A review of the latest BlackBerry Z10 (After 3 days of fiddling)
First Time
The words you see floating are the predicted next in line words. Most of the time, it floats directly above the first letter of the next word. For eg: when you type 'it', 'is'will float on top of 'i'. By flicking 'i' up, the word 'is' will be inserted. Once you get used to it, texting is freaking fast.
At the space bar, where you see the blue words; that is auto correct in action. By pressing on the space, the blue words get inserted into the text field. However, if you want to retain the original word that you type, just flick up on the space.
And yes, it gets added to your personal dictionary.
Words that are inserted into the text field comes with a space along with it, but no worries with punctuation!
It automatically goes to the correct place when you insert it.
And if you make a mistake or trying to erase a phrase, just left swipe your finger across the keyboard.
Coupled with the power of auto correct, predictive input and left swipe, backspace key is for the noobs.
I'm getting damn fast on these keyboards...
Phone Calls
LTE also known as 4G. Coupled with don't know how many bands, this phone will not have an issue if you are globe trotter. It basically can work anywhere.
I worked away from my desk most of the time, so I call forwarded my DID to my mobile phone.
When I was using Note, most callers note the difference in call quality and will comment on it. However for the past 2 days, people thought I had changed to a better desk phone.
Not that Note's call quality is bad, its just that there are always better things you know?
No drop calls, no 'Hello, hello' , no 'can you speak up'. At least not for now.
And take a look at this:
Now, get someone to sing for you on the phone!
Out going call quality is good too. The other party has no issue hearing me (maybe because im loud in the 1st place)
Oh, video calls, the technology which Nokia has perfect it a long time ago, is not available in BB Z10 for normal calls. Only through BBM then you can do video call and of course voice call.
Speaking about BBM, there is this new function which blows you away. You can share screen! Much like your office communicator Share screen function. Sadly, I have not have a chance to try it yet (no BB friends!).
Connectivity
GOOD, very good. I don't know whether is it because of 4G, but now, i can still maintain internet connection in the trains, which is a good thing.
Browser
Browsers, one of the key components in a smart phone yet under rated in importance.
Like I said before, I owned N8, Ipad and Note (i still have them now) and so of course, I have used this browsers before.
Trust me, if there's a war of mobile browsers right now, Z10's default browser will win hands down.
For starters, its built completely on HTML5. 2nd, the address bar is at the bottom, not the top, which makes typing of url easy.
Its blazingly fast, no matter on wifi or 4g
A little complain about the browser is that there is no Auto Reflow but it overcomes this by having the Reader function. See below for example:
Normal view: The text got chopped off
This is the reader function:
The webpage after using Reader:
The browser also allows you to create shortcut to your home screen.
This is the first time that I do not have the urge to change the to another browser app.
Notifications
I like Nokia for this. They got it right hands down. Every damn phone and every damn time. You can set whatever kind of notifications you like. Be it a 1 sec tone, or a 10 mins mp3. The moment you press any button on the phone or when you access your messages, it stops.
Then come the likes of Samsung Omnia (i almost forgot i owned that crap too). Thats the 1st windows phone i owned (until HD2 cos HTC has done a great job skinning the hell out of it) and I was so shattered by the notification tones.
Short, Boring, barely audible. Of cos, there is a work around and I of cos did it, then another nightmare occurs. It wont stop. It will go on and on until the time runs out.
From there onwards, except for those Nokia phones i owned, I was never happy with notifications.
Until Note. After installing GO sms application that is.
But for the Z10, except for Whatsapp, all built in apps which has notifications automatically stop the moment you access your hub.
My life starts brightening up again! Of cos, Whatsapp is a pain the ass as its not built in. So what happens when there is a new message and I used a 10 mins mp3 file? I press the volume rocker once. And it stopped.
Yes, its an extra step and its something I don't like, but heck, i got my 10 mins mp3 as a notification and it stop the moment I press the volume rocker. ONCE.
I can live with that.
Oh by the way, the BB's signature RED LED light. Its still there. Guess what, with the correct app, you can make it go disco with different colors.
Camera, Rolllllllll and Action!
Camera, a standard part of the phone. Smart phone, no camera? You got cheated (except for those who needs to go back camp. You got no choice in that!)
Don't ask me how many pixels. I know it before I bought it. I forgot all about it after I bought it. After all, I have a N8 which is built to take pictures with online sharing capabilities.
And No, I won't be doing a review on this. I will be doing injustice to it. Here's a link to a professional review: Review of BB Z10 Camera
Quite technical, even those who hold a DSLR might not know what the hell they are talking about.
