Short Review
With the Z10,
BlackBerry seems to be turning a corner. It is a very good smartphone, with
regards the hardware and the potential of the spanking new BB10 OS. The camera
is excellent, and surprisingly matches up to the iPhone 5. You do not need to
pay separate for a BlackBerry data plan with BB10 phones. Hub integrates all
your mail and social networking updates at one place, and that is rather cool.
However, the BB10 OS has some bugs that need to be ironed out soon enough. If
apps like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Instagram and Skype are important for you,
then you will be disappointed.
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With the Z10,
BlackBerry seems to be turning a corner. It is a very good smartphone, with
regards the hardware and the potential of the spanking new BB10 OS. The camera
is excellent, and surprisingly matches up to the iPhone 5. You do not need to
pay separate for a BlackBerry data plan with BB10 phones. Hub integrates all
your mail and social networking updates at one place, and that is rather cool.
However, the BB10 OS has some bugs that need to be ironed out soon enough. If
apps like WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Instagram and Skype are important for you,
then you will be disappointed.
Build & Design
The BlackBerry Z10 basically shouts out its simplicity. There is that resemblance with the Apple iPhone 5’s overall design, but that is pretty where the similarity stops. The clean look and what is an industrial design stands out amidst the colorful and eye-catching designs of Android and Windows Phone smartphones. While BlackBerry is appealing to a wider audience with the BB10 phones, it cannot alienate the core demographic – the business/corporate user – by making colorful phones!
The BlackBerry Z10 basically shouts out its simplicity. There is that resemblance with the Apple iPhone 5’s overall design, but that is pretty where the similarity stops. The clean look and what is an industrial design stands out amidst the colorful and eye-catching designs of Android and Windows Phone smartphones. While BlackBerry is appealing to a wider audience with the BB10 phones, it cannot alienate the core demographic – the business/corporate user – by making colorful phones!
The Z10’s display is flanked by no hardware keys,
making it an full-touch device. The multitasking is similar to that on the BlackBerry
Playbook. The panel around the screen are touch enabled, allowing for the swipe
gestures that enable navigation through the BB10 user interface. This is the
reason why the phone feels slightly bigger than most phones of the 4.2-inch or
4.3-inch display size.
Basic Hardware Specs
After years of falling behind the rivals in the direct spec sheet competition, BlackBerry has finally decided to step up. The Z10 gets a Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon dual-core 1.5GHz processor and that is paired with 2GB of RAM. This is the same processor as seen on the Nokia Lumia 920, albeit that has 1GB lesser RAM. This chipset brings the Adreno 225 graphics.
After years of falling behind the rivals in the direct spec sheet competition, BlackBerry has finally decided to step up. The Z10 gets a Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon dual-core 1.5GHz processor and that is paired with 2GB of RAM. This is the same processor as seen on the Nokia Lumia 920, albeit that has 1GB lesser RAM. This chipset brings the Adreno 225 graphics.
The Z10 has 16GB
built-in storage, out of which around 12GB is available for the user. There is
also a microSD card slot for expansion up to 64GB. You are not likely to run
out of storage space on this device.
Display
The Z10’s 4.2-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. Compare this to the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5 which has a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels. In the density stakes too, the Z10’s 355ppi is better than 326ppi on the iPhone 5. As our photographic comparisons prove, the text handling on the Z10’s display is better than the iPhone 5, since it is crisper and easier to read. However, in the brightness level comparison, the iPhone 5 display has a considerable advantage at 50% and 100% brightness levels, side by side. We tested the colour handling using the same image on both displays, and despite lower density numbers, the same image looked more detailed on the iPhone 5 and also had better colour richness. The whites on the Z10’s display have a very slight cream-ish tinge, which also has a bearing on the rest of the colours.
The Z10’s 4.2-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. Compare this to the 4-inch display on the iPhone 5 which has a resolution of 1136 x 640 pixels. In the density stakes too, the Z10’s 355ppi is better than 326ppi on the iPhone 5. As our photographic comparisons prove, the text handling on the Z10’s display is better than the iPhone 5, since it is crisper and easier to read. However, in the brightness level comparison, the iPhone 5 display has a considerable advantage at 50% and 100% brightness levels, side by side. We tested the colour handling using the same image on both displays, and despite lower density numbers, the same image looked more detailed on the iPhone 5 and also had better colour richness. The whites on the Z10’s display have a very slight cream-ish tinge, which also has a bearing on the rest of the colours.
BB10
There is no running away from the fact that BB10 requires various swipe gestures, if you are to get any work done on the phone. That takes some getting used to, particularly if you haven’t used the Playbook tablet before. This might tower as a steep learning curve for some users, but nothing that you cannot get used to very quickly. The stacked design of how apps open and how information is revealed and hidden is rather slick, and once you get a grip on the gestures, a breeze to get around.
There is no running away from the fact that BB10 requires various swipe gestures, if you are to get any work done on the phone. That takes some getting used to, particularly if you haven’t used the Playbook tablet before. This might tower as a steep learning curve for some users, but nothing that you cannot get used to very quickly. The stacked design of how apps open and how information is revealed and hidden is rather slick, and once you get a grip on the gestures, a breeze to get around.
First up, you start
at what is essentially the Page 1 of the BB10 app drawer. This is very similar
to the way the current iOS user interface is. Full marks for simplicity,
because not everyone we spoke with likes the multiple home screen feature on
Android phones. You can swipe right to left to flip through the other app
drawer pages. And if you swipe left to right on the first screen, you open what
is the new BlackBerry Hub.
