I could type 55 wpm on the keyboard. Every time I use a screen keyboard I feel like I lose 10 IQ points. I can use a physical keyboard without looking, but the screen keyboard takes twice as long and consumes my full attention if I want any speed.
The blackberry felt like an extension of my brain on the internet. Touchscreen devices feel like an extension of the internet in my brain + eyes, not as nice.
I used my blackberry bold for years, then for months more after the battery swelled, until the charging port finally stopped working
I loved my blackberry's keyboard, but I adjusted to iOS on-screen keyboard (starting circa the iPhone 4S) pretty well. Last couple of years though iOS autocorrect has started to be extremely aggressive and frequently very wrong (incorrectly changing were->we're, ill->i'll for example. and today changing "Torvalds" to "Torshavn" or something when I was talking about Linus and not the Faroes).
If someone has a nice phone with a physical keyboard I'd seriously consider it when I replace my iPhone
I miss the full keyboard so much. I didn’t need predictive text, had real tactile feedback and that little wheel mouse was pretty good too.
The amount of typos and reliance on auto-correct (often incorrectly correcting) proves that this the touchscreen is a somewhat cackhanded input method, even with a full qwerty keyboard on a very large screen. I’m on iPhone Max Pro, still fat-fingering the keys while typing this.
Yes I miss it everyday, I feel so clumsy typing on a piece of glass, and make soo many typos. I could type BLIND without typos whole emails while maintaining a casual conversation (much to the annoyance of my girlfriend). There are a lot of BlackBerry-stans still on crackberry.com holding out on older and newer BlackBerry phoned (key2 being the latest).
Really loved my Q10 with bb10os and my Keyone running Android! Sadly security updates stopped so had to get a slab, and run Blackberry Inbox on it (unified inbox of all your messaging apps, it is quite nice).
BlackBerry licensed Onward Mobility to make another keyboard phone, although they promised one this year, they are so silent I would be surprised if they are able to.
Bb10 was really a supernice OS, a lot of android and iOS stuff is inspired by it. blackberry still has some amazing patents and software, so it isn't a goner, but no phones directly from them anymore, only licensees (India, Indonesia, and hopefully worldwide via Onward Mobility)
I never knew the glorydays of bb07, but sure know if they stayed succesfull then (I.e. made less catastrophic mistakes and made strategic choices away from business products when they had a significant mobile phone marketshare ) how cool it might have been now with them still in the mobile phone field.
I really am surprised that with of all models of Android phones in the world, no one is making one with a keyboard. Even if it was a niche product, you'd think there would be an audience...
Yup. I could type accurately and drive at the same time (don't do that today, kids) simply because I didn't have to take my eyes off the road at all. Those little raised bumps on F and J keys helped.
The only BlackBerry I ever owned was the BlackBerry Classic, back when that was still contemporary. Best phone I ever had. The UX was very consistent between apps, everything targeting it natively tended to be quite speedy, and the keyboard was excellent.
I also miss the "BlackBerry Hub" feature, which would aggregate your emails, BlackBerry messenger messages, and SMS messages into a single UI. It even pulled in notifications from Android apps, though opening them switched to that app rather than letting you reply in-line.
I bought mine after they had already released Android compatibility for any APK you cared to load, but unfortunately I think that feature was too little, too late.
I've been on an iPhone SE since around 2016. If I had the option to go back to using the BB Classic hardware/OS as it was when I switched, but with third-party app support and security updates, I would do it without second thought.
I still want Apple to make a Hub thing inside iOS. I hate having to use 6 messaging apps to reach people I love, but as a 'data providers' I'd keep them installed.
This. I started with a BB Storm and stayed through several BB10 handsets up to the Passport. There was no second guessing the UX with Blackberry. The menu was always in the same place and Hub was great when you have so many accounts.
I found the UX in iPhone apps so irritating. Settings could be virtually anywhere and were commonly scattered across multiple places.
