BlackBerry user goes Pixel 5!

[Daveya]

Blackberry Curve my fave ever phone

 

[prlarkin]

Another BB fiend here who moved to Pixel. 8900>9700>9780>9900>Z10>Passport>Priv>KEYone>Key2>Pixel2XL and now Pixel 5. I wanted the security updates and the clean UI. Even my friends and family who were all BB are now Pixels of some description from the Pixel XL thru to Pixel 5.

 

[the_boon]

Another BB fiend here who moved to Pixel. 8900>9700>9780>9900>Z10>Passport>Priv>KEYone>Key2>Pixel2XL and now Pixel 5. I wanted the security updates and the clean UI. Even my friends and family who were all BB are now Pixels of some description from the Pixel XL thru to Pixel 5.

It's unfortunate that TCL didn't bring anything after the KEY2/LE for its users to upgrade to.

Hopefully OnwardMobility will bring something that would entice former loyal users like you to return to the brand.

In the meantime though, the Pixel 5 is a great choice of a slab.

 

[qphone]

Hey everyone! Yes, laugh as you might, I've been a BlackBerry user and fan for the last 15 years (started with a Curve, another Curve, Bold 9900, Q10, Z10, PRIV, and keyOne). While the PRIV and keyOne are Android, they are no longer supported as you probably know, and searched for what would be (to me) the next best, secure, reliable, productivity phone I could find and landed on the Pixel 5. In short, while it's still been an adjustment, even from the BB Android's to Google's pure Android, I am really liking this phone so far!

The battery life is crazy good (and I thought my BB's were good), excellent screen, awesome performance, and seems suit (almost) all my needs and wants. Honestly, even though my PRIV and keyOne had virtual keyboards, they still had physical keyboards too, and I still prefer the physical keyboard. But onward I must progress right? I am adjusting to exclusively virtual screen keyboard even though I long for the physical keyboard still. I also miss the BB Hub apps for email/calendar/notes/etc., and that I could program each key as a shortcut to my apps for fast access instead of doing a bunch of swiping. I find the GMail app to be not so good, so I'm using Outlook which is better (but still not as good as BB Hub).

a few observations so far

- I like, for the most part, the rear fingerprint sensor. I wish it was off center (to the left) so I could easily pick up the phone and unlock one-handed. Otherwise I have to kind of reposition the phone in my hand and reach my finger to the right a bit to hit the sensor. One workaround I found that makes it better I found was to delete that fingerprint, then set it up again but this time biasing the print to the right side of my finger and now it's more acceptable reading just the right side of my index finger. The BB's fingerprint sensor built into the spacebar was still my favorite.

- Pixel 5 OEM fabric case: Initially didn't like it, took it off, now put it back on again. Don't get me wrong, it's nice and slim, but not my favorite design. But it'll do for now.

- Added ZAGG Glass+ screen protector.

- Under-screen speaker. Yeah, it's not great, but it's serviceable, and I generally use my Pixel Buds or other speakers/handsets anyway, so not a big deal for me. (I'm guessing Google was thinking along these lines anyway when they designed it, that a lot of people would likely user some Bluetooth handsfree device)

- Front camera. For a front-facing camera, it seems pretty good to me. I thought the "hole punch" would bother me but honestly I've found I don't even notice it.

- Battery Share. It's awesome! And with the Pixel 5 having so much juice, I really like this feature to charge my Buds or topping off other phones. Wish it worked with my Samsung frontier smartwatch too, but alas, it doesn't. Still with regular to heavy use my battery is still around 60% at the end of a 16 hour day. I notice it doesn't budge off 100% for the first couple hours and even after 4-ish hours I'm still at or above 90%.

- Pixel wireless charging stand. I got 2 of them. They're both recognized individually, and I love that you can customize the DND and other behaviors when on the stand, and further, it can be customized for each stand. (BTW, BB had this like, a decade ago?). Only issue I noticed is that when I place it on the charging stand with Google's own fabric-clad case on the phone, it won't sit completely straight. It wants to fall to a tilted (left or right) position with the case on. Way to go Google ("Hey Google, can you test that all your accessories are compatible before putting them to market?" Lol!) The stand does charge the phone fast though and it works great for my wife's iphone too!

