Go home, BlackBerry. You're Drunk.

"404 - User No Longer Available" (toni-cipriani) 10/31/2017 at 09:50 • Filed to: None

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People buy your keyboard phones, not your low-mid range slabs priced like flagship killers.

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UPDATE: Launching in Canada on November 10th. For C$599. They are really full of it... a SD625 in END OF 2017 for that much, when everyone is moving to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

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My citroen won't start > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/08/2017 at 23:48

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Up until 2013 I always had Blackberrys, some were company phones and some were personal phones, but I got a new one every year.

Until I got the first non-keyboard one and it was utter shit, the most expensive BB was utter shit.

Only Iphones ever since.

Textured Soy Protein > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/08/2017 at 23:54

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I feel the same way about the Moto Z Play series and X4.

My wife’s Moto G5 Plus has a Snapdragon 625 and it’s $229. $400+ phones should at least have something like a Snapdragon 652/653/660.

I feel like most of the phone companies, instead of making true upper-mid range phones with the SD 65x/66x chips, just let last year’s flagship be the upper-mid range phone.

Or they take the low-mid range SD 62x/63x chips but add on more premium features like nicer screens, cameras, build quality or RAM, and charge up into the $400 range. But you’ve still got the low-mid level chip.

Birddog > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/09/2017 at 00:35

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I’m not joking here. I miss the trackball days. These were so easily repaired it’s not funny. Yeah, the OS sucked but if you accidentally dropped one in a toilet? It didn’t brick. They were true machines.

Svend > Birddog 10/09/2017 at 04:39

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Not so much trackball but I love the trackpad on my Classic and my old Torches.

Gengar Incognito > Birddog 10/09/2017 at 07:47

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When working at Verizon and these were still in the mainstream we had strips of trackballs in blister packs for repairing failed ones for customers. Granted 99% of the time the failure was due to them being disgusting but still an amusing 10 second fix.

404 - User No Longer Available > Birddog 10/09/2017 at 09:48

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Easily repaired... as opposed to the repair unnecessary optical trackpads.

404 - User No Longer Available > Textured Soy Protein 10/09/2017 at 09:50

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The 600-series tend to be more power efficient than the 800-series though.

Textured Soy Protein > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/09/2017 at 11:08

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Well yeah, and the that includes the 652/653/660, which also get a lot closer in performance to the 800 series.

But it seems like in the $400-500 price range you have 3 basic types of phones:

Premium midrange with 625/626/630 but nicer features like better cameras, batteries, build, screen.

“Flagship killer” like OnePlus, Huawei Mate, ZTE Axon, with basically top level specs.

Last year’s flagships.

#2 and 3 make sense to me, because the upstart companies are pushing flagship specs in this price range, and the big boys like Samsung just keep selling last year’s flagship.

#1 doesn’t make sense to me, because the other 2 types blow them out of the water in every way except for maybe battery life.

404 - User No Longer Available > Textured Soy Protein 10/09/2017 at 11:36

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I think it’s something to do with the 65x/660 getting too close to the flagship performance like you said. I’ve only seen those processors used in price-sensitive markets (i.e. Asia) either as a midrange phablet (Samsung C-series, Xiaomi Redmi) or a downgraded flagship (read: LG G5 SE).

In the developed markets they rather you spring for the flagship pricing and get a full on S-series.

Textured Soy Protein > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/09/2017 at 13:06

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Yeah, as far as North America, the only devices I can think of with the upper level 600 series chips are the Galaxy Tab S2 (2016) and Alcatel Idol 4S, which both have a 652. The Idol 5S went down to a 625. Funny how both Alcatel and Blackberry are TCL brands.

It probably is also because the majority of phones are still sold thru carriers, on monthly payments, rather than unlocked. So there’s less demand for $350-500 unlocked phones. The big boys like Samsung let the prices on last year’s flagships carriers creep down into this range, and the unlocked brands are doing real flagship killers in this range.

Now that I think about it, basically only Motorola is bugging me here. I loved my Moto X Pure that cost $400 in 2015, with SD808, 3 GB RAM, 5.7" 1440p screen, stereo speakers, and universal carrier compatibility including CDMA.

