My new Edge showed up in the mail today from Rogers; fun times!
I ordered it sight-unseen a couple of weeks ago after finally realizing that my BlackBerry Classic just didn't want to play nice anymore.
Having had two iPhones (a 4 and a 5) previously, and an iPad Mini currently, I initially leaned toward an iP6S Plus, due to the great reviews, total familiarity with iOS, and great satisfaction with all the other Apple products I've used over the last 5 years or so. (I'm posting this in Safari on a Late-2012 MBA.)
I did some digging (including lurking here quite a lot), and in spite of some of the epic 'problems' threads, I decided on the S7E for a few of reasons, namely the pile of positive reviews everywhere, the incredible hardware specs and attendant performance, and the fact that it's late in the iPhone product cycle, as the iP7 should be out in just a handful of months from now.
Why not the BlackBerry Priv? I have fallen deeply back in love with the physical keyboard since I went back to BB from iOS in late 2014, so the Priv was tempting, but one of the main advantages to BB10 is the lean nature of that OS; BB can't get away with putting out a device built on last year's hardware and expect it to run next year's OS, when that OS is Android. Lastly, there's no way that slider mechanism would survive in the residential construction ecosystem that is my daily work environment. The IP68 rating on the Edge sealed the deal.
So after an afternoon and evening of playing, tinkering, setting up accounts, downloading apps and learning the OS a little bit, here's what I think of my first Android device:
The entire hardware package is sexy, to be sure. We've all read the litany of reviews available, but what's been said about the screen, camera and power of this device is for real. If you're OCD (which I'm not), you might mind that the earpiece speaker is misaligned with it's cutout in the glass; we're talking an amount both out-of-square and out-of-plane that you'd need to measure with a micrometer, but I noticed it right away. Being OCD-free, I laughed and carried on.
The camera seems to live up to the hype so far; I've only taken about 30 shots as testers, so time will tell. The camera app interface is the best I've used in a phone, and I'm SO pleased with the speed going from a locked screen to a shutter click via the double-click of the home button.
One thing I will say about the hardware though; the moniker "fingerprint magnet" is an unfortunate understatement. The phone will wear a case of course, but that screen...!
I'm going to need a screen protector just to protect it from my fingers! Wow...
I don't recall any other device that was so bad for prints and smudges on the glass, and I'm fairly sure that both Apple and BB use Gorilla Glass of one generation or another? Perhaps this is an attribute of GG4, or lack of a great coating by Samsung?
Anyway, I was fairly certain that the hardware would impress me; it was the OS that I was curious about. I've never spent more than 2 minutes driving an Android device of any kind, so today represents the totality of my experience in this environment.
I can't say that I'm displeased or disappointed at all, honestly. In terms of navigating the OS, BlackBerry has beaten the world with BB10. Neither this device nor anything by Apple come close to the power and simplicity of that system. I'm surprised by how many similarities Samsung has built into this, however. Enough of them that while everything wasn't accessible exactly as I'm familiar, it's all close enough to move quickly. Generally speaking, there are shortcuts where there need to be, and menus are logical and intuitive.
A couple of things that I don't understand though, are the Apps folder (drawer?) being locked in the dock, and yet app installs automatically generate a shortcut on the home pages. Weird.
Dealing with notifications is also a bit off for me. Again, BB10 changed the world with the BB Hub. For those of you who haven't used a recent BB device, you seriously don't know what you're missing. I openly hope that if they continue develop software and devices for Android, that they bring full Hub functionality to the app store for all of us.
The app ecosystem is what I knew it to be; the equal of Apple's in just about every way. Of the few dozen apps I have from Apple's world, only a few were paid apps, and all of them exist in the Play Store, so no big deal. (Actually, there's one that I use daily, which was about a $20 purchase in iOS and is double that for Android, which is super-duper-lame-o, but otherwise...) BlackBerry's app ecosystem famously sucks [insert favourite pejoratives here] - what you may have heard was probably not as bad as reality. Being able to side-load Android apps was a horrible, horrible workaround that would at times make you happy you could just get something, and at times make you empathize with Jack Torrance in The Shining.
I can't speak to phone call quality or signal reception just yet; Rogers has a 14-day "Buyer's Remorse" return policy with no questions asked, save one, and it's nearly archaic in today's smart-phone environment: the device must have less than 30 minutes of phone call airtime to be eligible for return. No limit on data transfer, nor SMS, photos or email, of course. There's no reason that airtime would equate to wear & tear or any similar notion, but so it is. Some of you might not make 30 minutes of calls in 14 days; I'll rip through that 'allowance' between the start of the day and lunchtime on a business day. Tomorrow being Friday, I'll wait until the weekend to activate my new SIM, and make up my mind by Sunday night.
Barring any shocking realizations during the weekend test drive, I suspect I'll be keeping this unit though - it really does seem to be as good as it's debutante reputation so far.
NOTE: So far, I have NOT experienced any connectivity issues with WiFi, nor a single problem with the SD card, both of which problems have ample coverage on these forums and elsewhere.