- I miss not having a notification LED

Anyway, that's all for now as I continue to learn and use it more. I do still keep my BB keyOne at my side in case I need to get something done that I haven't learned yet on my P5, but am weaning myself from the BB more and more each day.

Any other Pixel 5 users out there that are coming from BlackBerry?

Well...

I too took the plunge as I could no longer wait for Onward Mobility's BlackBerry 5G offering for 2021. Being not sure if it'll ever come to fruition and researching the many Android Devices to choose from...

I decided to go pure Android via Pixel (4a 5G) because of monthly security updates pretty much released on the dot every month let alone OS upgrades that all Pixel's have come to enjoy as they're released over Samsung and other OEMs. Right out of the box...Android 11 with November 5, 2020 security patch when we first bought them right through to Dec 5, Jan 5 and now Feb 5, 2021 security patch downloaded and installed a few days ago.

Being a Blackberry user going all the way back to the BlackBerry OS (Pearl/Storm 1/Storm 2/Torch/Bold), BlackBerry 10 (Z10/Z30/Passport/Classic), Blackberry Android (DTEK 50/DTEK 60/Leap/KEYone)... I loved the fact that the Blackberry Android Devices used the purest form of Android with BlackBerry 10'ish look (DTEK and KEY series) via BlackBerry Hub stuff on top.

Roughly 3 years later... as much as I could have purchased KEY2s, the device like the KEYone would still be on Android 8.1. The last security patch on our KEYones was June, 2019.

Now...with the purchase of our new 4a 5Gs, such a sigh of relief being up to date on security patches let alone being on the latest OS (Android 11). Android 11's gestures totally remind me of the Blackberry 10 days when everyone was saying Gestures wont last as buttons (Back/Home/Overview) are the way to go. Now I'm back with Gestures.

Seeing that the latest Android is pretty much Gesture based... it was very, very easy to adapt.

After unboxing, I immediately updated to see that I'm on the latest Security Update. From there I updated to make sure all the OEM Google apps are up to date. After doing all that... I then installed BlackBerry Hub+ Services (Hub+ Inbox/Calendar/Notes/Tasks/Contacts/Password Keeper/Device Search/Launcher/Privacy Shade) and enabled Blackberry Launcher as default.

Also set up icon placements exactly as default Blackberry Android devices via Blackberry launcher.

Blackberry software carried over from Blackberry 10 to Blackberry Android over to Pixel 4a 5G. Will Onward Mobility's Android Blackberry 5G pull through in '21? Who knows... but at least I can rest and relax knowing that I'm up to date on security patches.

Pic of our 4 Blackberry KEYones and 1 DTEK60 getting ready to retire to my phone drawer/retirement home and my home screen looking exactly like my DTEK60 and KEYone with the big difference...that it's a 5G device on the latest OS and security patch.

A big Thank You to Google Pixel Line for our new Blackberry 5Gs

P.S. I do miss the keyboard and the biggest one was LED indicator but gesture based was an ease for the whole family since Blackberry 10 was so ahead of its time with pure gesture based navigation when everyone was saying Gestures is just a gimmick and buttons is the way to go...

 

[aecgda]

Got a question for ya. I'd really like to give the GMail app a chance, but 1) every time I open it, it seems to default to just my gmail account, not all mail accounts. So I have to go and manually select all accounts all the time which is getting old. Is there a way to make it show all accounts by default?

2) When looking at all accounts, it's not apparent by the emails in the list which ones are from which account without opening it. Also, it doesn't show sent mail unless going to the sent mail folder.

Sorry for the questions, it's just the BB Hub mail would always show everything (both sent and received) from all accounts, and it put little color-coded bars on the left of each email so I could quickly see which email account it was from.

I think you have to load each individual account into the Hub.

 

[aecgda]

Well...

I too took the plunge as I could no longer wait for Onward Mobility's BlackBerry 5G offering for 2021. Being not sure if it'll ever come to fruition and researching the many Android Devices to choose from...