And here's another link on what the camera can produce: Photos
What does it comes with
Well, lets see the box shall we?
Nope, no unboxing video, no unboxing pictures. I'm just a excited little kid that day when i got that phone! How the hell would think of making unboxing pictures and video? Well, you still get to see the box you know?
It comes with a adapter, a usb cable, a headset and of cos the battery and phone.
Bonus content:
This is the first time I'm doing a review of mobile phones in such a way. Most of time, my reviews of the phone are by the word of mouth and is very short, like, 'This phone is ok. Can do this and can do that'
My experience in mobile phones goes all the way back when Nokia was still leading the market with the likes of 3310 (the legendary indestructible phone), 8250 (first phone with blue lights), 7250 (the high end camera phone), S40,S60, first generation Symbian to Symbian Anna and belle and to present, windows 7 and 8 phones, Android, iOS (i know I'm biased but hey, you got to use it before you can judge it!) and of course the latest BlackBerry 10 OS.
So yup, enough bragging on the amount money i have spent to get those experience, let's get started.
Why BlackBerry?
I'm a sucker for new tech and BB has kept us waiting for a long time to an update of their user interface.
Even Nokia deploy S40, S60 and Symbian every now and then even though its not perfect, but BB has stick to its 2 way email pager OS with added functionality (till it nuked itself in the end) and also, the must to subscribe to their data services (RIM server)
Even Nokia deploy S40, S60 and Symbian every now and then even though its not perfect, but BB has stick to its 2 way email pager OS with added functionality (till it nuked itself in the end) and also, the must to subscribe to their data services (RIM server)
So when my Samsung Note decides that it will not take the bull shit I have been stuffing it with anymore and died, I decided to take the plunge and dive into the Blackberry ecosystem.
Now, don't flip me the bird when I said something you do not like or is unconfirmed or somehow technically wrong about BB and Z10. I'm a first time user after all.
AND, apple fans, don't flip me the damn bird just because my opinion differs from yours.
Physical Appearance (Eye candy!)
The first thing that capture my attention when I saw Z10 was 'Another iphone clone?'
Left: iPhone 5
And that was one of the reasons i bought this phone, to troll iphone users wahahahaha.
I currently own the black version (the white one sold out) and because my photography skills sucked hard, here is a linked picture of it:
I currently own the black version (the white one sold out) and because my photography skills sucked hard, here is a linked picture of it:
That is not my hand
Back view
The phone oozes an executive feel. A black candy bar, a generous estate of glass, with the BlackBerry logo in silver at the front and the logo in metal at the back.
Simple, clean, non flashy. Classy. To quote: Sorry Apple, BB is hotter than iphone.
Don't ask me what are the exact materials are. I'm a user and this is not a professional review.
The phone oozes an executive feel. A black candy bar, a generous estate of glass, with the BlackBerry logo in silver at the front and the logo in metal at the back.
Simple, clean, non flashy. Classy. To quote: Sorry Apple, BB is hotter than iphone.
Don't ask me what are the exact materials are. I'm a user and this is not a professional review.
Z10 is not a humongous piece of technology. Its display is only at 4.2" (Phone itself is 5.2")
When placed side by side with Note, it looks like me standing beside my Bn 2IC (for those who knows what is BN 2IC).
Left: Note (BN 2IC) Right: Z10 (me)
Told you my photography skills sucked hard!
The back cover gives a a solid rubbery feel. The best part? The back cover acts like your car's ABS. Try sliding across a table and see what happens.
And yea, there is no home button. No hardware home button at all and I'm not fretting over it. You will know why soon.
The only hardware buttons you will find are:
1. Power button (located at the top of the phone, in the middle)
2. The volume rocker and also the voice command activation button (right side of the phone)
There are only 2 ports on the left side of the phone. A micro usb 2.0 and micro HDMI port. (See picture above)
This phone is light, it only weighs 137 grams, but yet still feel sturdy and dependable.
Screen, display whatever you want to call it
As a layman, i do not know what technologies are used. Fanciful names like Retina display meant nothing to me. I just want things to look nice, sharp and beautiful and this is how it looks like
This screenshot doesn't do justice to it because there is no light depth. Get a demo unit and take a look at it. DROOL over it. Period.
Z10 operates entirely on gestures, which means, flicking your fingers up at the lock screen unlocks the phone, flicking it either left or right switches between apps list/active layer/BB hub (depends on location) etc
This needs precision, accuracy and of course fast response speed. I totally got no complaints about it. No lags, registered every gesture correctly.