I'll update with my experience over the next couple of days.
I ordered it sight-unseen a couple of weeks ago after finally realizing that my BlackBerry Classic just didn't want to play nice anymore.
Having had two iPhones (a 4 and a 5) previously, and an iPad Mini currently, I initially leaned toward an iP6S Plus, due to the great reviews, total familiarity with iOS, and great satisfaction with all the other Apple products I've used over the last 5 years or so. (I'm posting this in Safari on a Late-2012 MBA.)
I did some digging (including lurking here quite a lot), and in spite of some of the epic 'problems' threads, I decided on the S7E for a few of reasons, namely the pile of positive reviews everywhere, the incredible hardware specs and attendant performance, and the fact that it's late in the iPhone product cycle, as the iP7 should be out in just a handful of months from now.
Why not the BlackBerry Priv? I have fallen deeply back in love with the physical keyboard since I went back to BB from iOS in late 2014, so the Priv was tempting, but one of the main advantages to BB10 is the lean nature of that OS; BB can't get away with putting out a device built on last year's hardware and expect it to run next year's OS, when that OS is Android. Lastly, there's no way that slider mechanism would survive in the residential construction ecosystem that is my daily work environment. The IP68 rating on the Edge sealed the deal.
So after an afternoon and evening of playing, tinkering, setting up accounts, downloading apps and learning the OS a little bit, here's what I think of my first Android device:
The entire hardware package is sexy, to be sure. We've all read the litany of reviews available, but what's been said about the screen, camera and power of this device is for real. If you're OCD (which I'm not), you might mind that the earpiece speaker is misaligned with it's cutout in the glass; we're talking an amount both out-of-square and out-of-plane that you'd need to measure with a micrometer, but I noticed it right away. Being OCD-free, I laughed and carried on.
The camera seems to live up to the hype so far; I've only taken about 30 shots as testers, so time will tell. The camera app interface is the best I've used in a phone, and I'm SO pleased with the speed going from a locked screen to a shutter click via the double-click of the home button.
One thing I will say about the hardware though; the moniker "fingerprint magnet" is an unfortunate understatement. The phone will wear a case of course, but that screen...!
I'm going to need a screen protector just to protect it from my fingers! Wow...I don't recall any other device that was so bad for prints and smudges on the glass, and I'm fairly sure that both Apple and BB use Gorilla Glass of one generation or another? Perhaps this is an attribute of GG4, or lack of a great coating by Samsung?
Anyway, I was fairly certain that the hardware would impress me; it was the OS that I was curious about. I've never spent more than 2 minutes driving an Android device of any kind, so today represents the totality of my experience in this environment.
I can't say that I'm displeased or disappointed at all, honestly. In terms of navigating the OS, BlackBerry has beaten the world with BB10. Neither this device nor anything by Apple come close to the power and simplicity of that system. I'm surprised by how many similarities Samsung has built into this, however. Enough of them that while everything wasn't accessible exactly as I'm familiar, it's all close enough to move quickly. Generally speaking, there are shortcuts where there need to be, and menus are logical and intuitive.
A couple of things that I don't understand though, are the Apps folder (drawer?) being locked in the dock, and yet app installs automatically generate a shortcut on the home pages. Weird.
Dealing with notifications is also a bit off for me. Again, BB10 changed the world with the BB Hub. For those of you who haven't used a recent BB device, you seriously don't know what you're missing. I openly hope that if they continue develop software and devices for Android, that they bring full Hub functionality to the app store for all of us.
The app ecosystem is what I knew it to be; the equal of Apple's in just about every way. Of the few dozen apps I have from Apple's world, only a few were paid apps, and all of them exist in the Play Store, so no big deal. (Actually, there's one that I use daily, which was about a $20 purchase in iOS and is double that for Android, which is super-duper-lame-o, but otherwise...) BlackBerry's app ecosystem famously sucks [insert favourite pejoratives here] - what you may have heard was probably not as bad as reality. Being able to side-load Android apps was a horrible, horrible workaround that would at times make you happy you could just get something, and at times make you empathize with Jack Torrance in The Shining.
I can't speak to phone call quality or signal reception just yet; Rogers has a 14-day "Buyer's Remorse" return policy with no questions asked, save one, and it's nearly archaic in today's smart-phone environment: the device must have less than 30 minutes of phone call airtime to be eligible for return. No limit on data transfer, nor SMS, photos or email, of course. There's no reason that airtime would equate to wear & tear or any similar notion, but so it is. Some of you might not make 30 minutes of calls in 14 days; I'll rip through that 'allowance' between the start of the day and lunchtime on a business day. Tomorrow being Friday, I'll wait until the weekend to activate my new SIM, and make up my mind by Sunday night.
Barring any shocking realizations during the weekend test drive, I suspect I'll be keeping this unit though - it really does seem to be as good as it's debutante reputation so far.
NOTE: So far, I have NOT experienced any connectivity issues with WiFi, nor a single problem with the SD card, both of which problems have ample coverage on these forums and elsewhere.
I'll update with my experience over the next couple of days.
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