That said, I now use my iPhone very differently to how I use my Blackberry and I wonder if I would still appreciate Blackerry features if I go back.
By this I mean I get virtually no notifications. I don't have work emails on my iPhone and only the red badge icon turned on for personal email accounts. Whatsapp only fetches new messages when I open the app. The only app notification I get is from screen time every Sunday.
One of the best things about Blackberry was the subtlety of notifications but I've just chosen to go low-notification with iPhone and I don't think I'll ever revert that.
Battery life (4-5 days) and being able to have an extra battery or being able to share is what I miss most.
I also miss the customizations for alerting. I would set personal colour coded alerts on the led - that was perfect. Customization of alerts is very limited on anything else I’ve used since.
The iPhone keyboard seems to be getting worse with its auto correct. If it gets any worse (or maybe it’s me) I will get to a point of wanting the physical keyboard back.
Modern phones seem to be like a bloated MS Word with 90% of features I don’t need. All wasted.
I was recently in an area with limited cell reception. My old Blackberry would have done its job only requiring limited data using the BES. I was amazed that some iPhone apps couldn’t even login. Using the house wifi that had +500ms latency some iPhone apps failed as well. Interesting to learn how little effort is put into low bandwidth or high latency situations. Blackberry had that nailed. But they were in the wrong end of the market for cell companies.
I just turn autocorrect off. I also find that if you turn off slide to type the keyboard works better, could just be my imagination though.
There is a bit of a break-in period when I first turn off autocorrect, as I find I adapt to leaning on it pretty heavily when its on. Pretty quickly I get more accurate, and its a lot less annoying fixing my mistakes than autocorrects. YMMV.
Yes! The alerting customization were awesome. Things like always break thru alert for person X when in silent mode.
I also think that the smart phone market is dead as far as new features go. Sure, there will be CPU or camera spec bumps but there haven't been compelling new features in years.
No one has yet mentioned the Blackberry Priv, an Android phone with a quality keyboard sold as recently as 2016. I loved it so much, but it recently stopped holding charge among other issues, so I had to get a new Samsung. I type an order of magnitude slower now, and I write constantly. But there is no alternative. I don't know if you guys are aware, but https://www.onwardmobility.com/ is supposed to release a new Android BlackBerry phone this year, although I got tired of waiting, because from what I recall, they kept pushing back the release date.
It's amazing how there's definitely a large section of the market who would buy a phone with a decent keyboard, but there's zero interest from the companies. Instead, we get the innovation of (what are in my opinion) gimmicky clam phones with two screens.
I currently use a Blackberry KEYone, which I chose solely because of the physical keyboard. I haven't had any Blackberry before so I don't know how it compares, but there's a good chance if they keep releasing ones with a keyboard, I'll keep going for them.
One feature that I'd definitely miss without it is, on the home screen, every letter on the keyboard doubles as two configurable shortcuts (short and long press). Also the "convenience key", which I've yet to see on other phones - also configurable to anything, I set mine up so Tasker does different things depending on time/day/location.
I switched to Key2 (currently on third...too many oopsies) after burning through two Priv, but I still know at least one serious Priv holdout locally (SWE wife of a EE friend) for strictly keypad reasons. The S8 did somewhat interest me due to its snap-on accessory keypad, but I couldn't get over paying a flagship pricetag and then some for a half-assed keypad that explicitly nerfs 30% of display real estate out the gate.
If OnwardMobility's eventual offering has a proper Blackberry-class keypad, it'll be an instant in for +2, and friend's wife will def be in for at least one as well.
Not at all. I got a few of my old BlackBerry's out last year during lockdown when I had a big organise in my home office. I charged and powered a few on because nostalgia hit a bit plus I had time to kill with being in lockdown.
Using them for just a few hours I realised how bad they are. The screens were awful, navigation was horrible, the keyboard hurt the tips of my thumbs and they were slow. So so slow. I don't remember them being quite as slow so perhaps it is battery related (although they were plugged in) but it wasn't great waiting 5 seconds for an attachment to load when I am used to it being instant on my 3 year old iPhone.