Now for that money you get the Z2 Play or X4, and gain a fingerprint sensor, but they have smaller 1080p screens, same 3 GB of RAM, no stereo speakers, and the SD626 and SD630, respectively. Yeah the battery on the X Pure was mediocre, but the SD808 is still way faster than the 626 & 630. At least they still have headphone jacks.

Slap a 653 or 660 in both of those phones, bump the RAM to 4 GB, and all of a sudden they’re great bargains.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 03:04

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I didn’t mind the track pad at all!

Birddog > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/15/2017 at 03:07

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Where’s the fun there?

I worked as a plumber back in the trackball days. My old Curve went into more than one toilet. Bringing it back to life was down to a 15 minute operation back then.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 03:09

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Just got a new silver KeyONE.

I’ve not replaced my Classic Q20 for the KeyONE yet as I can’t get the data to transfer or find how to change profiles. The trackpad is the keys which I don’t like. Trying to type something and not sufficiently lifting your finger from the handset moves the cursor over. I’ll get there though.

Birddog > Gengar Incognito 10/15/2017 at 03:12

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I used to fix them in exchange for beers at one bar I really regulared too often. I’d break them down to the individual axles(?). They really were awesome devices.  

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 03:17

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Gaa! I want the keyboard!!

Seriously, that’s a good looking machine.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 03:27

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It’s good looking and has a good weight to it.

I’m not liking the operation of it so far.

Also when I say cursor, there is no floating cursor, the typing cursor will jump to another section.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 03:31

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It has to be better than the “burner” Moto phones I’m working with right now.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 03:35

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I am considering sending it back and getting a Galaxy 8 and a clip on keyboard.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 03:41

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Damn! That’s bad.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 03:52

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Actually. I’ve just seen the prices they want for a Galaxy S7 or S8.

They want £49 for a half decent tariff with an up front fee.

I got this Blackberry with a 30Gb tariff and managed to get them to waive the fee for the handset for £39 a month.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 03:57

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You lost me.

Tariff on a phone? How do phone contracts work over there?

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 04:10

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Ye’, when you take out a phone you take out a contract (people rarely buy a handset only). Part of the tariff on the contract goes towards paying for the phone.

These days the minutes and texts are insignificant and are pretty much all unlimited.

The significant bit is how much data you get in your allowance.

Most contracts are two years but you can get contracts like O2 Refresh where your contract is divided into phone and airtime payments.

If you want to upgrade and change your phone, pay off the handset portion and continue to pay for your airtime.

Some are two year contracts with a free upgrade of the handset after after one.

My tariff is:

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 04:30

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Ahh! Ok. It’s similar to contract phones here. I’m non contract. It’s pricey at $80/mo (£60ish) but data is unlimited. I bring my own phone and use it as a hotspot.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 04:40

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Is it true that you pay to receive calls?

What’s your data speeds?

I’ve just done a ping test on my Blackberry Classic and getting 11Mbps.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 04:56

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Not true. On my carrier at least.

I’m 19.37mbps on Verizon.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 05:11

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It was a few years ago when I read about having to pay to receive calls in the U.S. and call roaming was expensive or calls not possible outside your provider area.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 05:29

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It was that way for a while. That was back in the 90s and early 00s here in the Midwest. I hope it’s not still a thing now. I’ve run through 44 gigs of data this month so far just watching TV shows.

Svend > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 05:36

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My previous tariff was for only 5Gb of data but I only ever used more than one when the phone updated and wasn’t on wifi which is only when I’m at work or forget to turn wifi back on.

All the rest of the time it’s connected to my home network and I get unlimited data.

Birddog > Svend 10/15/2017 at 05:55

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I don’t have a home base. I had a cable TV contract for a while but it was $90/mo and I only watched two or three shows weekly out of hundreds of channels. It’s was easy to give up.

404 - User No Longer Available > Svend 10/15/2017 at 09:02

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For data you can use BlackBerry Content Transfer.  