I decided to go pure Android via Pixel (4a 5G) because of monthly security updates pretty much released on the dot every month let alone OS upgrades that all Pixel's have come to enjoy as they're released over Samsung and other OEMs. Right out of the box...Android 11 with November 5, 2020 security patch when we first bought them right through to Dec 5, Jan 5 and now Feb 5, 2021 security patch downloaded and installed a few days ago.

Being a Blackberry user going all the way back to the BlackBerry OS (Pearl/Storm 1/Storm 2/Torch/Bold), BlackBerry 10 (Z10/Z30/Passport/Classic), Blackberry Android (DTEK 50/DTEK 60/Leap/KEYone)... I loved the fact that the Blackberry Android Devices used the purest form of Android with BlackBerry 10'ish look (DTEK and KEY series) via BlackBerry Hub stuff on top.

Roughly 3 years later... as much as I could have purchased KEY2s, the device like the KEYone would still be on Android 8.1. The last security patch on our KEYones was June, 2019.

Now...with the purchase of our new 4a 5Gs, such a sigh of relief being up to date on security patches let alone being on the latest OS (Android 11). Android 11's gestures totally remind me of the Blackberry 10 days when everyone was saying Gestures wont last as buttons (Back/Home/Overview) are the way to go. Now I'm back with Gestures.

Seeing that the latest Android is pretty much Gesture based... it was very, very easy to adapt.

After unboxing, I immediately updated to see that I'm on the latest Security Update. From there I updated to make sure all the OEM Google apps are up to date. After doing all that... I then installed BlackBerry Hub+ Services (Hub+ Inbox/Calendar/Notes/Tasks/Contacts/Password Keeper/Device Search/Launcher/Privacy Shade) and enabled Blackberry Launcher as default.

Also set up icon placements exactly as default Blackberry Android devices via Blackberry launcher.

Blackberry software carried over from Blackberry 10 to Blackberry Android over to Pixel 4a 5G. Will Onward Mobility's Android Blackberry 5G pull through in '21? Who knows... but at least I can rest and relax knowing that I'm up to date on security patches.

Pic of our 4 Blackberry KEYones and 1 DTEK60 getting ready to retire to my phone drawer/retirement home and my home screen looking exactly like my DTEK60 and KEYone with the big difference...that it's a 5G device on the latest OS and security patch.

A big Thank You to Google Pixel Line for our new Blackberry 5Gs

P.S. I do miss the keyboard and the biggest one was LED indicator but gesture based was an ease for the whole family since Blackberry 10 was so ahead of its time with pure gesture based navigation when everyone was saying Gestures is just a gimmick and buttons is the way to go...

You can download the BlackBerry keyboard from Blackberry Manager. I have it on my Pixel5. It's wonderful. It says it isn't compatible but many people on here go ahead and do it anyway. I can't see it's messed anything up.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Hi welcome to the forums. I used to love my BlackBerry and I even had the Playbook. I used to have the Pixel 2xl and it was a superb phone. I also had the 4xl but I gave it to my husband. The pixels have amazing cameras.

 

[qphone]

You can download the BlackBerry keyboard from Blackberry Manager. I have it on my Pixel5. It's wonderful. It says it isn't compatible but many people on here go ahead and do it anyway. I can't see it's messed anything up.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip!

 

[Morty2264]

Hi welcome to the forums. I used to love my BlackBerry and I even had the Playbook. I used to have the Pixel 2xl and it was a superb phone. I also had the 4xl but I gave it to my husband. The pixels have amazing cameras.

I got a PlayBook from my parents for Christmas years ago. I still love it! Miss those days.

 

[the_boon]

Well...

I too took the plunge as I could no longer wait for Onward Mobility's BlackBerry 5G offering for 2021. Being not sure if it'll ever come to fruition and researching the many Android Devices to choose from...

I decided to go pure Android via Pixel (4a 5G) because of monthly security updates pretty much released on the dot every month let alone OS upgrades that all Pixel's have come to enjoy as they're released over Samsung and other OEMs. Right out of the box...Android 11 with November 5, 2020 security patch when we first bought them right through to Dec 5, Jan 5 and now Feb 5, 2021 security patch downloaded and installed a few days ago.