A little complaint about this is the lack of auto brightness adjustment but well, it doesn't hurt me much.
Usage
I'm a big fan of instant live data which is always on the screen without accessing the app and that's the main reason why I love Symbian and Android.
BB10 has a layout like iPhone, the home screen does not allow live widgets but that doesn't mean that there is no live widgets.
It has a section call the Active layer (or something like that). It holds up to a maximum of 8 apps which runs real time.
Active Layer
The weather apps auto updates and display the latest information
Its like a home screen for live widgets, oh yea, any apps can become a live widget if it streams and display live data.
Pressing the app brings you directly into the app, press the X and the app exits.
Flicking up at any screen brings you directly back to the Active layer.
If there's any notifications, be it Whatsapp (yes, there is whatsapp), sms, email, FB, linkedin, Twitter etc, you can access it just by flicking up then left at any screen to access the BlackBerry Hub. Its that easy.
Notifications(Flick up to see this screen)
The unified notifications in box (flick left from the screen above to access the hub)
Click on it to open the notifications to reply. Even for facebook notifications.
Flick left to access the individual categories
There are 2 types of views for the Hub which affects email view:
The Conversation View:
The Single conversation View
Thats the difference.
Text, Messaging. The keyboard!
So far, the keyboard that I liked the most is Swype. That is before I met BB10's keyboard.
A picture says a thousand words:
When placed side by side with Note, it looks like me standing beside my Bn 2IC (for those who knows what is BN 2IC).
Left: Note (BN 2IC) Right: Z10 (me)
Told you my photography skills sucked hard!
The back cover gives a a solid rubbery feel. The best part? The back cover acts like your car's ABS. Try sliding across a table and see what happens.
And yea, there is no home button. No hardware home button at all and I'm not fretting over it. You will know why soon.
The only hardware buttons you will find are:
1. Power button (located at the top of the phone, in the middle)
2. The volume rocker and also the voice command activation button (right side of the phone)
There are only 2 ports on the left side of the phone. A micro usb 2.0 and micro HDMI port. (See picture above)
This phone is light, it only weighs 137 grams, but yet still feel sturdy and dependable.
Screen, display whatever you want to call it
This screenshot doesn't do justice to it because there is no light depth. Get a demo unit and take a look at it. DROOL over it. Period.
Z10 operates entirely on gestures, which means, flicking your fingers up at the lock screen unlocks the phone, flicking it either left or right switches between apps list/active layer/BB hub (depends on location) etc
This needs precision, accuracy and of course fast response speed. I totally got no complaints about it. No lags, registered every gesture correctly.
A little complaint about this is the lack of auto brightness adjustment but well, it doesn't hurt me much.
Usage
I'm a big fan of instant live data which is always on the screen without accessing the app and that's the main reason why I love Symbian and Android.
BB10 has a layout like iPhone, the home screen does not allow live widgets but that doesn't mean that there is no live widgets.
It has a section call the Active layer (or something like that). It holds up to a maximum of 8 apps which runs real time.
Active Layer
The weather apps auto updates and display the latest information
Its like a home screen for live widgets, oh yea, any apps can become a live widget if it streams and display live data.
Pressing the app brings you directly into the app, press the X and the app exits.
Flicking up at any screen brings you directly back to the Active layer.
If there's any notifications, be it Whatsapp (yes, there is whatsapp), sms, email, FB, linkedin, Twitter etc, you can access it just by flicking up then left at any screen to access the BlackBerry Hub. Its that easy.
Notifications(Flick up to see this screen)
The unified notifications in box (flick left from the screen above to access the hub)
Click on it to open the notifications to reply. Even for facebook notifications.
Flick left to access the individual categories
There are 2 types of views for the Hub which affects email view:
The Conversation View:
The Single conversation View
Thats the difference.
Text, Messaging. The keyboard!
So far, the keyboard that I liked the most is Swype. That is before I met BB10's keyboard.
A picture says a thousand words:
The words you see floating are the predicted next in line words. Most of the time, it floats directly above the first letter of the next word. For eg: when you type 'it', 'is'will float on top of 'i'. By flicking 'i' up, the word 'is' will be inserted. Once you get used to it, texting is freaking fast.
At the space bar, where you see the blue words; that is auto correct in action. By pressing on the space, the blue words get inserted into the text field. However, if you want to retain the original word that you type, just flick up on the space.
