The bigger concern is what the Maps application doesn't supply: I need transit directions, walking options, offline maps, distance between two points, a bird's eye or Street View feature, more POIs and Zagat- / Yelp-style reviews. The voice turn-by-turn navigation, GPS tracking and traffic updates are handy to have and all work well, but those are staples for any OS at this point, which means they aren't standout features. Its simple interface might do the job for some travelers, but it's too basic for my needs. This week, I also explored (and became frustrated by) BlackBerry Maps. (And don't even think about playing graphic-intensive games on it unless you're close to an outlet and a charger.) Granted, there are some power-saving measures you can take to extend the Z10's life, but these will likely only work if you aren't wholly dependent on the phone for any degree of your livelihood.
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Not once have I been able to make it through a full day on a single charge. I'm emailing, messaging, tweeting and browsing the internet much more frequently than any sane person should, but I'm lucky if the phone gets me through a standard workday - usually eight to 10 hours at the most. Nearly every review I've read (including our own) makes mention of the Z10's power-management struggle, and my experience over the last two weeks matches those claims. I wish I could say that BlackBerry 10 offers that same kind of flawless execution in every facet of the OS, but unfortunately there are still plenty of areas that need extra work. The most mind-blowing shortcut, though? If the Hub misbehaves, you can reset it without a battery pull by pulling down from the top-right corner of the screen five times. If you don't want to see the keyboard anymore, just pull it down with two fingers (and vice versa). I've also put in my own custom autocorrects, the same way I can with most other platforms. For instance, the keyboard offers several handy tricks - type "ld" to automatically insert today's date, "mypin" for the device PIN, "mynumber" for your phone number and so on.
Fortunately, BlackBerry does a beautiful job of striking this balance. In other words, shortcuts can add a great deal of convenience and depth for power users, but it's also important that they don't overwhelm users that only want to utilize of the platform's simple features. I discovered that there's a delicate balance between necessity and luxury. Thanks to a plethora of online resources (including some helpful Engadget commenters), I was immersed in the phones inner workings. Since my first week was dedicated to learning the user interface and ecosystem, I didn't learn many of BB10's secrets this past week, however, was a completely different story. At the time, I had the feeling that there were plenty of keystrokes and other shortcuts that I never found - and now I'm experiencing that same thing with BlackBerry 10. They were everywhere discovering new shortcuts was the equivalent of locating hidden treasure on a pirate map. One of my fondest recollections from my BlackBerry Curve days was the phone's intricate use of shortcuts. As I progress through my 30-day BlackBerry trial, I'm writing most of my thoughts with the assumption that you have a basic understanding of BlackBerry's new devices and platform. If you haven't taken the opportunity to read through our review of the BlackBerry Z10 and the BB10 operating system, now is the perfect time to do so.
Venture across the break and I'll fill you in on some of the things I discovered.Įditor's note: This is not a review. I wanted to make sure it's prepared for the rough and taxing journey the two of us will face in Barcelona. Phone-wise, what would normally be a minor frustration at home can become an emergency in other countries, so I spent this week putting the Z10 to the test. That's great news as I prepare for my upcoming trip to Spain to cover Mobile World Congress (I leave tonight), since my habits as a power user will be amplified during my weeklong venture to the other side of the Atlantic. While I became accustomed to the user interface during the first week, my experiences during the second week were even more smooth and natural than before.
Strangely, I'm not feeling the same about the Z10 - at least, not as much as I had expected. I'm halfway through my monthlong BlackBerry 10 experiment, which means this is the point at which I'm usually ready to move on to something new. For a reviewer like me, however, it's actually about twice as long as I typically spend with any given device as my daily driver. Thirty days is just a tiny fraction of the two-year commitment you sign when buying discounted phones in the US - one-twenty-fourth of the actual time you're stuck with the device before switching phones.
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