BlackBerry Z10 review

Telecom Lead India: Price of BlackBerry Z10 may have shocked several Indians. But the smartphone major has offered several high end features — built on the new BlackBerry 10 OS platform — at more than Rs 40,000.

Several Indians are also becoming happy since we got the BlackBerry Z10 before launching in the U.S.

Design:As compared to other smart phones, the Blackberry Z10 is stylistically understated professional looking device. TelecomLead.com’s editors are really impressed with its dark monochrome exterior.We like its wide 4.2-inch, 1,280 x 768 display which gives a distinct look to the device. The display is covered by a sheet of edge-to-edge glass with a single frame that extends the length of the phone. The outer frame is made of plastic with internal stainless steel metal frame. The device has traditional rounded corners and soft-touch rubber back which is quite handy and gives a good grip. It has mirrored BlackBerry logo beneath the display and chromed BlackBerry emblem on the back.On the right side we have volume rocker whereas the speaker is above the screen beside the front camera. At the bottom of the device we have headphone jack, power key and microphone whereas the speaker port is on the top. USB & HDMI slots are placed on the left hand side. There is no home button or touch key on the screen as users can swipe up to get home.

Interface/OS:

The Z10 offers a 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core CPU paired with 2GB of RAM. The BB10 OS is much more advanced than BB7 and it looks really competitive in today’s market. It has gesture-based interface with a swipe up from the bottom which brings you to the main interface, where you can select between up to eight concurrently running apps for multi-tasking. The interesting thing is that all installed apps are listed in a grid, so no need to drag and drop to rearrange or create folders.

The most exciting gesture is BlackBerry Hub, which lets users keep a tab on all communication tools (corporate/BIS email, BBM Messenger, and social media apps) in one place. It’s also easy to move around without the need to go the grid app screen.

 

Battery:The most useful battery feature of this device is the fast boot-up. The phone boots up quick compared to all other smart phones in the market. It runs on Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery pack which is user replaceable. The battery size is very small. The battery life is average & performs less than Samsung S3 and iPhone 5.  When we played a video with average brightness the battery lasted for around 8 hours and 15 minutes.Camera:BlackBerry Z10 has powerful 8 MP camera with autofocus and LED flash which ensures a pleasant shooting experience. The front camera also does not disappoint unlike other smart phones which boasts of the same 2 MB camera. There is a dedicated icon on the bottom of the main interface for the camera. There is an option in the lower-right
corner which gives you a menu from where you can switch between front & rear cameras as well as toggle the shooting modes.
Photos taken in average light are bright and clear but sadly the photos taken in low light are not that clear as colors were dull, something which we did not expect from this new and improved Blackberry device.

Blackberry has come up with a new feature called Time Shift, which lets mobile users select the best frame for each individual in the photo. It’s a nice feature if you don’t want to shoot the series of photos and choose the best one.

Memory:

With its powerful 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core CPU paired with 2GB of RAM, the performance should not be a concern at all. The Apps launch quickly and once launched, they are fast and responsive. WebPages load faster and multitasking is never a problem on the phone. Common navigation like switching from video to main screen or from App to App is quick and efficient.

 

BLACKBERRY HUB:This feature is given so much importance on the device itself that it’s made available from everywhere on the phone. Users can come to this feature from any App with one single gesture. Swipe up and to the right users will see the list of all communication tools (corporate/BIS email, BBM Messenger, and social media apps) in one place. It’s nice to see all stuffs at one place, available anytime from any screen. So it rightfully deserves the importance.KEYBOARD:The virtual keyboard on BlackBerry Z10 is arguably the best and most efficient keyboard available. It has a comfortable layout, nicely sized keys, and a four–row layout. It has no dedicated buttons for numbers or characters other than letters, comma, period and space. If you want to get to numbers and other special characters, then you just have to swipe downward, which gives two pages of special characters. Its predictive nature is also inventive. The keyboard refers your emails and social history to get an idea what words and phrases you commonly use and provide the same to you.
The other useful features include VOICE RECOGNITION, BLACKBERRY PROTECT for improved security, BlackBerry World to get Apps, Music and Movies content, BBM with video chat and other usual apps like Calculator, Compass & Maps.

Specifications:

Network:  

2G Network   GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 – all versions
3G Network   HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 – STL100-1
HSDPA 850 / 900 / 2100 – STL100-2
4G Network      LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2600 – STL100-2
SIM           Micro-SIM

Body:

Dimensions      130 x 65.6 x 9 mm (5.12 x 2.58 x 0.35 in)
Weight          137.5 g (4.83 oz)

Display:

Type         Capacitive touch screen, 16M colors
Size         768 x 1280 pixels, 4.2 inches (~355 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch        Yes

Sound:

Alert types       Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker    Yes
3.5mm jack     Yes

 

Memory:Card slot          microSD, up to 64 GB
Internal           16 GB storage, 2 GB RAMData:GPRS            Yes
EDGE            Yes
Speed           HSDPA 21 Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; LTE, EV-DO Rev. A, up to 3.1 Mbps
WLAN           Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual band
Bluetooth         Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE
NFC        Yes
USB         Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera:

Primary       8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash,
Features      Geo-tagging, continuous auto-focus, image stabilization, face detection
Video           Yes, 1080p@30fps, video stabilization
Secondary] Yes, 2 MP, 720p@30fps

Features:

OS           BlackBerry 10 OS
Chipset         Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon
CPU        Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait
Messaging     SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, BBM 6
Browser        HTML5
Radio           No
GPS        Yes, with A-GPS support
Java        Yes, MIDP 2.1
Colors          Black, White

Battery:  

        Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery
Stand-by       Up to 312 h
Talk time         Up to 10 hVerdict:It’s difficult to put a final verdict about a device which has just re-emerged in the highly competitive smartphone market. For BlackBerry, it’s a make or break thing. If this device works, they will have some foothold in the market to launch some more devices. With BlackBerry Z10 it has tried their best to keep the company’s core value i.e. being the real “Smartphone” manufacturer, at the same time it has added some nice features to compete with already popular iOS and Android phones. We really like the performance, looks and features of the phone, but making the phone mainstream will be a difficult task for BlackBerry.TelecomLead.com’s Rating: 8.5/10

Apoorv Sonane
editor@telecomlead.com