My beloved Blackberry Bold 9650 became unusable with the never-ending hourglass. Phone calls would come in, the hourglass would appear and it'd be 5 minutes before the Blackberry would let me use it again. Verizon was of no use. Reloading firmware & restoring the Blackberry didn't seem to do any good.

Currently using a Motorola Droid HD Maxx. HATE IT! The touchscreen is a poor substitute for the Blackberry keyboard and simple things that the Blackberry did just aren't there. Phone sound quality sucks, No sound/notification profiles, no changing songs by holding down the volume key. No notepad! and let's talk about battery life. They say this phone has the best battery life out there of any smartphone. Bull. The 9650, when paired with the Opera web browser, did about 95% of what the Maxx did, but battery life was never this bad unless it got stuck in those non-stop hourglass loops.

It seems very difficult for me to believe that the iPhone, Samsung S3, and the Razr HD Maxx are the "best" that's available. They all seem so primitive in basic features that Blackberry has had for years.

I also have to say that I never understood the problem with texting and driving until I got my new phone. I touch-typed ~60-75 words per minute with the Bold, so it regularly sat on my leg whilst driving. It was nothing for me to bang out a couple of e-mails while driving -- I never had to look down. It was right there and you could run the whole phone from the keyboard if you knew it well enough. Back in my Uni days, I even typed a 20 page term paper on the Blackberry keyboard, WHILE DRIVING, without looking at it. Yes, there were a few typos that I corrected before turning it in, but no more than most people would make on a regular keyboard.

It still amazes me that Blackberry has basically done nothing in the past few years. At least release some hardware to keep the fan base loyal, even on the old platform. New platforms are nice, but in my case, I couldn't wait because my old BB was becoming increasingly unusable. I always thought they'd do well by taking Android and rolling a BB into it. They made excellent hardware. Now they just make great PR & delays.

Still interested in Blackberry if they ever produce a Bold replacement. BUT it must have all of the same goodness that my Bold has. Including battery life.

Black, ripe, juicy. With a little whipped cream!

I have a 9900, and love my keyboard. I will get the Z10 once its released in the USA. If I don't like it, return it and get the Q10.

I think it's a Bold 9650. Work phone, had it for a couple years. Has been bullet proof, but finally starting to fail on me, with the headphone/mic jack no longer working (which really stinks, b/c I've tried and hated bluetooth headsets).

Before that, I think it was the 8830 (verizon global phone in silver). Good phone, too, but trackball kept sticking after a while, then it just quit on me after a few years (another work phone). Once several random buttons stopped working (call end, mute, zero), I knew it was time to replace it.

Our company recently rolled out BYOD, so not sure if I'll stick with another BB or just go get my own smartphone and use it on our network.

Actually, that is one of the things that annoys me about ALL phones I'm aware of other than the blackberry. BES / BBCS keeps the Memos synced between my exchange server and my blackberry. I use it extensively and have for years. There are many bits of key information stored in my Outlook memos. It is just so much faster for me to navigate and search than separate apps like Evernote. My understanding is that the ActiveSync protocol doesn't sync the Memos. At least I've never seen it implemented. And since BB10 ditches traditional BES protocols for ActiveSync, I'm fearful we may loose this unique capability

9700 x 2 (one Uk, one US)- both running OS5 - and a playbook. Battery life on 9900 was awful, so that got shot of that one fast and reverted back to the workhorse.

Its far from perfect, but does what I need while impatiently waiting for the Q10- tried the Z10 and I still cant get on with touchscreen typing for emails etc.

The touchscreen typing thing is a bother for me too, so far. I've tried it pretty extensively on my wife's iphone 5 and I'm not a fan. Maybe it's because i haven't lived with and gotten used to it, but definitely prefer the BB keyboard at this point.

Ditto. I have really tried, on blackberry, iphone, and android phones and tablets, and I just don't get on with it. Even on the playbook, which is admittedly one of the better ones, I still cant stand it. There is just something missing- no feel of the button moving so I know that it has been pressed, and constant hitting of incorrect keys.
I don't use predictive text- I like to type the letters of the whole word rather than looking for a word that is suggested (in which time I could have typed the word quickly on a qwerty anyway) - so maybe that doesn't help matters.


Hoping (ok, praying) that the Q10 is everything it would appear to be in previews.

I hope more than just Sprint carries the Q10 in USA.

Patiently waiting for it but I may give the Z10 a thorough workout first and see if my fat fingers and (thin brain) can adapt.

I would be very surprised if Sprint were the only, or even the first, carrier to carry the Q10. In fact, I would put money on them being the LAST carrier in the US to carry the Q10. Sprint entered into a tremendously bad contract with Apple, and every customer who chooses to get a non Apple device over an iPhone on Sprint costs them money due to their minimum sales commitments. There is pretty wide consensus that this is one factor influencing their decision not to carry the Z10.

So, has anyone tried a Z10?

Yes, but the phone was locked down in "demo mode" so it was pretty difficult to try it live. It has a good feel as it feels really solid. It's not gargantuan, nor does it need to be.

However, I'd really like to also try the Q10.

I'd also love to try the Q10.

Unfortunately (mentioned above) I lost my work BB and have to get a replacement soon.

Options are get a another 9900 or wait a bit and try and snag a Z10. Waiting for the Q10 will be too long I think..

There was a round of significant price reductions yesterday for the Z10 - amounting to about �100 in length of contract costs. Carphone Warehouse and Vodafone led, but it seems everyone is following. It's putting the Z10 into the mid-price range from the top price range it was launched into. It's not clear yet whether this is being led by the retailers or the networks.

Torch 9800 here. It's pretty dated, but still does the job. I'm dying to get a Z10, but my company won't be supporting it until Q3.

Sigh...waiting patiently.