The Z10 has an interesting new OS and
fine build quality, but it’s up against some tough competition
Unlike many BlackBerry handsets, the Z10
doesn’t have a physical keyboard; all input is made using its touchscreen.
Physically, it’s a fairly uninspiring black rectangle with rounded corners, but
it feels tough. There’s no flex at all in the body, and the rubber rear means
you’re unlikely to drop it.
The new BlackBerry 10 OS is the big selling
point, and it’s a huge step forward from previous touchscreen BlackBerrys. The
Z10 feels like a slick and modern smartphone.
The
Z10 feels like a slick and modern smartphone
Navigating BlackBerry 10 is all about swiping.
The OS is arranged in a series of panels for messaging, open apps and your main
app tray. When you make the ‘home’ gesture, which involves swiping up from the
bottom of the display, you go to a screen of currently open programs, each
represented by a thumbnail. When you switch between apps, the previously used
program stays open in a frozen state, which makes it very quick to open it
again.
This being a BlackBerry, messaging is never
far away. Swipe left from the home screen and you’ll find the BlackBerry Hub.
This is a well-designed interface for all types of messaging, from your email
accounts to text messaging and voicemail. The accounts are displayed in a list,
complete with a number denoting the number of unread messages in each and an
asterisk for any new email.
Typing heaven
The messaging center is complemented by the
Z10’s impressive keyboard. The accurate and responsive touchscreen makes it
easy to hit the right key, and there’s no discernible lag between pressing a
key and the phone responding. It’s one of the best keyboards we’ve used, but
this isn’t the Z10’s only trick. The phone guesses what word you’re typing and
displays it above the next key it thinks you’re going to hit, and you just have
to swipe up on the key to choose that word. We found we only used this feature
for long words, but it should save time when you get used to it.
The
messaging center is complemented by the Z10’s impressive keyboard
Other productivity apps are as you’d
expect. You can view Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, and create
Word- and Excel-compatible documents from scratch. We had no problems setting
up the phone to synchronize contacts, calendar and email with Hotmail, Gmail
and our corporate Exchange server, and the calendar is clear, with useful week
and agenda views.
The Z10 has a 1,280 x 768-pixel screen,
which is unusual compared to the 1,280 x 720-pixel displays we’re used to
seeing on Android smartphones. This resolution means the screen is slightly
squarer than 720p displays, but we found it fine for viewing desktop web pages
without having to zoom in.
The screen is also bright, and we had no
problems reading it outdoors, even at medium brightness. The screen’s high
brightness didn’t seem to affect its performance in our video playback benchmark,
though, where the phone managed a huge 13 hours and 59 minutes. However, we
weren’t so impressed with the battery in everyday use. With the Z10 set up to
sync with three email accounts and with Wi-Fi on, it barely lasted a day in
normal use. Many Android phones need charging every day, but if you need the
Z10 to last into the evening, you’ll need to charge it along the way.
The Z10 completed the SunSpider JavaScript
benchmarks in 1,724ms, which is average. It had no problems rendering web pages
quickly, but we noticed an occasional stutter when we zoomed in and panned
around images. The phone is fast, but some of the options menus feel jerky and
slow, which detracts from the overall slick experience.
Fun time
The
10 isn’t pretty, but its bright display and excellent build quality make it a
pleasure to use
It’s not all about work and web browsing,
though. The BlackBerry Z10 has built-in music and video playback apps, and you
can use the Story Maker app to stitch together videos and photos, overlay effects
and music and make a short film. It’s an impressive camera, with very
well-judged exposure and accurate colors, but its pictures don’t have quite as
much detail as in the Samsung galaxy S3’s pictures.
However, we struggled to make the Z10 an
effective media player. The music and video playback apps are fine but, unlike
with Android and Windows Phone 8, you can’t just drag and drop music and video
files on to the phone’s storage in Windows. Instead, you have to install
BlackBerry Link on your PC and use that to transfer music. At first, the
application refused to transfer any music to the Z10, but it eventually worked
after we’d uninstalled and reinstalled it a number of times. It’s almost as
fiddly as iTunes, and we’d prefer not to use such a tool at all.
We’re impressed with BlackBerry 10 OS. It’s
not yet quite as smooth and slick as its competitors, but it has some clever
ideas and excels at messaging. There’s also better app support than we were
expecting.
The 10 isn’t pretty, but its bright display
and excellent build quality make it a pleasure to use. The main problem is its
price. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is cheaper on contract and is a faster, more
desirable phone overall. Even so, if you depend on mobile messaging, the
BlackBerry Z10 could be for you.
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Specifications
§ Price:
$690
§ Ratings:
4/5
§ Web:
www..co.uk
§ Operating
system: BlackBerry 10 OS
§ Processor
speed: 1.5GHz
§ Number
of cores: 2
§ RAM:
2GB
§ Mobile
data: LTE
§ Display:
4.2in 1,280 x 768 LCD
§ Camera:
8-megapixel
§ Internal
storage: 16GB
§ Memory
card slot: MicroSD
§ Claimed
battery life: 10 hours’ talk time, 13 days’ standby
§ Dimensions:
130 x 66 x 9mm, 136g
§ Part
code: RFH121LW
§ Details:
www.blackberry.com
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