The Z10’s solid creak-free build and pleasing textured back immediately banish memories of toy-like QWERTY phones. It’s a nice weight and size too, though we can’t help feeling that those bezels could do with a trim and the big BlackBerry logo is a little in-yer-face. Apart from the odd freeze playing Angry Birds or streaming video, the 1.5 GHz dual-core engine and 2GB of RAM keep the Z10 zipping along nicely when
multi-tasking. Shame battery life isn’t so great: we got a decent 9hrs in a video run-down test, but in regular daily use with notifications switched on it ran out of juice far too quickly.
BlackBerry seems to be focusing on the basics with the Z10: the camera isn’t as feature-packed as those on most flagships and BB 10’s Maps omit public transport and satellite views. But perhaps more usefully you do get a swappable battery and microSD slot to add up to 64GB of storage.
BlackBerry 10 is the all-new OS for its latest handsets. It has elements of iOS, Android and WinPho, although its gesture-heavy navigation can be tricky to pick up at first. BB’s music and video stores aren’t fully fledged just yet but there’s enough decent albums and movies to satisfy most.
With a 4.2in 356ppi LCD display, the Z10 keeps things sharp: bags of detail, natural colours and with an easy to handle screen size, only the relatively dim display, compared to the Xperia Z and S3, lets it down.
The 8MP camera on the back of the Z10 is speedy, takes photos with impressive levels of detail and shoots largely clear and smooth 1080p video, with some softness creeping in. Time Shift is the party trick though: mix and match your mates faces to get the best group shot.
Tech Spec:
Display 4.2in, 1280 x 768 (356ppi)
OS BlackBerry 10 OS
cPU Dual-core 1.5GHz (unspecified)
Storage 16GB (+ microSD up to 64GB)
raM 2GB
camera 8MP, 1080p (rear);
2MP, 720p (front)
connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0,
microUSB, microHDMI, NFC, LTE, 3.5mm
Battery 1800mAH, 9 hours 20 mins