I know we are spoilt now with HiDPI screens and stupidly fast mobile SoC's but they really were horrible devices looking back.
Perhaps language such as "horrible" is unfair but it is the adjective that first popped into my head to describe the experience.
Yes. The physical keyboard was so much faster and accurate vs the "on screen" version most phones have now.
The BB was also built like a tank. i once had mine fall off while i was running down 3 flights of granite stairs. It hit my leg on the way down and was kicked a good distance. After clearing the stairs, i put the battery back in and closed the door and it was good to go. Try that with a "modern" smart phone.
My personal favourite was the "blueberry" with the monochrome screen. Incredible battery life on that thing.
I think it was the BlackBerry 6200? they then made the same 'blueberry' but with a colour screen BlackBerry 7210 but it hurt the battery life.
I had a Blackberry Classic. The Android support was kind of garbage - but the physical keyboard was incredibly easy to type on and the trackpad was really helpful, and yes, the thing was built like a tank. I was once out running near some train tracks, had the Blackberry in one hand (I had no pockets and was probably using it for a stopwatch or a map or something), tripped on something, hands went out in front of me... and I broke my fall by slamming the Blackberry right into the steel rail. It was fine.
Removable batteries were amazing. I'm convinced they helped absorb drop shock when they'd explode out after a drop.
Blackberries with the standardized batteries were an amazing time. You could swap it out with a friend in your group during emergencies.
RIM's approach worked well when the tech wasn't there yet for a pocket-sized device to run an actual mail client. To get the "full" Blackberry experience, there was a Blackberry Enterprise Server between your device and your actual mail server.
Once we started getting devices that could run straight-up IMAP clients, the biggest appeal of the platform was compromised.
I had moments early in the glass-rectangle era when I thought I missed a physical keyboard, and I definitely had physical keyboard devices that I enjoyed on at least a hardware level through about 2009 or 2010, but the overall functionality of a modern glass-rectangle far and away exceeds what I ever got out of a RIM device.
I vastly prefer on screen keyboards. I'm faster with them, it requires a lighter touch, and the auto correct is good enough.
What I miss about blackberries is that they were messaging devices, with OS level integrations around messaging that went beyond the notification system of today.
For 90% of messages i send, i could simply use a generic sms style interface through a system-wide messaging app, only jumping into the apps themselves from time to time. I think palm had that, but it was too little, too late.
unihertz makes a blackberry clone btw, check it out
I think you're spot on about the keyboard being rubbish, but overall bbm was great.
Everytime I upgrade my iPhone I find myself removing more and more apps. At this point all I really want/need is google maps, iMessages and... yaknow a phone. idgaf about anything else.
Which message services are you referring to? The most popular modern messaging apps wouldn’t work with the single interface nowadays. FBM, WhatsApp’s. I don’t know if third party integrations would be allowed so other apps could get integrated.
I miss my Pearl, but not the other BlackBerry devices I had.
I like how you could type on it without looking. It's been a decade and I still have typo issues with touchscreen phones. A post this long would likely have 4 noticeable typos if done on my phone.
man I really hate typing on a phone. I know im pretty fast but it still feels clumsy and I have to go back and fix at least a typo or two per sentence. Thats with autocorrect enabled.
No. The keyboard was nice and it was good for email (of that era) but I hated everything else about those devices.
I much preferred Sony Ericsson feature phones. Java games, much better MP3 player, and they had a browser too. Those always felt a lot more analogous to current smart phones than BlackBerry handsets did.
What I do miss is the HTC Dream. That was the best of both worlds. Smart phone with capacitive touch screen plus a slide out keyboard for more accurate typing. I'm surprised this form factor didn't explode in popularity tbh.
IIRC the secret sauce of BlackBerry, before Android / iOS, was they used the mobile carriers to push notifications to the phone.
You had to usually pay for a expensive BlackBerry plan, but you got notifications immediately. It used the mobile carrier rather than keep a push notification data channel open.
