My BlackBerry Z10 

Getting the priorities right.

My tryst with smart-phones started with my Motorola FIRE XT 530. Back in the day, it was a great buy at a price point of 9800 INR with a 800 Mhz processor, 512 MB RAM, 3.5 inch screen, a great battery and solid build quality. I could see it poised to last me at-least two to three years, given the fact that I would use it primarily for communication and not for playing the most demanding games.

And it stood out in a crowd of Korean and Taiwanese phones.

But gradually, with time, the limitations became evident. A locked boot-loader, effectively ruling out Cyanogen Mod, the disabled graphics processor, limited internal memory and no further upgrades for the operating system. The phone was never allowed to be what it could truly have been.

Yes, Motorola was going through a rough patch during that period and perhaps could not provide the support, but locking the boot-loader effectively left out the user community who would have been more than happy to help themselves with their beloved devices.

And disabling the graphics processor ? Who does that ?

So, two years down the line, after spending countless hours on trying to gain root access and optimising the internal memory using link2sd, I was on a lookout for a new device.

I had an array of choices in front of me.

The Nokia Lumias had the most fluidic interface there has ever been. They embodied beautiful design and steady performance in a solid device . I would recommend a Lumia to anybody who would care for my advice. But for all the niceties, I decided it was not for me.

Android devices offered me a lot more and there was always Cyanogen Mod to fall back on.

Motorola had, in the meanwhile, recovered after being acquired by Google and eventually transformed into the company I wished it had been two years ago. But better late than never.

The MotoG, MotoX and later on, the MotoE had everything the Android user in me could ever want, at their respective price points. And they came with guaranteed upgrades.

The Koreans were never a real option for me, primarily because, I never felt the devices had any remnant of exclusivity to them. They all looked the same and they were everywhere.

If I had to buy one last phone for my entire lifetime, I would have probably gone for MotoX.

But I have decided not to live forever and as a human, I crave change.

I was so done with the Android way of doing things that I had even been contemplating Nokia X+. Just for the sake of change if not anything else. Yes, it is Android underneath, but at-least it was a bit different. And cheap.

So, while I was on the hunt, a plain black device, caught my fancy.

It was understated, solidly built with an interface which felt like a fresh breath of air compared to the recycled stuff we breathe in our air-conditioned offices. Yes, air-conditioning does make us comfortable, but there is nothing like a mid summer night’s breeze.

The device was the BlackBerry Z10. It was a device which had been a flagship a year ago, and upon which, along with three other devices, depended the fortunes of a one time behemoth. This virtually guaranteed support for an indefinite period for the Z10, which, going by the record, would most likely outrun all current Android and Windows devices.

This was a device, which was optimised. The software fit the exact size of the hardware. And in my experience, optimisation makes a world of a difference. Don’t believe me ? Check out an Apple product. Or compare the performance of a two year old nVidia Quattro/ ATi FirePro to the latest GeForce/Radeon and see how the veterans kick-ass in applications that they were designed to work on.

It’s all about optimization, baby.

So, I decided to take the plunge and after all possible discounts, I got my Z10 at 17.2 K.

After a couple of day’s wait, the device was delivered.

Within a couple of days, the new interface had sunk in and the initial excitement was dying off.

My house mate owns a MotoG, and now the comparisons started.

And the fact is, I was disappointed, still am. On Android, there is an application for every thing one can think off. They are stable and get the job done.

BlackBerry world lacks essential native apps. BlackBerry Maps do not work in India. I mean, come-on BlackBerry, how do you expect to sell your devices with no maps ?

So, I had to go a quest to find suitable/half-baked Android ports/replacements.

It was during this process of installing and un-installing applications, surfing the web for replacements and spending hours with the device, I realised that the Z10 was not trying to beat a Windows phone or an Android device.

The Z10, was a different breed. It was just not built with the same philosophy as an Android or Windows phone.

The BlackBerry OS 10, and most importantly, it’s interface, the BlackBerry Flow and Hub, are not designed for a portable computing device.

They are designed for a portable communication device.

In my evolution from a user of the Nokia 1100s to the Google Nexuses via the iPhones and lately the Windows Phones, I had almost forgotten what a phone is for.

It is primarily a communication device. Initially, it started with the phone calls and text messages. It gradually evolved to handle my emails, instant messages and social networks. But somewhere along the way, Temple Run and Talking Tom became more important than how well my emails were managed and how efficiently I could send an instant message. An update notification for a game had the same priority as the text message I received from my friend or the reminder I received from my guide for my project submission. Every thing on the phone was just an “app” and the more, the merrier.

Priorities were lost. The soul of the “phone”, was lost.

In the one month I have spent with my Z10, it has taken me back to the roots, to the way I felt with my Nokia 1110 , though nothing beats my 1110.

My Z10, is a device I primarily use to communicate, to stay in touch with people. Yes, I would love to do a lot more with it. I would love my games, my music, my news feed, my weather reports and my maps on it. For some of them, I have found a replacement, for some, I am still waiting. The BlackBerry browser, though, makes up for some of it. My daily dose of Quora and HackerNews comes through it, no apps here, and I am quite content with it.

There are native Instagram clients which more or less, get the job done, Waze does a pretty good job at navigation, Google SkyMap+ installed via Snap works as well as it does on the MotoG. NDTV has got a native application though I don’t get any notification for breaking news. I miss the BBC widget but the application works fine. Navfree has got all the offline maps I need, though the navigation is not as smooth as Waze, Docs to Go takes care of the occasional document editing, BlackBerry express is fun to use, though I haven’t yet used it for anything serious. The box integration into the native file browser takes care of my cloud storage and in case you need more, you always have Mega, though integration into the file manager is absent, as of now.

My gaming needs are taken care of by 2048, Gunship battle (via Snap), Alien Hive, Real Racing 3, and Trid.

Facebook, Whatsapp, LinkedIn, Twitter, Zomato, Skype, all have native applications.

The camera is a bit of a disappointment in low light conditions but the camera application is the coolest I have seen, with integrated editing and timescape.

The battery would last me a day, no more, thanks to the LCD display at 1280*768 at 4.2 inches implying 356 ppi.

I really hate the screen guard I have to put on, just because there is no gorilla glass. Why, BlackBerry, why ?

But at the end of the day, the interface beats everything. BlackBerry Hub and Flow, swipe to wake, pinch for new messages, half swipe to have a peek, I love my midsummer night’s breeze.

And the immediate attention it grabs. All I do is place my phone on the table and the oohs and wows start flowing. The Windows users can’t believe a UNIX like OS can beat the fluidity of Windows, neither can the Android users.

A friend of mine who owns a Nexus 5 fell in love with the looks of my Z10.

As of me, I am happy about the fact that it holds its own against the almost generic (flagship or not) devices my friends own and that some very talented engineers are putting their heart and soul into maintaining the new BlackBerry OS 10 and supporting the devices, in turn, rescuing the soul of the cell phone.

And I sincerely hope that my Z10 would last me for the next three years.