The long awaited 10.3 update made its way to BB10 devices yesterday and I was wondering what BB10 users out there thought of it. The update features boasted dramatic changes to the interface, improved battery life, a Siri-like voice assistant, better Android App compatibility, Amazon App Store, "Advanced Interaction" and many bugfixes. This is my experience on the BlackBerry Q10.
I ain't gonna lie, I like most of the interface changes.
The app switcher is much more fluid, looks much better and no longer has the 8 app limit.
The Music App has seen a radical improvement over it's predecessor. Instead of the confusing array of tiles presented before, it is now just a simple list.
The Voice Assistant is a feature that doesn't interest me one bit, but when I tested it, it seemed to work fine. No idea how it compares to Siri, Cortana or Google Now, but when I simply said that I was hungry, it pulled up a load of local restaurants for me.
The Calendar app has also improved dramatically visually.
Android App compatibility seems just the same to me, but Android Apps do appear to run smoother and quicker. Also, push notifications for when said App is closed are now possible, meaning I was getting quite a lot of Crossy Road notifications early after updating as the app nagged me to play. Its also possible to manage screen size for Android Apps, meaning phones like the Q10, Q5 and BB Classic with smaller screens don't have to suffer app distortion. Also the software 'back' button (if set visible) for Android Apps is now much smaller, allowing more screen space for the App.
There are some changes I don't like. The system takes longer to boot. It doesn't feel quite as snappy as before. And the new white themes for the BlackBerry HUB and BlackBerry Messenger are god awful in my opinion.
With an already flat theme becoming even flatter... I find some elements of the UI hard to differentiate and navigate. Not a huge deal since I already know how to use the UI, functionality wise, its nearly identical to what it was before. But I imagine for a user new to BlackBerry 10, it could prove to be confusing. Overall a nice update, but with some design issues.
I'm interested to know everyone else's thoughts.
I ain't gonna lie, I like most of the interface changes.
The app switcher is much more fluid, looks much better and no longer has the 8 app limit.
The Music App has seen a radical improvement over it's predecessor. Instead of the confusing array of tiles presented before, it is now just a simple list.
The Voice Assistant is a feature that doesn't interest me one bit, but when I tested it, it seemed to work fine. No idea how it compares to Siri, Cortana or Google Now, but when I simply said that I was hungry, it pulled up a load of local restaurants for me.
The Calendar app has also improved dramatically visually.
Android App compatibility seems just the same to me, but Android Apps do appear to run smoother and quicker. Also, push notifications for when said App is closed are now possible, meaning I was getting quite a lot of Crossy Road notifications early after updating as the app nagged me to play. Its also possible to manage screen size for Android Apps, meaning phones like the Q10, Q5 and BB Classic with smaller screens don't have to suffer app distortion. Also the software 'back' button (if set visible) for Android Apps is now much smaller, allowing more screen space for the App.
There are some changes I don't like. The system takes longer to boot. It doesn't feel quite as snappy as before. And the new white themes for the BlackBerry HUB and BlackBerry Messenger are god awful in my opinion.
With an already flat theme becoming even flatter... I find some elements of the UI hard to differentiate and navigate. Not a huge deal since I already know how to use the UI, functionality wise, its nearly identical to what it was before. But I imagine for a user new to BlackBerry 10, it could prove to be confusing. Overall a nice update, but with some design issues.
I'm interested to know everyone else's thoughts.