Kind of wouldn't work these days what with so many notifications and background tasks, but you can definitely see why people loved them.
My Blackberry was BY FAR the best phone I've ever owned for texting and email. It was so superior that it barely compares. I could type without looking, which is a HUGE feature when walking or texting discretely in a meeting (or a conversation).
There are a few must-have apps on modern smart phones, but I would ALMOST be willing to give them up for the convenience of the keyboard.
Oh man I definitely miss my BlackBerrys. I had a bunch of them over the years. Starting with one of the original truly email only devices (without phone functionality).
Every one I owned was awesome for different reasons, although they increasingly got more phone-like in features and form factor over the years.
The early devices were exceptionally well designed. They were limited (grayscale, limited email formatting features etc) but were perfectly suited to the job they were designed for. No feature bloat. I would also liken them to the first iPods. All the fat was trimmed away leaving you with something perfectly designed for its intended purpose. (Though obviously they weren't as beautiful to look at as an iPod).
Battery life was amazing. Form factor was spot on (pretty compact devices for the time).
They were great on corporate features and security too - though there was the overhead of running their server software, but it was well worth it.
As much as I like my iPhone, it's no longer a "phone" for me - it's definitely my primary personal computing device. When I go out I'm carrying around a powerful computer with way too many options and temptations. It often feels like too much. It's also no longer the smallest phone I've owned, which bugs me. I want something more compact to carry. I kind of hanker for a new portable device that I would take when out and about, that keeps me connected to the essentials but has a locked down feature set that prevents me doing too much. With crazy battery life. The original email-only Blackberrys totally hit this spot.
The closest thing in the Apple ecosystem is the Watch but that's still not quite the same.
I held onto my BB10 Z30 as long as I could. It's still the best phone I've ever owned. In the end as apps began to fail, I bought a Sony XA2 Plus and loaded SailfishOS onto it. It's quite good, but if someone resurrected the Z30 or developed an equivalent device I'd be back like a shot.
Incidentally I still use my Z30 regularly, and still love the way it integrates messaging and delivers a consistent user experience across all its apps.
To this day I think the touch sensitive keyboard of the BlackBerry Passport is absolutely revolutionary. Not sure if they just licensed it or created themselves, but I loved it. That was probably the one thing I loved about BlackBerries, and perhaps the touch gestures - no button and all, it was such a pleasure to use.
Obviously there's no going back - does anyone remember how much of a pain Google Maps was on the BlackBerry? - but I have to admit I miss some aspects.
The way BlackBerry integrated all communication channels into one place so it didn't matter which platform you were messaging someone on. The way you could just start typing on the home screen and would get suggested contacts etc. The fact that there were no awful "social networking" apps full of dark patterns to promote addictive behaviour (of course this came at the expense of just generally not having many apps).
I miss my Sidekick2 (aka, Danger Hiptop2) That thing was a joy. Amazing typing speed. Best opening motion (quality of a fidget toy) and it ran a flavor of BeOS.
The Blackberry of millennials.. my wife had one too. We texted a lot back then.
Positively surprised to see may people missing it. I do so as well.
Started with 9870, moved to 9900 then Passport, Q10, Priv.
Last model was a disappointment since it was android based.
Besides amazing keyboard, BlackBerryOS was just amazing piece of software, probably due to large RIM experience in real-time OSes. System had no lags whatsoever, everything was just working how it should be.
I do miss it. It served one and only one purpose. Emails on the go. It was super fast to type and had an incredible battery life. I could type on the device without looking at the keyboard or the screen. In fact, that’s one of the reasons I didn’t adopt an iPhone early on. It’s hard to break out of muscle habits.
People who never used them might not grok the incredible battery life of the older Blackberry. The models with the DataTAC radio and the 386 CPU could go well over a month between charges. The little one that was shaped like a pager ran on a AA cell.
