BlackBerry Z10 has a lot hanging on it; RIM's future for one
The BlackBerry Z10 is the only smartphone that runs on the all new BB 10
operating system, on which the Canadian company has a lot hanging.
The BlackBerry Z10 is the only smartphone that runs on the all new BB 10 operating system, on which the Canadian company has a lot hanging.
Design & Built
In a clean break from the past, the Z10 doesn't resemble any existing BlackBerry device. It has a sleek look and a straight line design with curves at the top. Hide the branding at the bottom and it looks like a wider iPhone 5. The front is dominated by a sharp 4.2-inch capacitive touch display sans keys. The power/sleep key goes to the top, volume controls and charging port remains on the side panels, bidding bye to the dedicated camera key in earlier devices. The company has, however, retained a textured back with its logo in the middle and the camera and flash on the top. At 9mm the device is really thick, but still quite light at 137.5 grams.
Work
All the hard work that has gone into redesigning BlackBerry 10 has somehow paid off. The completely revamped user interface is built around some intuitive gestures that make the Z10 easy to use. Notifications can be accessed with a single swipe towards the left or by drawing a curve from the bottom towards the right. The onscreen keypad is among the best with word prediction that saves time while typing. It is still the best with emails, and now the Hub is as good with social notifications. The browser with built-in flash opened heavy web pages quickly. Documents To Go comes preloaded. But what impressed us most was the flawless multitasking where up to eight apps could run in the background without any lag.
Apps
BlackBerry World already offers over 70,000 applications, but with the catch that some of the popular apps found on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store are missing from this one. For instance, when we searched for Angry Birds, we could only locate one version of the game. Similarly, EverNote is preembedded in the Z10, but there is no Evernote app on the store.
Battery
The Z10 only has an 1800 mAh onboard. With two email accounts, Facebook, Twitter and BBM configured the phone used to die on us before the end of the day. However, we solved this by dimming the brightness and regularly closing all running apps.
Fun
The BlackBerry Z10 packs in an 8 MP camera that does a decently good job in daylight or brightly-lit indoors. However, it is not so great at night and in some low-light conditions. Sometimes, the camera's flash is good, but a bit too bright at times. The 4.2-inch display was crisp and bright and we enjoyed watching videos on it. The gaming experience was further enhanced by the superb sound output.
Design & Built
In a clean break from the past, the Z10 doesn't resemble any existing BlackBerry device. It has a sleek look and a straight line design with curves at the top. Hide the branding at the bottom and it looks like a wider iPhone 5. The front is dominated by a sharp 4.2-inch capacitive touch display sans keys. The power/sleep key goes to the top, volume controls and charging port remains on the side panels, bidding bye to the dedicated camera key in earlier devices. The company has, however, retained a textured back with its logo in the middle and the camera and flash on the top. At 9mm the device is really thick, but still quite light at 137.5 grams.
Work
All the hard work that has gone into redesigning BlackBerry 10 has somehow paid off. The completely revamped user interface is built around some intuitive gestures that make the Z10 easy to use. Notifications can be accessed with a single swipe towards the left or by drawing a curve from the bottom towards the right. The onscreen keypad is among the best with word prediction that saves time while typing. It is still the best with emails, and now the Hub is as good with social notifications. The browser with built-in flash opened heavy web pages quickly. Documents To Go comes preloaded. But what impressed us most was the flawless multitasking where up to eight apps could run in the background without any lag.
Apps
BlackBerry World already offers over 70,000 applications, but with the catch that some of the popular apps found on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store are missing from this one. For instance, when we searched for Angry Birds, we could only locate one version of the game. Similarly, EverNote is preembedded in the Z10, but there is no Evernote app on the store.
Battery
The Z10 only has an 1800 mAh onboard. With two email accounts, Facebook, Twitter and BBM configured the phone used to die on us before the end of the day. However, we solved this by dimming the brightness and regularly closing all running apps.
Fun
The BlackBerry Z10 packs in an 8 MP camera that does a decently good job in daylight or brightly-lit indoors. However, it is not so great at night and in some low-light conditions. Sometimes, the camera's flash is good, but a bit too bright at times. The 4.2-inch display was crisp and bright and we enjoyed watching videos on it. The gaming experience was further enhanced by the superb sound output.
