Rob. S. 1,647 Posted February 3, 2020 Share Posted February 3, 2020 Chinese phone maker TCL took over when BlackBerry stopped making their own phones, now they call it quits: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/tcl_will_stop_making_new_blackberry_phones/ 2 6 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Polaris 423 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Not a huge loss. No root, no custom OS, portrait keyboards, etc. etc. 😀 3 3 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Slion 1,200 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 3 hours ago, Rob. S. said: Chinese phone maker TCL took over when BlackBerry stopped making their own phones, now they call it quits: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/02/03/tcl_will_stop_making_new_blackberry_phones/ I was never in the BB team being a Nokia Communicator user long before they became a thing. Still as I was starved from physical keyboard smartphones I remember considering those Android BBs when they came out and decided not to, square screen and fixed keyboards are just not for me. Still too bad they stop doing it. 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
ToniCipriani 194 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 2 hours ago, Polaris said: Not a huge loss. No root, no custom OS, portrait keyboards, etc. etc. 😀 Portrait keyboard is fine (yeah, fight me)... it's losing part of the display that's the bigger issue. And besides, a portrait screen with two apps running top/bottom split would've worked great for the Priv, if only it got updated to Nougat to get the said functionality. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
cerialphreak 17 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Bummer. If they were rootable and got updated past oreo I would probably still be using my Key2. Pour one out... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
stavers 9 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 That is a shame. I was always holding out for them to upgrade the Priv with newer CPU, a bit more RAM, and a newer version of Android - that would have been my perfect phone. I do love my Priv - it's just getting rather slow these days! 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spam71 55 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 I usek BB KeyOne before Pro1. KeyOne is a very decent phone, very convenient to use. You can, for example, type on physical keyboard while it is locked in car holder. I also set Tasker to use physical keyboard shortcuts to run different apps easily, no matter what app was running at the moment. Very, very convenient. Unfortunately it is still locked and root-proof, didn't get updates past Oreo. Even though I still find it a great phone. 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
_DW_ 628 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 The keyboard they made for the keyone (and I presume 2) is very good keys very responsive and good feel to them. It's a shame they have stopped making them 😞 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Muth 132 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 Quite sad, but I admit I didn't have a Blackberry with android. I had very good time with the Q10 on BBOS10. There were a time their hub was able to manage all messages and notifications, everything were centralized and accessible with just a sweep left to right, even while have a full screen app running. Then starts the support drop of applications such as whatsapp (no data mining on BBOS ?)... I had 3 full days of battery, very efficient. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sero 89 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 They were always terrible with having fluid software... but I loved all their hardware. I know the die-hard enthusiasts will scoff and say that the Priv/Key keyboards weren't as good as the old Blackberries and while that's true, they were still a hell of a lot better than the software keyboard. Not to mention some of us are way better with portrait qwerty than landscape -- I'm still getting used to it! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
EskeRahn 5,427 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 1 hour ago, Serolfic said: They were always terrible with having fluid software... but I loved all their hardware. I know the die-hard enthusiasts will scoff and say that the Priv/Key keyboards weren't as good as the old Blackberries and while that's true, they were still a hell of a lot better than the software keyboard. Not to mention some of us are way better with portrait qwerty than landscape -- I'm still getting used to it! Apart from the keyboard being cramped in the wrong direction I loved my Priv. I really liked their keyboard app, getting a lot out of their keyboard. I never used any of the classic BB stuff. Just disabled their Hub and all the rest, I just weeks ago tried to see how long the Idle stamina still was with WiFi on, but no sim inserted. I got to 400 hours or 17 days, before reaching 15%... So tired of all the BS of it having poor stamina, it was just all the junk people had installed, not the device. Oh - and it is the original battery, that has just been treated reasonable well! Sure it ate a lot of battery when active, as the processor was a bad generation. But for light usage it was a great device. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sero 89 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 14 minutes ago, EskeRahn said: Apart from the keyboard being cramped in the wrong direction I loved my Priv. I really liked their keyboard app, getting a lot out of their keyboard. I never used any of the classic BB stuff. Just disabled their Hub and all the rest, I just weeks ago tried to see how long the Idle stamina still was with WiFi on, but no sim inserted. I got to 400 hours or 17 days, before reaching 15%... So tired of all the BS of it having poor stamina, it was just all the junk people had installed, not the device. Oh - and it is the original battery, that has just been treated reasonable well! Sure it ate a lot of battery when active, as the processor was a bad generation. But for light usage it was a great device. If BB took the Priv and just refreshed it (more efficient processor, bigger battery, fingerprint sensor) I probably would have gotten it! 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spam71 55 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 KeyOne was much bulkier than Priv and I liked its keyboard more. I don't remember how about Priv, but KeyOne had better reception of both wi-fi, and cellular signal than our Pro1. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