Cursor movement is triggered by double tapping on the keyboard, then slide your finger across the entire keyboard.

As for profiles, do you mean like volume profiles for changing the ring volume at times? Look up Do Not Disturb/Downtime .

PS: Why didn’t you go for the black one? 4/64 is better than 3/32.

404 - User No Longer Available > Birddog 10/15/2017 at 09:04

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Tariff = monthly phone plan. Basically each phone has a specific monthly plan tied to it.

Svend > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/15/2017 at 09:23

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Thanks I’ve tried BlackBerry Content Transfer a few times but it just doesn’t want to do it.

Tried BlackBerry Blend and BlackBerry Link with no joy either.

I’ll keep having a go.

The black one wasn’t available on O2. Just EE and Vodafone, but I wasn’t wanting to move network as well.

404 - User No Longer Available > Svend 10/15/2017 at 09:59

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Tried BlackBerry Blend and BlackBerry Link with no joy either.

That doesn’t work with Android. What exactly are you looking to transfer?

Also, update BlackBerry Content Transfer on the KEYone via Play Store onto the latest version before attempting as well. I know the one out of the box in the Priv was incredibly buggy.

Svend > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/15/2017 at 10:24

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I want to transfer everything across.

404 - User No Longer Available > Svend 10/15/2017 at 10:31

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I know for starters, most of Remember won’t, neither will Password Keeper. I just manually moved Remember to Evernote then moved everything to OneNote.

But SMS should transfer fine.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 10:04

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I think they are trying to break back into the business market. They are pushing security more than anything and while pricy for consumers I would wager you could get a pretty good deal if you approached them as a company trying to outfit your workforce with new phones. The massive battery and IP67 rating are rather appealing on a work device.

And looking at the performance of the KeyOne the 625 is a solid performer and just sips from the battery. Sticking with one CPU and not upgrading each year makes the ecosystem more homogeneous which makes updates and compatibility easier to manage.

404 - User No Longer Available > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/31/2017 at 10:09

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Except companies aren’t outfitting anyone. They just install a BYOD sandbox, tell you to use your own phone and call it a day.

These days your personal device is also the corporate device, that line has blurred. Which goes back to the point this has nothing appealing as a consumer device.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 10:15

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For a lot of companies that is true but when you work with sensitive information you still tend to end up with a company phone. I know a number of people who have company phones and laptops because they work in industries such as government contracting where you want all your business information carefully controlled. Sometimes you simply can’t be trusted with company communications and data on a personal device.

Where have all the lightweights gone? > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 10:15

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FTFY

LongbowMkII > Textured Soy Protein 10/31/2017 at 10:16

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You guys are fucking dorks.

/returns to pointing out obscure details in cars

BaconSandwich is tasty. > Birddog 10/31/2017 at 10:31

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I wish someone would have made a phone like this, but with two trackballs - one at each end of the phone. Turn the phone sideways = perfect gaming phone with physical controls.

Future next gen S2000 owner > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 10:31

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The day a company tells me to use my own phone is the day my cell phone “becomes” a land line.

Textured Soy Protein > LongbowMkII 10/31/2017 at 10:57

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I was trying to figure out why I suddenly got a comment on a post from a few weeks ago and I just realized that someone brought this post back.

Spanfeller is a twat > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 11:08

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Jeez Black Berry what a boring design, i’ve designed more complex bricks on Microsoft paint.

RCMF - is hungry for V10 Touaregs and long kinja names > TheTurbochargedSquirrel 10/31/2017 at 15:14

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That’s a huge deal, yeah. I’m still in school but I interned with a major pharmaceutical company this summer and it was amazing to see how far their IT security dept. went to make sure everyone’s personal and company resources were quarantined. Software has gotten better for that purpose, but those guys still prefer separate physical devices to add a layer of defense.

The Compromiser > 404 - User No Longer Available 10/31/2017 at 22:31

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I happen to like my company provided DTEK50. It’s pretty slick. I dont even miss the keyboard!

404 - User No Longer Available > The Compromiser 11/01/2017 at 12:29

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That’s just a reskinned Alcatel Idol 4...