3 ms·
After 4 years of iPhone and 3 years of Android, I got a Blackberry Classic in December 2014. A year later, I couldn't be happier; it's the first smartphone I've
by abalashov 11y ago
After 4 years of iPhone and 3 years of Android, I got a Blackberry Classic in December 2014. A year later, I couldn't be happier; it's the first smartphone I've ever owned about which I've said that.
It's good for phone calls and e-mail. It begrudgingly plays host to a few native apps for Blackberry OS, but not a whole lot. If I really want to use something like Facebook, I use the mobile browser version, but it's enough work to not mindlessly reach for it. So, the device is good for objective work things and not that much else. Its excellent physical keyboard also makes typing less frustrating and cognitively stultifying, since I can do 40-50 WPM on the thing with nearly 100% accuracy.
But getting away from all the apps and the notification overload has made my life considerably less anxious, if not ideally so. I'm still very OCD about being on top of my e-mail, but that's primarily due to the 24/7 always-on nature of my business rather than being glued to the handset per se. Every once in a while, I miss the convenience of some Android or iOS app or another, but for the most part it's a nonissue, and the upside of the liberation definitely outweighs the inconvenience.
- seivan 11y agoNo performance issues? How about UX issues? Not having fingerprint auth on the laptop for sudo is annoying enough.
- abalashov 11y agoNo, oddly enough; it's as snappy and responsive as ever. And I like the Blackberry OS UX very much, although it's clearly all deprecated now. The newest Blackberry product is the Priv, an Android-based phone.
- cableshaft 11y agoI think this is why I've been so hesitant to switch back to an Android or iPhone now that I have a Windows Phone (Lumia 635). The UI is well designed and super slick, the browser is crap but works enough to check most things, the selection of apps is crap but the main ones I need are on there, albeit are inferior versions (Kindle, FB, Amazon, Meetup, Podcasts), the alarms will make noise even if the phone is on vibrate (iOS and Android seem incapable of that), and I really love the Live Tiles and it's awesome for texting. Also I got the phone for $30 so I'm nowhere near as paranoid of bad things happening to it like when I paid $450 for my Nexus 5. And yet it seems sturdier. It's also waaaaay better and has lasted longer as a mid-range phone than the mid-range Android phone I bought a few years ago. That thing was super slow and buggy and a terrible battery life after six months, and just kept getting worse. My Lumia phone still acts just as smooth as it did on Day 1 and the battery still lasts over a day per charge. But I don't waste time trying out a bunch of apps, and I don't get endless notifications, so I'm not constantly distracted by my phone.
- l33tbro 11y agoI did much the same and had a pretty horrible experience with Blackberry after owning multiple Iphones. I guess i realized that there are just so many basic IOS apps that actually had value to my life that weren't available on BB. These weren't the time-hole apps either that the article talks about (Snapchat, Facebook, IG, etc). I don't use social media at all (unless HN is considered social, which I guess it is) - but having things like reliable GPS, a reliable camera, apps for my line of work, Siri, etc, was just too good to pass up for me.