npatel1050 132 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 12 hours ago, Polaris said: Not a huge loss. No root, no custom OS, portrait keyboards, etc. etc. 😀 Competitor leaving the market is bad no matter what. You may not like the designs, lack of root, OS or whatever, but fact is it's one less option for people who want a keyboard. I was debating hard about getting a Priv when it came out a while back but the price was so high. I would've made soany compromises to get it too, but it was the only semi modern option for a keyboard phone 3 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sero 89 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 9 minutes ago, npatel1050 said: Competitor leaving the market is bad no matter what. You may not like the designs, lack of root, OS or whatever, but fact is it's one less option for people who want a keyboard. I was debating hard about getting a Priv when it came out a while back but the price was so high. I would've made soany compromises to get it too, but it was the only semi modern option for a keyboard phone Agreed. Blackberry isn't even really a competitor just like Gemini and Cosmo; there's some crososver but it's another niche. Not to mention that at least the Blackberry brand had the power to have keyboard devices shown in store. It's also another justification for people to go "I guess not enough people want keyboard phones!". 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Polaris 423 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 2 hours ago, npatel1050 said: Competitor leaving the market is bad no matter what. You may not like the designs, lack of root, OS or whatever, but fact is it's one less option for people who want a keyboard. Guess I didn't add enough smiley faces, or probably should have added a couple of wink ones as my comment was strictly in jest. While true I owned a Priv, never acclimated to it, and dumped it quickly, I would never want a company to stop making something just because I don't like it. To each their own, and in that regard, the more choices available to the consumer the better. 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
_DW_ 628 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 8 minutes ago, Polaris said: To each their own, and in that regard, the more choices available to the consumer the better. Thats the problem these days no real differences between devices. 5 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Polaris 423 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 29 minutes ago, _DW_ said: Thats the problem these days no real differences between devices. Agreed! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
divstar 164 Posted February 4, 2020 Share Posted February 4, 2020 I still use the BB hub under android, because it lets me manage all communication through one app (SMS is a bit weird with it). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spencerjohnson 11 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 (edited) The Priv served me well for 4 years despite it's many shortcomings so it's a shame that we likely won't be seeing any more Blackberry devices but the Fxtec Pro1 is a more than reasonable replacement. The writing was on the wall for about a year though with the lack of a Key3. Edited February 5, 2020 by spencerjohnson 3 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FlyingAntero 869 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 I am wondering if this is a good thing for F(x)tec or not? In theory, old BlackBerry customers might consider buying new QWERTY slider from F(x)tec (potential customers). On the other hand, these kind of news can accelerate the death of QWERTY phones overall if people think that no one doesn't even manufacture them anymore. I have never owned BlackBerry phone (I like landscape sliders) but I am still sad that one option is gone now. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
_DW_ 628 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 If I was F(x)tec I would get a portrait device in development to cover that section of the market. 2 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
brunoais 334 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 On 2/4/2020 at 2:52 AM, ToniCipriani said: Portrait keyboard is fine (yeah, fight me)... it's losing part of the display that's the bigger issue. Hear Hear! Major reason why I didn't buy both BB KEY1 and BB KEY2! On 2/4/2020 at 6:45 AM, stavers said: I was always holding out for them to upgrade the Priv with newer CPU, a bit more RAM, and a newer version of Android - that would have been my perfect phone Idem. 6 hours ago, _DW_ said: If I was F(x)tec I would get a portrait device in development to cover that section of the market. I think so too.... But it would require a complete redesign... I wonder if there would be enough audience for that... They are already lacking audience for the Pro¹ to actually make a significant profit. 1 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zetalight 20 Posted February 5, 2020 Share Posted February 5, 2020 I'm getting a Pro1 mostly because the Priv2 was never created. I love the design of the Priv, had a Q10 before it. Unfortunately I didn't take care of the battery nearly as well as @EskeRahn (I've only just done my homework on what I was *supposed* to be doing..) so the thing's failing on me pretty badly now. A full charge will hit 50% by evening, and then (based on some criteria I can't determine) has a chance to shut itself off, reboot, get stuck in the adroid optimizing apps screen for ~10 minutes, and then come back up with 12% somehow. Here's hoping my Pro1 gets here before it dies for good.. 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sero 89 Posted February 6, 2020 Share Posted February 6, 2020 On 2/5/2020 at 9:18 AM, _DW_ said: If I was F(x)tec I would get a portrait device in development to cover that section of the market. Well, I hope someone does. I'm not sure if it'd be Fxtec. When I went to the London meetup I got the impression that this is their one very specific niche that they want to work on and perfect. I might be wrong on that though. If a portrait Fxtec doesn't appear, I think it's more likely to be done by a company that specialises in filling in niches, like Unihertz. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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