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Review: Blackberry Z10

By Sami Mughal
Before I go into the full review, if you want to know my first few impressions of the phone, click the following links:
https://www.oxgadgets.com/2013/03/trialling-blackberry-z10-day-1.html
https://www.oxgadgets.com/2013/03/blackberry-z10-trial-days-2-and-3.html
https://www.oxgadgets.com/2013/03/blackberry-trial-days-4-and-5blackberry.html
These cover the first few days of having and handling the phone. My impressions have changed over the days, so do give this a read as well.

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Blackberry for an Android (HTC ONE X) User
Before I go into details and impressions, I have to mention that my main phone is an HTC ONE X, running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and that is what I have as a reference.
Look and feel
The phone is very light in your hand, has a nice sophisticated look. I have found other Blackberry users complaining that this phone actually feels a bit cheaper than the usual Blackberry feel, but I think as far as smartphones go, this looks and feels quite well. The back has a nice rubberised plastic finish showing off the Blackberry symbol. The back also has a camera with an LED flash included. The sides have the standard three button volume control that is well known to Blackberry users. On the other side we micro-USB connector as well as a mini-HDMI. The top has a port for 3.5mm audio connectors and a microphone. The bottom has a microphone as well as speaker. It also allows the user to take the back off.
Inside, you see a slot for a micro SD card, for a SIM, and the best bit, a removable battery. Two metal prongs also connect to the back, meaning that the phone is intelligent enough to know when the case is off. This is also attached to the NFC antenna on the back of the phone.
OS initial impressions
As somebody who has had his fair share of Android, Apple and Windows Phone devices, this OS does take some getting used to. The home screen has all the apps, and does not take you to a different folder. You can sort your icons out in the order you need them. You can also create folders. A lot of finger gestures help you go through the various app options, and while the start up guides you through them, it still takes a little getting used to. While not very intuitive, once you do get used to the setup, it works as well as any other phone.
A slide down on the main screen brings up options. When the phone is asleep, a swipe up on the screen wakes it up. This has proven to be one of my favourite features. An LED indicates when you have a notification waiting for you in the hub.
As expected from a phone designed for business use, this can be used to set up a hotspot and provide internet tethering.
You obviously get BBM, which is Blackberry’s own messaging service, which everybody from Whatsapp to Viber has been aspiring to be.
For a first effort at a brand new OS competing with the smart phone world, it is very good, but not quite there yet.
The ability to swipe down when you want to turn notifications off is quite useful to, as it allows you to finally switch off. Even better is the fact that despite having notifications off, you can still keep your alarm on.
Keyboard
The keyboard was actually talked about a lot. It is not like most touch phone keyboards. The alphabets are always capital, and you just have to use SHIFT key and trust it.
The prediction of the keyboard itself is quite good. It learns your writing style quite well, and much like SwiftKey has a great way of predicting your next one. The ability to slide up on your keyboard as you type to use a prediction is a lot easier than having them appear on your screen. This is a feature that you get used to using, and another one I will be missing.
Hub
The Blackberry experience is all about the hub. While initially I was surprised to find that no email app existed in the phone, I soon discovered that all the emails, among other notifications sit in the hub. For somebody who has never experienced a Blackberry before, the hub is like a notifications bar that keeps a history of everything that happens in your phone. It has emails, Twitter mentions, Linked In and Facebook mentions, phone notifications such as app updates, as well as your missed calls and texts. It also has a list of your upcoming events. Basically the hub is the place to be which keeps you up to date with rest of the world, and all your incoming notifications.
Hub can always be accessed from your lock screen by a single gesture. It can also be used to access only one email address or app notifications if you wish.
A simple swipe will take you to your email, and a swipe back can take you back.
This is the best feature of the phone, and definitely the one I will miss the most. The red notification LED is basically linked to this.
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Apps
While a lot of Blackberry apps exist, and a lot of them are being ported from Android to Blackberry, this is the one thing that is stopping the phone from becoming one of the top smart phones out there. A lot of your regular apps exist, including games, communications, office apps, productivity and all, but this is where the phone lacks. The apps do include popular ones like Angry Birds and such like.
Since it is bottom of the pack for developers, a lot of popular apps will also be the last ones to get updates on this phone. For example, while I moaned that the Twitter app did not show favourites or RTs, it has received an update today (29/3/13) which allows it to see them. Progress is there, but delayed.
There are some apps that are not available for this OS which the usual BB has. I am not sure what BB is doing about bringing those apps to this phone.
Other features 
The phone offers 4G.
It has a 4.2” display with a 356ppi and 1280×768 resolution.
The battery realistically only lasts about two days on full usage, but that is not too bad for a smartphone with this sort of a screen size. The operation was on 3G and 2G most of the time.
It comes with 16GB memory, but also allows you to add a microSD card. Sad as it is, this is a major feature these days.
It also packs in a 8MP rear camera, which gives you decent results and promises to capture smiles, but it isn’t much to talk about. Pretty decent if you want to take pictures of documents or for record keeping, but you won’t be showing them off after you have been on a holiday.
Value for money
This is actually where this phone stands out. While it is a few months old, the latest release of HTC ONE and Samsung Galaxy S4 in the market has meant that this phone is actually a lot cheaper than either and most other top of the range smartphones. 
Conclusion
This phone took about two days to grow on me. There was some resistance, but once I got my way around the OS, it grew on me. Quite a lot. The HUB is a really useful feature. The keyboard is another highlight, and the other smart phone manufacturers as well as keyboard companies can learn from it. The wake up on sliding up is another feature that is quite amazing. I hear Nokia will be featuring something similar in their phones in the near future, but at the moment no smart phone offers it.
Would I buy it as my main phone? As someone who relies a lot on his email and notifications, I will, but that is what it comes down to. If you want a smart phone experience with lots of apps, games and such like, it probably isn’t for you. However, if you want to remain connected to your world, and use a phone for what it was intended, you will definitely love this.

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