[+] [-] awinter-py|4 years ago|reply
The blackberry felt like an extension of my brain on the internet. Touchscreen devices feel like an extension of the internet in my brain + eyes, not as nice.
I used my blackberry bold for years, then for months more after the battery swelled, until the charging port finally stopped working
[+] [-] smcl|4 years ago|reply
If someone has a nice phone with a physical keyboard I'd seriously consider it when I replace my iPhone
[+] [-] sammorrowdrums|4 years ago|reply
The amount of typos and reliance on auto-correct (often incorrectly correcting) proves that this the touchscreen is a somewhat cackhanded input method, even with a full qwerty keyboard on a very large screen. I’m on iPhone Max Pro, still fat-fingering the keys while typing this.
[+] [-] hn_throwaway_99|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dddw|4 years ago|reply
Really loved my Q10 with bb10os and my Keyone running Android! Sadly security updates stopped so had to get a slab, and run Blackberry Inbox on it (unified inbox of all your messaging apps, it is quite nice).
BlackBerry licensed Onward Mobility to make another keyboard phone, although they promised one this year, they are so silent I would be surprised if they are able to.
Bb10 was really a supernice OS, a lot of android and iOS stuff is inspired by it. blackberry still has some amazing patents and software, so it isn't a goner, but no phones directly from them anymore, only licensees (India, Indonesia, and hopefully worldwide via Onward Mobility)
I never knew the glorydays of bb07, but sure know if they stayed succesfull then (I.e. made less catastrophic mistakes and made strategic choices away from business products when they had a significant mobile phone marketshare ) how cool it might have been now with them still in the mobile phone field.
[+] [-] Wowfunhappy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] janekg|4 years ago|reply
I would instantly throw away my IPhone (despite being happy with macOS/iOS) for a Blackberry like phone with LineageOS.
[+] [-] MichaelMoser123|4 years ago|reply
https://ebay.com/b/BlackBerry-OS-Unlocked-Cell-Phones-Smartp...
[+] [-] matt_s|4 years ago|reply
Yup. I could type accurately and drive at the same time (don't do that today, kids) simply because I didn't have to take my eyes off the road at all. Those little raised bumps on F and J keys helped.
[+] [-] fnord77|4 years ago|reply
https://www.amazon.com/fosa-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Port...
[+] [-] charlesdaniels|4 years ago|reply
I also miss the "BlackBerry Hub" feature, which would aggregate your emails, BlackBerry messenger messages, and SMS messages into a single UI. It even pulled in notifications from Android apps, though opening them switched to that app rather than letting you reply in-line.
I bought mine after they had already released Android compatibility for any APK you cared to load, but unfortunately I think that feature was too little, too late.
I've been on an iPhone SE since around 2016. If I had the option to go back to using the BB Classic hardware/OS as it was when I switched, but with third-party app support and security updates, I would do it without second thought.
[+] [-] tomaskafka|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rbanffy|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vjvj|4 years ago|reply
I found the UX in iPhone apps so irritating. Settings could be virtually anywhere and were commonly scattered across multiple places.
That said, I now use my iPhone very differently to how I use my Blackberry and I wonder if I would still appreciate Blackerry features if I go back.
By this I mean I get virtually no notifications. I don't have work emails on my iPhone and only the red badge icon turned on for personal email accounts. Whatsapp only fetches new messages when I open the app. The only app notification I get is from screen time every Sunday.
One of the best things about Blackberry was the subtlety of notifications but I've just chosen to go low-notification with iPhone and I don't think I'll ever revert that.
[+] [-] christophilus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lunatuna|4 years ago|reply
I also miss the customizations for alerting. I would set personal colour coded alerts on the led - that was perfect. Customization of alerts is very limited on anything else I’ve used since.
The iPhone keyboard seems to be getting worse with its auto correct. If it gets any worse (or maybe it’s me) I will get to a point of wanting the physical keyboard back.
Modern phones seem to be like a bloated MS Word with 90% of features I don’t need. All wasted.
