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BlackBerry Z10 - Bites Back (Part 1)

7/26/2013 9:38:52 AM

BB10 has landed on the Z10. Does it signal a renaissance for the once-great phone maker or have its efforts been fruitless?

BlackBerry has had a turbulent time of late, with falling profits and the departure of co-CEOs. The release of the Z10 and the new BB 10 operating system heralds a new beginning, but with Apple and Samsung yet to release their own flagships for 2013 has the now-renamed RIM done enough?

BlackBerry Z10

BlackBerry Z10

If first impressions were all, the answer would be no. The Z10’s design is understated and underwhelming in either all-black or a slightly more eye-catching white on black. Its large glass front is sandwiched by two plastic ends with a rubberized back covering the rear. It lacks the panache of the iPhone, Galaxy S3 and Lumias, but it is business-like.

Measuring 9mm thick, it’s chunky by recent smartphone standards, while the quality of the build leads you to use descriptive such as “not bad” and “durable” rather than “gorgeous” or “rock solid”.

The OS doesn’t welcome you in either. Like the PlayBook, there’s no home button – you swipe up from the bottom to go back to the start, and also to unlock – and swiping introduces an initially confusing choice of open apps and home screens.

However, stick with it and it begins to make sense. The UI flows very sweetly once you’ve mastered it, and the screen is very good. At 4.2 inches and 1280x768, it boasts a pixel density that exceeds Apple’s iPhone 5 and, although it copes less well in direct sunlight, the screen’s sharpness really impresses. Its size is limited due to the thick bezel – which is again a function of BB10, as many of the main gestures in BB’s new OS are performed by finger-swiping off of the bezel onto the display.

At 4.2 inches and 1280x768, it boasts a pixel density that exceeds Apple’s iPhone 5 and, although it copes less well in direct sunlight, the screen’s sharpness really impresses

At 4.2 inches and 1280x768, it boasts a pixel density that exceeds Apple’s iPhone 5 and, although it copes less well in direct sunlight, the screen’s sharpness really impresses

Once unlocked, you’re greeted with BlackBerry business as usual: a series of app icons split over an unlimited number of windows. When you open an app things get more interesting. An app can be minimized by swiping up, turning it into an “Active Frame”: essentially a tile or widget that updates in real-time. Apps such as The Guardian show a brilliant slideshow of breaking news images, but others are less successful – a miniature version of an app’s screen is of no help really, with all content virtually illegible.

Central to the BB10 operating system is the Hub; a stream of notifications encompassing all of your accounts, from Gmail to Twitter, via Facebook, LinkedIn and many more. It shows emails alongside updates and birthday alerts. As a running ticker of your contacts and commitments it’s a helpful addition for business users and heavy social networkers alike.

BlackBerry also addresses the issue of the work/life split, with BlackBerry Balance. This separates the Z10 into work and play profiles, with each totally independent of the other. The Z10 also needs to attract users with an Android- and Apple-matching range of media and apps. The BlackBerry World store isn’t there yet, but it’s a lot better, with a wide range of hi-def. blockbusters and the entire singles music chart.

There are more than 70,000 apps available at launch, and while that’s far fewer than iOS or Android, they do include many of the ones that people actually use, with big names including Skype, Angry Birds and WhatsApp, with Instagram coming soon.

The solid build and slightly rubberized back gives the Z10 a durable feel

The solid build and slightly rubberized back gives the Z10 a durable feel

Ensuring the smooth running of all this new content is the Z10’s 1.5GHz dual-core processor and 2GB of RAM. That may not match recent quad-core “super phones” but, as with the iPhone, the fact that BlackBerry makes both the hardware and the software means performance is optimized nicely.

BlackBerry cameras have not been great in the past, but the Z10 rights that to an extent, with an eight-megapixel snapper on the back and two-meg optics up front. One of its key features is Time Shift, where a burst of pictures is taken, allowing you to switch individual elements of the picture. Take a group shot and someone’s blinking? You can swap in their face from a second before.

Despite the option to clean up your snaps, the results are nothing special. Photos are generally clear but a little dark and you have to drag and drop where you want to focus, making point-and-shoot a slow process.

The full-HD video impresses more, and there are some excellent BB video-editing apps available too.

BlackBerry cameras have not been great in the past, but the Z10 rights that to an extent, with an eight-megapixel snapper on the back and two-meg optics up front.

BlackBerry cameras have not been great in the past, but the Z10 rights that to an extent, with an eight-megapixel snapper on the back and two-meg optics up front.

One thing that’s clearly missing from the Z10 is a QWERTY keyboard – for those that feel they can’t live without it there’s the Q10 which is coming “soon”. Instead the Z10 has a “learning” touchscreen keyboard that sweeps your emails and texts, learning your common phrases, names and expletives then using them to make predictive text a personalized experience. It works very well, and should improve further over time.

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