Being a Blackberry user going all the way back to the BlackBerry OS (Pearl/Storm 1/Storm 2/Torch/Bold), BlackBerry 10 (Z10/Z30/Passport/Classic), Blackberry Android (DTEK 50/DTEK 60/Leap/KEYone)... I loved the fact that the Blackberry Android Devices used the purest form of Android with BlackBerry 10'ish look (DTEK and KEY series) via BlackBerry Hub stuff on top.

Roughly 3 years later... as much as I could have purchased KEY2s, the device like the KEYone would still be on Android 8.1. The last security patch on our KEYones was June, 2019.

Now...with the purchase of our new 4a 5Gs, such a sigh of relief being up to date on security patches let alone being on the latest OS (Android 11). Android 11's gestures totally remind me of the Blackberry 10 days when everyone was saying Gestures wont last as buttons (Back/Home/Overview) are the way to go. Now I'm back with Gestures.

Seeing that the latest Android is pretty much Gesture based... it was very, very easy to adapt.

After unboxing, I immediately updated to see that I'm on the latest Security Update. From there I updated to make sure all the OEM Google apps are up to date. After doing all that... I then installed BlackBerry Hub+ Services (Hub+ Inbox/Calendar/Notes/Tasks/Contacts/Password Keeper/Device Search/Launcher/Privacy Shade) and enabled Blackberry Launcher as default.

Also set up icon placements exactly as default Blackberry Android devices via Blackberry launcher.

Blackberry software carried over from Blackberry 10 to Blackberry Android over to Pixel 4a 5G. Will Onward Mobility's Android Blackberry 5G pull through in '21? Who knows... but at least I can rest and relax knowing that I'm up to date on security patches.

Pic of our 4 Blackberry KEYones and 1 DTEK60 getting ready to retire to my phone drawer/retirement home and my home screen looking exactly like my DTEK60 and KEYone with the big difference...that it's a 5G device on the latest OS and security patch.

A big Thank You to Google Pixel Line for our new Blackberry 5Gs

P.S. I do miss the keyboard and the biggest one was LED indicator but gesture based was an ease for the whole family since Blackberry 10 was so ahead of its time with pure gesture based navigation when everyone was saying Gestures is just a gimmick and buttons is the way to go...

Congrats!

Don't forget to allow BB launcher to access your notifications so that you can see the red sparks above the icons when you get them.

I'm not sure where it is on Android 11 but on the KEYone/KEY2 it's:

Settings > Apps & notifications > Special access > Notification access > toggle it on for BB launcher

 

[qphone]

Congrats!

Don't forget to allow BB launcher to access your notifications so that you can see the red sparks above the icons when you get them.

I'm not sure where it is on Android 11 but on the KEYone/KEY2 it's:

Settings > Apps & notifications > Special access > Notification access > toggle it on for BB launcher

Yep! All notifications working flawlessly. Hub doing everything that it's supposed to do

The phone is basically a DTEK60 with near identical BlackBerry Android look including icon placements but it's Android 11 and 5G hence... Our version BlackBerry 5G

 

[farocco]

Congrats on your pixel, I too miss blackberry. I ended up returning my pixel 5 for iPhone 12 because I brought into the privacy issue. iPhone was nice, but I found myself asking why I did it and was missing the pixel notifications and customization. So I returned the iPhone and purchased another pixel 5. I need to stop making issues for myself, there is no good or bad, it's what you like.

 

[qphone]

Congrats on your pixel, I too miss blackberry. I ended up returning my pixel 5 for iPhone 12 because I brought into the privacy issue. iPhone was nice, but I found myself asking why I did it and was missing the pixel notifications and customization. So I returned the iPhone and purchased another pixel 5. I need to stop making issues for myself, there is no good or bad, it's what you like.

So true...

In the end, the best phone is what works for you the best as that's why we chose Pixel for our family... using pure Android that we can install BlackBerry Hub+ Services and BlackBerry Launcher in addition to on the dot monthly security updates.