I was recently in an area with limited cell reception. My old Blackberry would have done its job only requiring limited data using the BES. I was amazed that some iPhone apps couldn’t even login. Using the house wifi that had +500ms latency some iPhone apps failed as well. Interesting to learn how little effort is put into low bandwidth or high latency situations. Blackberry had that nailed. But they were in the wrong end of the market for cell companies.
[+] [-] exikyut|4 years ago|reply
Regarding LED color, there are random apps for Android that let you play with the LED color on _some_ phones, like *goes digging in menu* this one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.coolbeans....
Looks like the important bit is Notification.Builder->setLights, now NotificationChannel.Builder->setLights:
- NotificationCompat: https://developer.android.com/reference/androidx/core/app/No...
- Notification: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notifica... ("deprecated in API 26: use NotificationChannel")
- NotificationChannel: https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Notifica...
[+] [-] riversflow|4 years ago|reply
There is a bit of a break-in period when I first turn off autocorrect, as I find I adapt to leaning on it pretty heavily when its on. Pretty quickly I get more accurate, and its a lot less annoying fixing my mistakes than autocorrects. YMMV.
[+] [-] matt_s|4 years ago|reply
I also think that the smart phone market is dead as far as new features go. Sure, there will be CPU or camera spec bumps but there haven't been compelling new features in years.
[+] [-] _mhr_|4 years ago|reply
It's amazing how there's definitely a large section of the market who would buy a phone with a decent keyboard, but there's zero interest from the companies. Instead, we get the innovation of (what are in my opinion) gimmicky clam phones with two screens.
[+] [-] Izkata|4 years ago|reply
One feature that I'd definitely miss without it is, on the home screen, every letter on the keyboard doubles as two configurable shortcuts (short and long press). Also the "convenience key", which I've yet to see on other phones - also configurable to anything, I set mine up so Tasker does different things depending on time/day/location.
[+] [-] metaphor|4 years ago|reply
If OnwardMobility's eventual offering has a proper Blackberry-class keypad, it'll be an instant in for +2, and friend's wife will def be in for at least one as well.
[+] [-] Tepix|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] satysin|4 years ago|reply
Using them for just a few hours I realised how bad they are. The screens were awful, navigation was horrible, the keyboard hurt the tips of my thumbs and they were slow. So so slow. I don't remember them being quite as slow so perhaps it is battery related (although they were plugged in) but it wasn't great waiting 5 seconds for an attachment to load when I am used to it being instant on my 3 year old iPhone.
I know we are spoilt now with HiDPI screens and stupidly fast mobile SoC's but they really were horrible devices looking back.
Perhaps language such as "horrible" is unfair but it is the adjective that first popped into my head to describe the experience.
[+] [-] kenned3|4 years ago|reply
The BB was also built like a tank. i once had mine fall off while i was running down 3 flights of granite stairs. It hit my leg on the way down and was kicked a good distance. After clearing the stairs, i put the battery back in and closed the door and it was good to go. Try that with a "modern" smart phone.
My personal favourite was the "blueberry" with the monochrome screen. Incredible battery life on that thing.
I think it was the BlackBerry 6200? they then made the same 'blueberry' but with a colour screen BlackBerry 7210 but it hurt the battery life.
[+] [-] hodapp|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bgro|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ubermonkey|4 years ago|reply
RIM's approach worked well when the tech wasn't there yet for a pocket-sized device to run an actual mail client. To get the "full" Blackberry experience, there was a Blackberry Enterprise Server between your device and your actual mail server.
Once we started getting devices that could run straight-up IMAP clients, the biggest appeal of the platform was compromised.
I had moments early in the glass-rectangle era when I thought I missed a physical keyboard, and I definitely had physical keyboard devices that I enjoyed on at least a hardware level through about 2009 or 2010, but the overall functionality of a modern glass-rectangle far and away exceeds what I ever got out of a RIM device.
[+] [-] trangus_1985|4 years ago|reply
What I miss about blackberries is that they were messaging devices, with OS level integrations around messaging that went beyond the notification system of today.