And yes, it gets added to your personal dictionary.
Words that are inserted into the text field comes with a space along with it, but no worries with punctuation!
It automatically goes to the correct place when you insert it.
And if you make a mistake or trying to erase a phrase, just left swipe your finger across the keyboard.
Coupled with the power of auto correct, predictive input and left swipe, backspace key is for the noobs.
I'm getting damn fast on these keyboards...
Phone Calls
LTE also known as 4G. Coupled with don't know how many bands, this phone will not have an issue if you are globe trotter. It basically can work anywhere.
I worked away from my desk most of the time, so I call forwarded my DID to my mobile phone.
When I was using Note, most callers note the difference in call quality and will comment on it. However for the past 2 days, people thought I had changed to a better desk phone.
Not that Note's call quality is bad, its just that there are always better things you know?
No drop calls, no 'Hello, hello' , no 'can you speak up'. At least not for now.
And take a look at this:
Now, get someone to sing for you on the phone!
Out going call quality is good too. The other party has no issue hearing me (maybe because im loud in the 1st place)
Oh, video calls, the technology which Nokia has perfect it a long time ago, is not available in BB Z10 for normal calls. Only through BBM then you can do video call and of course voice call.
Speaking about BBM, there is this new function which blows you away. You can share screen! Much like your office communicator Share screen function. Sadly, I have not have a chance to try it yet (no BB friends!).
Connectivity
GOOD, very good. I don't know whether is it because of 4G, but now, i can still maintain internet connection in the trains, which is a good thing.
Browser
Browsers, one of the key components in a smart phone yet under rated in importance.
Like I said before, I owned N8, Ipad and Note (i still have them now) and so of course, I have used this browsers before.
Trust me, if there's a war of mobile browsers right now, Z10's default browser will win hands down.
For starters, its built completely on HTML5. 2nd, the address bar is at the bottom, not the top, which makes typing of url easy.
Its blazingly fast, no matter on wifi or 4g
A little complain about the browser is that there is no Auto Reflow but it overcomes this by having the Reader function. See below for example:
Normal view: The text got chopped off
This is the reader function:
The webpage after using Reader:
The browser also allows you to create shortcut to your home screen.
This is the first time that I do not have the urge to change the to another browser app.
Notifications
I like Nokia for this. They got it right hands down. Every damn phone and every damn time. You can set whatever kind of notifications you like. Be it a 1 sec tone, or a 10 mins mp3. The moment you press any button on the phone or when you access your messages, it stops.
Then come the likes of Samsung Omnia (i almost forgot i owned that crap too). Thats the 1st windows phone i owned (until HD2 cos HTC has done a great job skinning the hell out of it) and I was so shattered by the notification tones.
Short, Boring, barely audible. Of cos, there is a work around and I of cos did it, then another nightmare occurs. It wont stop. It will go on and on until the time runs out.
From there onwards, except for those Nokia phones i owned, I was never happy with notifications.
Until Note. After installing GO sms application that is.
But for the Z10, except for Whatsapp, all built in apps which has notifications automatically stop the moment you access your hub.
My life starts brightening up again! Of cos, Whatsapp is a pain the ass as its not built in. So what happens when there is a new message and I used a 10 mins mp3 file? I press the volume rocker once. And it stopped.
Yes, its an extra step and its something I don't like, but heck, i got my 10 mins mp3 as a notification and it stop the moment I press the volume rocker. ONCE.
I can live with that.
Oh by the way, the BB's signature RED LED light. Its still there. Guess what, with the correct app, you can make it go disco with different colors.
Camera, Rolllllllll and Action!
Camera, a standard part of the phone. Smart phone, no camera? You got cheated (except for those who needs to go back camp. You got no choice in that!)
Don't ask me how many pixels. I know it before I bought it. I forgot all about it after I bought it. After all, I have a N8 which is built to take pictures with online sharing capabilities.
And No, I won't be doing a review on this. I will be doing injustice to it. Here's a link to a professional review: Review of BB Z10 Camera
Quite technical, even those who hold a DSLR might not know what the hell they are talking about.
And here's another link on what the camera can produce: Photos
What does it comes with
Well, lets see the box shall we?
Nope, no unboxing video, no unboxing pictures. I'm just a excited little kid that day when i got that phone! How the hell would think of making unboxing pictures and video? Well, you still get to see the box you know?
It comes with a adapter, a usb cable, a headset and of cos the battery and phone.
Bonus content:
posted by ghostie | 10:25 PM
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