There are very few reviews of Blackberry smartphones on these pages. To be blunt, they wouldn't be very favourable. Anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not REALLY a fan. In fact, I've hated them, even the handsets that have been given to me, with a connected sim card, with the blackberry service enabled. I loathed them all. The Playbook was ok, I quite liked that. But it wasn't quite as easy to warm to as an iPad. This, well, it's a different beast altogether. Firstly, it's too big for me to to use as a day to day phone. I wouldn't have one for that reason alone. Which, is something of a shame, as the handset is an absolute corker. Within 10 minutes of flicking back and forth between the HUB, the last used apps and the main menu. You'll feel at home. It's a very easy handset to get used to quickly. The Icons are very Apple-esque, but the transform effects are very slick. It's a nice handset to use. The cameras face detect and smile feature is a blast. It's well documented all over the internet, but I can confirm it works as well in real life as it does in the promotional videos. After using it for a short while, it feels like your main menu is on the right, your 'hub' or message centre is on the left, and the main screen is your 8 last used apps, each of which fill 1/4 of the screen, over 2 vertically stacked pages. The App store is still a little flaky. Although Blackberry tell us that the apps are simple for developers to port onto the blackberry store, so take up should be good. Having said that, all of the popular apps ARE pretty much available now. Facebook, Twitter, etc. But at the time of writing, many apps like springpad and Sky are not. The text input is perhaps the best on the market. Android does have third party apps that make text input easier, but they're not always free, and they take more time and effort to get working. The blackberry tect input is 'straight out of the box' fresh. The way it works is that it predicts a few words that you're likely to type, and displays them above the relevant first letter of that word. You simply swipe up off the letter to select it. It sounds good and looks good on the advert. But it works even better in real life. I do think Blackberry have finally got it right on this one. Not everyone will want one, but I hear more and more people moaning that iOS is becoming a little stale, they fancy a change. So perhaps this will take more of the Android and iOS market than initially thought? For me, it's good, but it's not something I would choose to spend my own money on. But unlike previously, I'd respect someone's opinion for choosing Blackberry. This is a really nice handset, very intuitive to use and with some great features. Smaller Blackberry 10 devices will be worth a second look! Blackberry also went up in my estimations when they chose Elephant by Tame Impala for their TV advert! Kudos!
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