For 90% of messages i send, i could simply use a generic sms style interface through a system-wide messaging app, only jumping into the apps themselves from time to time. I think palm had that, but it was too little, too late.
unihertz makes a blackberry clone btw, check it out
[+] [-] Wonnk13|4 years ago|reply
Everytime I upgrade my iPhone I find myself removing more and more apps. At this point all I really want/need is google maps, iMessages and... yaknow a phone. idgaf about anything else.
[+] [-] skinnymuch|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|4 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] cuddlybacon|4 years ago|reply
I like how you could type on it without looking. It's been a decade and I still have typo issues with touchscreen phones. A post this long would likely have 4 noticeable typos if done on my phone.
[+] [-] pedalpete|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] httpsterio|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hnlmorg|4 years ago|reply
I much preferred Sony Ericsson feature phones. Java games, much better MP3 player, and they had a browser too. Those always felt a lot more analogous to current smart phones than BlackBerry handsets did.
What I do miss is the HTC Dream. That was the best of both worlds. Smart phone with capacitive touch screen plus a slide out keyboard for more accurate typing. I'm surprised this form factor didn't explode in popularity tbh.
[+] [-] buggeryorkshire|4 years ago|reply
You had to usually pay for a expensive BlackBerry plan, but you got notifications immediately. It used the mobile carrier rather than keep a push notification data channel open.
Kind of wouldn't work these days what with so many notifications and background tasks, but you can definitely see why people loved them.
[+] [-] rcarmo|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] issa|4 years ago|reply
There are a few must-have apps on modern smart phones, but I would ALMOST be willing to give them up for the convenience of the keyboard.
[+] [-] tailspin2019|4 years ago|reply
Every one I owned was awesome for different reasons, although they increasingly got more phone-like in features and form factor over the years.
The early devices were exceptionally well designed. They were limited (grayscale, limited email formatting features etc) but were perfectly suited to the job they were designed for. No feature bloat. I would also liken them to the first iPods. All the fat was trimmed away leaving you with something perfectly designed for its intended purpose. (Though obviously they weren't as beautiful to look at as an iPod).
Battery life was amazing. Form factor was spot on (pretty compact devices for the time).
They were great on corporate features and security too - though there was the overhead of running their server software, but it was well worth it.
As much as I like my iPhone, it's no longer a "phone" for me - it's definitely my primary personal computing device. When I go out I'm carrying around a powerful computer with way too many options and temptations. It often feels like too much. It's also no longer the smallest phone I've owned, which bugs me. I want something more compact to carry. I kind of hanker for a new portable device that I would take when out and about, that keeps me connected to the essentials but has a locked down feature set that prevents me doing too much. With crazy battery life. The original email-only Blackberrys totally hit this spot.
The closest thing in the Apple ecosystem is the Watch but that's still not quite the same.
[+] [-] pengo|4 years ago|reply
Incidentally I still use my Z30 regularly, and still love the way it integrates messaging and delivers a consistent user experience across all its apps.
[+] [-] e-master|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cehrlich|4 years ago|reply
The way BlackBerry integrated all communication channels into one place so it didn't matter which platform you were messaging someone on. The way you could just start typing on the home screen and would get suggested contacts etc. The fact that there were no awful "social networking" apps full of dark patterns to promote addictive behaviour (of course this came at the expense of just generally not having many apps).
[+] [-] dr_dshiv|4 years ago|reply
The Blackberry of millennials.. my wife had one too. We texted a lot back then.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop
[+] [-] kilroy123|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jesterson|4 years ago|reply
Started with 9870, moved to 9900 then Passport, Q10, Priv.
Last model was a disappointment since it was android based.
Besides amazing keyboard, BlackBerryOS was just amazing piece of software, probably due to large RIM experience in real-time OSes. System had no lags whatsoever, everything was just working how it should be.
Miss it dearly.
[+] [-] deepGem|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeffbee|4 years ago|reply