Two months with priv. Would you still make same decision today ?

[bitek]

After two months with my phone I still like it a lot. In fact I love it. I use this phone a lot in work and it is awesome.

What I love

Physical captive keyboard / virtual keyboard
Beautiful screen
Front speaker great for conversation
Pure / stock android
Mostly security updates
Unique look of the phone (I love flipping out physical keyboard)
Very good call quality
Fast charging
Google app store and google apps. ( I finally have all apps I want and I use google maps).

What I like

Battery - it is OK. Sometimes it is better than other days but with rapid charger I hardly pay attention because charging is very fast

Camera - it is good. Much better than what I ever had on any blackberry but not the best out there

Blackberry hub - I like it but it is not as good as bb10 one. I use it all the time and i am looking forward to feature updates.

Plastic -casing I wish blackberry would come out with priv silver edition. I would buy it in no time. Plastic priv is OK but silver priv would be so sweet ( or red one !)

What I dislike

Blackberry is slow with updates (except for security). I want to see more ui and especially hub updates. Blackberry is extra slow hear. The only explanation I have is that blackberry is working hard on marshmallow and hub will be "baked into" os like on bb10 with swipe features etc.

Blackberry productivity bar should incorporate other popular programs.

I've been using nova launcher for a while now and I love it. I might go back to blackberry launcher once marshmallow update is out.

Game performance in world of tanks. Games run fine on priv but world of tanks just so so. I guess this has more to do with Android. I can comfortably play this game on low settings but my 2 year old ipad runs same game on high settings. Other popular games like cut the rope or angry birds or alto adventure run smooth on priv.

Overall priv is one awesome phone. If I had to make choice again today I would still buy this phone. Samsung phones have nothing that appeal to me plus priv is wuch better priced on contract.

 

[thornburg24]

In a heartbeat. I have always had a soft spot for BlackBerry but recently began using multiple Android devices. The Priv is the best of both worlds. I can see myself staying with this phone for a while, and yes if something happened to the phone I would purchase another Priv and not even think twice about it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[thurask]

100% yes, I would.

No regrets since launch (November).

 

[allanbank]

Absolutely

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[randall2580]

I am on my 4th Priv and while this one is the best of the bunch, it still has issues. Problems I had with the first 2 phones seem to be, for the most part, worked out on the most recent, with build quality much better on the Dec build than it was for the Oct and Nov.

Lag is my biggest complaint and my phone frequently freezes to the point it needs to be restarted. It appears to have real problems with memory management.

This is the 2nd of my 4 Priv's to have Bluetooth issues, both had the same. With my 2012 Sorento I can hear the other side just fine, they lose me for long periods of time to the point folks usually hang up. I've checked this with a Galaxy Note 5 and an iPhone 6s+ both do not have any troubles with the Bluetooth - so it's the phone and not my car as far as I can tell.

I find the phone has trouble doing GPS and anything else, makes the phone really hot to the point I've recorded 116 F on it. When it gets that hot it stops recharging. I do a lot of driving and use GMaps and listen to podcasts nearly every day.

I would mostly agree with the OP's list of things I like about the phone. I really like the way the phone feels in the hand, and the screen is excellent.

Because the problems with this phone continue for me, if AT&T sent me an email saying they would let me trade out of it I would in a heartbeat. There is no doubt the phone has gotten better since launch date but the things I outlined above are real problems for me, the biggest being that I cannot use the phone as a phone when I am in my car.

 

[so crow]

I would an amazing device.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[KuroKei]

Still would. Loving sliding out the keyboard to answer phone calls.

I'd agree with the battery life. I always see BlackBerry Services or Productivity Tab running which drains my battery. I hope BlackBerry continues to optimize their suite of apps as well as the launcher. Also get Marshmallow out to us Priv users!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[koool1]

Yes. I love my Priv tough I don't use the keyboard as much as I thought I might.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[bitek]

Still would. Loving sliding out the keyboard to answer phone calls.

I'd agree with the battery life. I always see BlackBerry Services or Productivity Tab running which drains my battery. I hope BlackBerry continues to optimize their suite of apps as well as the launcher. Also get Marshmallow out to us Priv users!

Posted via the Android Central App

I did not know you can answer calls by sliding keyboard out !?

 

[FF22]

I did not know you can answer calls by sliding keyboard out !?

Phone App, Tap the 3-vertical dots menu (upper right), Settings, General Settings, Slider Options (bottom option), pick a settings.

 

[Centerman66]

Absolutely I would.

Posted via my BlackBerry Priv

 

[yohannrjm]

Yes, I would still make the same choice.

