that T-Mobile uses. I can use 2G, 3G and 4G without any difficulty.
For reference, here are the bands the Classic supports
UMTS Operating Bands Capability: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
LTE Operating Bands Compatibility: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 13, 17, 25
Contrast that to the band support on my T-Mobile branded Q10
UMTS Operating Bands Capability: 1, 2, 4, 5, 6
LTE Operating Bands Compatibility: 2, 4, 5, 17
I had to buy a Nano SIM for $10 from the local T-mobile shop, which isn't that big of a deal but seems a little pricey considering I already have a plan with them. T-mobile chat support was able to activate the sim in just a few minutes and get me up and running on the network quickly.
Data Migration
I have been running a 10.3.1 leak on my Q10 for a couple weeks. Since that's not an officially supported upgrade path, I ended up restoring the data from my last known-good 10.2.1 backup. This went very smoothly and all the data (including BBMs and Text Messages) were restored to my Classic.
The problem I had was migrating calendar that I had entered into my device-local calendar in the last couple weeks to the Classic. I ended up dealing with the Ultimate Backup app available in BB App World. It was a huge hassle to get working on my Q10 to export data, and it was also quite difficult to get the data to import correctly on my classic since the 'Ultimate backup' app doesn't let you selectively backup or restore calendar entries. I created a utility to help me get past that issue which you can find here.
On my Q10 the Ultimate Backup app would pretend to save things to my device memory or SD card, but when I looked in File Manager I didn't see anything. I would sometimes get messages that said:
Error!! Could not find "documents" directory on the phone!
To get around this error I had to go and manually assign the shared files permission to the app in the Security Settings area. This bugged me because I had already granted the app full permissions on install. A more helpful error message would be great here.
Final Thoughts
If BlackBerry keeps pushing out low-spec keyboard devices I'll have to plan an exit strategy from the platform. While this phone is awesome, it is 2 years late. I'll also be on the lookout for the Double Typing / key press debounce issue that has been getting worse on my Q10. If BlackBerry can't make the keyboard consistently reliable, its time to look elsewhere. What bugs me about the double-type issue is that there should be an OS setting that lets you adjust the debounce delay. This isn't rocket science!
Here's hoping BlackBerry can pull it together!