While I spoke on Bionic this week at great length about it, I wanted to share some photos and thoughts about the BlackBerry Z10 here, too.
It’s important to note that I’ve never been a BlackBerry user. While I know of the company’s history and deep ties in the enterprise, I’ve approached this phone like I do others that I review: as someone who has used iOS and Android extensively. For example, I didn’t spend any time with the security settings or the phone’s ability to separate work and home data.
The Z10’s hardware is fantastic. It’s a tad larger than the iPhone 5 and weighs 23.4 more grams, but it is very well built. Up front is a 356 PPI 1280×768 4.2-inch screen, and around back is a comfortable soft-touch rubber that’s grippy but not cheap. The buttons all feel good, and there’s no squeaks or cheapness anywhere.
The rear-facing 8 megapixel camera (that shoots 1080p video) and front-facing 2 megapixel camera which can do 720p video are much better to what I’ve seen on most Android devices.
(Speaking of Android devices, the Z10 has a LED indicator on the front. I’ve always liked that on Android phones, even though it’s a tad old-school.)
This is world-class hardware that gives the iPhone 5 a run for its money, even if Apple has BlackBerry beat when it comes to battery life.
My Verizon-supplied review unit runs on the network’s LTE, which is excellent here in Memphis. The coverage was what I’ve come to expect from my iPhone 5.
The lock screen shows previews of what’s waiting for you inside, but no real previews, like iOS does. Swiping up unlocks the phone.
The home screen is the multi-tasking UI. While at first I thought the software was using this view to hide the time it took apps to launch, or to show how powerful the OS is. In reality, however, BlackBerry 10 assumes you are in and out of the same apps often, and tries to make that an easier thing to do.
In reality, however, it’s confusing. The homescreen can only show the last 8 apps opened, and since it’s impossible to pin things, apps are never where you left them. It’s great if you’re bouncing between a couple of apps over and over, but past that, I found myself swiping to the left, to the app launcher:
The launcher is very much like iOS’ springboard. You can re-arrange icons and drag things in to folders, but there are no widgets or other customizable features. Flipping around this screen — and all others for the most part — is fast and fluid.
The app situation for BlackBerry 10 is pretty bleak. While the company bundles Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn apps, there’s no Spotify or Evernote, for example, in BlackBerry World.
Evernote, however, does enjoy deep integration with the built-in “Remember” notes app. Likewise, while there’s no Dropbox app, the company added support for the service in the phone’s built-in file manager app. While it’s hard to tell if BlackBerry did this themselves because these companies wouldn’t support the platform, it’s well done and works smoothly.
Apps on BlackBerry 10 enjoy a wide range of abilities. The OS had Android-like sharing between apps that make it easy to move text and photos around the device.
(Speaking of Android apps, the Z10 can emulate Android apps. It’s clunky, complicated and not worth messing with unless you have a mission-critical app. Even then, it’s painful.)
BlackBerry 10 includes Hub, an all-in-one tool for managing messages. On my review phone, I had two Gmail accounts, Twitter, Facebook, SMS and BBM all set up. The Hub app — which lives to the left of the home screen, and can be entered with a gesture from anywhere — makes short work of reading incoming messages, but interacting with them can be clunky. Multiple message management is sluggish, and replying to some things can be done within the Hub, while others require a trip to another app. I like the idea, but in practice, it lacks a certain amount of polish I’d expect from something that looks so good.
In short, the Z10 is a confusing product in many ways.
The truth is that BlackBerry — the company — is in trouble.
Instead of deciding to double-down (sigh) on the enterprise, the company’s bread and butter, or going after the mainstream smartphone market to gain new customers, BlackBerry has decided to try to do both. I’m not sure they’ve pulled it off. The Z10 is a fine phone, but history shows there’s no room for a third platform in this space.
Would I go buy a Z10 today? No. But if I were handed one at work, I’d be far better off than I would be with an old-world RIM device. Is that enough to save the company? Time will tell.