I can't say that the Priv doesn't have its issues, but I've got used to how it works, and it works well for me. I do still wish that it wasn't so expensive.......but even with that drawback, I have no regrets about buying it.

 

[medic22003]

I would buy a priv again. Android just ain't what bb10 is for flow but I knew that already. I miss the hub on bb10 too. One thing I had happen that I didn't like recently was a blurry picture in a mms. My boss typically texts out a picture of the monthly schedule when he gets it done. On my z30 and my Co workers s6 it was clearly legible with a little zoom. On my priv it is blurry and nothing I do makes it readable. I could take a picture of that same document with the priv and it's crystal clear. If any of you have any ideas on how to remedy this please let me know.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[medic22003]

That is still blurry to me even here. I don't get it

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[christenmartin]

Definitely. Not a huge fan of Android but it has some real strong positives. I am real interested to see marshmallow with BlackBerry more integrated. Another thing is the priv is tough! I've beat the tar out of this thing and it still looks brand new.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mania626]

Absolutely, if you have to go android this is by far the best option.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[WBSnow]

I was just thinking about this today. I am using my brother's Blackberry Priv. I have always been, and will be, a Blackberry person.

In the few days I've been using this phone, three of my biggest dislikes are (1) the size of the device (feels like an iPhone 6+); (2) the battery life. I was at the hospital visiting my Dad and the battery was at 80% at 11:30 AM; by 4:30 PM and with moderate use (email, gaming, & a few phone calls) the phone was completely dead; and (3) the phone seems to overheat.

The positives of the phone is (1) the physical keyboard being available, if needed; (2) gaming; and (3) integration of Android/Google & Blackberry OS on the device.

IMHO, everything runs smoothly.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jam4775]

Nope, I'm returning my wife's Priv before the 14 day return period is up.

My wife had the Bold back in the day and she really liked that phone with the physical keyboard but after that she always had android phones with on-screen keyboards. So when the Priv came out I suggested that the get it... she was really excited about this phone and really wanted to like it. Well after a week with it here's our impressions.

Pros:
- Excellent call quality, far better than the Note 3 she had.
- Great signal strength
- Great screen visual quality
- Camera photo quality is definitely better than her Note 3 (although I don't think it's any better than my Nexus 6P)
- Front facing speakers
- Sleek and nice looking design with the slide out keyboard. You'd never know physical keyboard is there unless someone showed you.
- Battery life is OK

Cons:
- Touch screen has issues in one of the games she plays that uses a virtual joystick, the touch screen doesn't track the virtual joystick movements very well. (this game worked as it should on her almost 3 year old Note 3)
- The curved screen interferes with on-screen keyboards and some games. Since the screen curves around the side of the device there are times you have to interact with this area of the screen, this can be difficult to do on this curve especially if you have a case on the phone.
- The physical keyboard is integrated with the on-screen keyboard so if you try to use a 3rd party keyboard some functions on the physical keyboard don't work as they should... one example is the symbol key doesn't work the way it should with a 3rd party keyboard. Both my wife and I don't like the BB on-screen keyboard for several reasons and would much rather use the SwiftKey keyboard. Since she uses the on-screen keyboard more than the physical keyboard (probably about 70/30) that needs to be the focus and she needs to have the keyboard she likes.
- On the physical keyboard some dedicated keys are missing that we think should be there... the period key needs to be it's own key, and not under an alt function. And my wife prefers to have a number row. I believe with the height of the phone they could have got another row of keys on the physical keyboard... but if this really wasn't possible, at the very least there should have been an option to turn a number row on on the on-screen keyboard, especially with the issues of using 3rd party keyboards.
- The MicroUSB port is very difficult to plug a cable into on my wife's Priv... you have to wiggle the end of the cable around at different angles until it will go in without damaging anything. (this is probably a manufacture defect, but with all the other things she don't like it's just going back)
- This phone gets hotter than it should I think... my 6P with the 810 processor rarely gets hot and this Priv with the 808 gets hot all the time... something doesn't seem right here?
- This phone charges slow even with the stock charger.
- Price... it's my opinion that this phone is over priced for the hardware you get inside. Seems to me they're trying to justify the price by their name and the physical keyboard. Now if this phone didn't have these cons and work a lot better for my wife we could have justified this price... but this phone is not as polished as it should be at this price point with this hardware in my opinion.

 

[hammer40]

I would. I'm a BlackBerry fan boy and was reluctant to try this phone. After a month, I'm used to Android and like the combination.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[dew066]

Hard to say. The Galaxy S7 is super nice and a little smaller, but I would have to root it and do a lot of customizing to get it the way I would want it. I'm satisfied with the Priv but I wish I could have more options in the camera app like time shift.

Posted via Priv by BlackBerry