Notification Bar
The notification bar can be swiped down to quickly access settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and the Alarm, for example. Also, the main settings menu can be accessed from here. For us, the apps opened fairly quickly and we did not see any apps crash or freeze the phone UI. However, we did face the issue of the notification bar, when slid down, hide behind the very first app widget when it held within itself the BlackBerry World! With any other app placed in the widget there, this problem did not show up.
The notification bar can be swiped down to quickly access settings like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and the Alarm, for example. Also, the main settings menu can be accessed from here. For us, the apps opened fairly quickly and we did not see any apps crash or freeze the phone UI. However, we did face the issue of the notification bar, when slid down, hide behind the very first app widget when it held within itself the BlackBerry World! With any other app placed in the widget there, this problem did not show up.
The Apps
The Z10 comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Incidentally, these apps are made by BlackBerry, and not by the networks themselves. These are real apps, and not just links that would open the web browser. The integration with Hub adds that extra amount of convenience – head straight to the Hub, rather than search for the app in the drawer and access each individually.
The Z10 comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Incidentally, these apps are made by BlackBerry, and not by the networks themselves. These are real apps, and not just links that would open the web browser. The integration with Hub adds that extra amount of convenience – head straight to the Hub, rather than search for the app in the drawer and access each individually.
The redone
BlackBerry World may be a big change for the markets where the store can offer
additional content and services, but in India, it is still restricted to apps
and games. The redesigned user interface is neat, but nothing that stands out
in a crowd of application stores.
BBM
The application remains the same at the base of it – chat between friends who are in your friend list only because you added them via the PIN, shared by explicit consent! However, there has been a redesign. You can now see the contacts in the list form, or in the thumbnail form.
The application remains the same at the base of it – chat between friends who are in your friend list only because you added them via the PIN, shared by explicit consent! However, there has been a redesign. You can now see the contacts in the list form, or in the thumbnail form.
While chatting, the
features of “D” and “R” notifications remains as it is. Irritatingly, when you
send a message to someone, the keyboard does not automatically disappear, and
you need to tap somewhere on the screen to send the keyboard away and return to
the friends list. A return key, on screen, within the UI, would have been very
useful in scenarios like these. Also, if you copy a message from a friend and
paste it in the chat window of another friend, the first sender’s name also
gets copied!
Additional features
include BBM Voice and BBM Video. These are two additional methods of chatting
with your friends. BBM Video is pretty much like Apple’s FaceTime, but the
additional ability to share screens being something that you may use to share
data and pictures with the other party on the call.
Camera
Camera performance has never been a strong point of BlackBerry phones, but that could change considerably for the better, with the Z10 at least. What we have is an 8MP camera at the back of the Z10, and a 2MP video calling camera at the front. There is a single LED flash, and the rear camera can record 1080p HD videos.
Camera performance has never been a strong point of BlackBerry phones, but that could change considerably for the better, with the Z10 at least. What we have is an 8MP camera at the back of the Z10, and a 2MP video calling camera at the front. There is a single LED flash, and the rear camera can record 1080p HD videos.
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| Z10 |
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| i-phone 5 |
The Z10 camera app can be accessed multiple ways - the shortcut on
the lock screen by long pressing the icon, by selecting the app from the drawer
or by tapping the camera icon on the dock below the app drawer and the oft open
widgets page.
The Z10's camera opens up fairly quickly and is ready to shoot than
quite a few high end Android phones. The feature set is limited, but the rapid
shutter speed means you will usually not miss out on a shot! You have the tap
to click feature on the entire screen when the camera is open, and it is fairly
easy to accidentally tap and click while shuttling in and out of the settings
menu. There is no tap to focus, and despite fairly quick shutter speeds, the focus
can sometimes take a bit of time.
We directly pitted the Z10’s camera with that on the iPhone 5, and
the Z10 proved to be surprisingly close to the iPhone 5 camera. If you look at
the comparison shots of the flower, the one taken by the Z10 looks slightly
less bright than the iPhone 5, but the surprising amount of crispness and
detail is something that is indeed very good on the Z10’s shot.If you zoom in to the same shot, there are areas where the Z10 and
the iPhone 5 trade the top spot for which one offers more detail.
Close up, the BlackBerry Z10’s camera is actually better than the
iPhone 5. The shots taken by the Z10 look more even in terms of exposure and
colour.
Battery Life
We were a tad surprised that BlackBerry only packed in an 1800mAh battery, and were quite honestly a little apprehensive about how good the backup times will be. As a primary phone, with mails, IM and BBM used generously, and with quite a few phone calls, the Z10 lasted from full charge at 8am on one day to 12:30pm the next day, with the airplane mode active at night. This is not bad at all, but had BlackBerry packed in a bigger battery, it could have really had a point to beat down the rivals with.
We were a tad surprised that BlackBerry only packed in an 1800mAh battery, and were quite honestly a little apprehensive about how good the backup times will be. As a primary phone, with mails, IM and BBM used generously, and with quite a few phone calls, the Z10 lasted from full charge at 8am on one day to 12:30pm the next day, with the airplane mode active at night. This is not bad at all, but had BlackBerry packed in a bigger battery, it could have really had a point to beat down the rivals with.
