Blackberry Z10 by Verizon Wireless Review
The first 4G LTE Blackberry device brings a lot more to the table than just a speedy mobile network. The Blackberry Z10, with its elegant touchscreen interface and smooth, unique interface, mimics neither its older siblings nor other smart phones on the market. The unique and interesting features of BlackBerry Z10 have played an important role behind its popularity.
Rather than relying home a home button or other navigational keys, moving around the Z10 involves finger swipes. Blackberry mimics a physical keyboard very well on its Z10. An 8 MP camera with flash, burst mode and 5x zoom takes great photos. The Z10 also has a 2 MP front-facing camera that takes 1080p HD videos. The Z10’s unique Time Shift feature lets you take rapid fire photos of a group of people, then tap the faces and fast forward or rewind to find the best facial expressions. It also comes with a built-in video editor.
You can watch HD videos on the Z10’s gorgeous 4.2″ display, or use a micro HDMI cable to mirror the device’s screen to any TV or monitor with an HDMI-in port. Emails, articles and messages read easily on the Z10’s spectacularly brilliant and clear screen. Its predictive text also learns what you often type as a phrase or sentence, so if you frequently type “enjoy your day,” after you finish typing “enjoy,” it’ll predict “your,” then “day.” You can also hold in a key to capitalize a letter, just like on previous Blackberry keyboards. When typing a pass code such as a Wi-Fi key, a number row appears above the letters, so you don’t have to switch back and forth between number and letter layouts.
Voice commands also work extremely well. One fantastic thing about the Blackberry Z10 is something it doesn’t have tons of bloatware. The unwanted apps that come with almost every other smart phone from each mobile carrier are conspicuously and thankfully absent from the Z10. It does come with a number of quite useful apps, though.
Battery life on the Z10 is pretty good, and Blackberry 10 makes it easy to exit running apps to save battery life. Like many other current smart phones, the Z10 offers Near Field Communication (NFC) capability for sharing apps as well as pictures and videos with other compatible devices. The new Blackberry Messenger version lets you not only hold video chats but also share what’s on your phone!
The Z10 measures 5.12″ by 2.58″ by .35″ and weighs just under 5 ounces, which makes it comparable to other phones in its class. Its price with two-year contract of $199.99 also puts it in line with its competitors. This Blackberry is global ready, provided you sign up for an international mobile plan, and offers mobile hotspot capability for up to 8 devices. The Z10 comes packed with 16 GB of internal memory and allows up to a 64 GB micro SD card. Its 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 2 GB RAM make for a robust, high-performing phone.
Certain features can make the Z10 a show stopper by themselves, such as Time Shift if you frequently take pictures of two or more children together. Blackberry has succeeded in creating a product sufficiently amazing to save the brand, if only enough people give it a chance. I have owned several different Blackberry’s throughout the past 6 years and this, by far, is the best.
Disclosure: I am a Veriozon Voices Ambassador and I have been given a BB Z10 to use and form my opinion. #VZWVoices #VZWA
I like the idea of a mobile hotspot.