Sunday, May 22, 2016

BlackBerry Priv initial thoughts


Hot. Big. Lag. But thoughtful.

Just around 24 hours with the Priv, so hopefully some issues will have workarounds or solutions.

The Priv runs quite hot at times , reaching beyond 45C. My set is a AT&T device, bought via dailysteals.com. Currently on Lollipop , hopefully Marshmallow will help in this regard.

The device is quite big, especially coming from a 5-inch device (HTC Butterfly 2). Sliding up the screen to use the physical keyboard needs getting used to.

Priv lags, even though it runs on a Snapdragon 808, and 3gb of ram. Again, a software update may help in this area. 

Keyboard is ok. Not as good as the Q5, but am getting the hang of swiping up to choose word predictions.

Being able to scroll up & down a webpage or app using the touch sensitive physical keyboard is great.

Positioning the volume up key directly opposite the power key, not a great idea. Tends to press both by mistake. Have to learn to reposition fingers.

The software keyboard swiping up to complete words is really useful.

The BlackBerry Launcher has many useful features. For example, typing on the home screen immediately starts a device search, for apps, files, settings, etc.

Tried the android version of the Blackberry Hub, and disabled it after a few tries. Not as integrated as the original BlackBerry Hub in BlackBerry 10 OS.

More thoughts to follow. P.S. this was typed entirely on the Priv physical keyboard, using the Blogger android app. Photo uploaded later via desktop browser, as photo upload within Blogger app caused blog post upload to fail.

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Samsung Galaxy S7 - initial thoughts on camera

Test shots from Samsung Galaxy S7; initial thoughts on camera
  1. fast camera startup [double-press home button]
  2. fast auto-focus
  3. zero shutter lag
  4. motion photo feature is useful [shoots 3 seconds of video before you press shutter]
  5. high default shutter speed in auto mode [a good thing, as it results in less blurry shots]
  6. manual behaviour in Pro mode a little strange [doesn't seem to allow shutter speed adjustment only; once i start adjusting shutter speed, sensitivity becomes ISO50 and exposure compensation kicks in]

Auto mode, HDR off, f/1.7, ISO100, 1/100s


Auto mode, HDR off, f/1.7, ISO80, 1/100s

Auto mode, HDR off, f/1.7, ISO125, 1/100s