We wish we had a review unit to test, to see if Howard and Vic like it enough to consider going back to the BB fold. But we don’t, so we just scoured the web for reputable reviews. If you want to read the detailed reviews, here are the links:
The Verge
Engadget
The New York Times
The Wirecutter has a harsher take on the Z10.
If you’re a TL:DR (too long: didn’t read) type of guy, then here’s a summary of the more interesting comments.
First off, the phone’s design is nice. Clean, modern, subtle. David Pogue of the New York Times likes it a lot:
The hardware is all here, too. The BlackBerry’s 4.2-inch screen is even sharper than the iPhone’s vaunted Retina display (356 pixels per inch versus 326). Both front and back cameras can film in high definition (1080p back, 720p front). The thin, sleek, black BlackBerry has 16 gigabytes of storage, plus a memory card slot for expansion. Its textured back panel pops off easily so that you can swap batteries.
Joshua Topolsky of The Verge thinks it’s just so-so:
The Z10 is a fine, handsome phone. It’s well made (in Mexico by the way, and some will be made in Canada), feels solid in your hand, and is inoffensive enough in its design that it won’t really shock anyone. On the other hand, it won’t necessarily draw a lot of attention either, and if BlackBerry wants to spark some kind of excitement about its new hardware design, this device won’t get the job done.
Tim Stevens of Engadget basically agrees:
As the PlayBook was an understated, professional-looking device, so too is the Z10 stylistically muted… This is not a phone that says “prestige” in any way.
The new BB10 OS is different, and brings some new features to the table. One of the best is the separation of personal and work spaces on the phone. David Pogue describes it:
The BlackBerry 10 neatly solves a huge problem for corporate techies: how to keep employees’ work phones secure in a world where people also use their phones for personal things. If a company has BlackBerry’s corporate software suite, separate worlds can be created on each phone: personal and work, with distinct calendars, address books, wallpaper and even app collections. They appear together — but without the work password, only the personal stuff is visible.
He also likes the new keyboard:
On the all-touch-screen model, BlackBerry has come up with a mind-bogglingly clever typing system. Stay with me here: As you type a word, tiny, complete words appear over certain on-screen keys — guesses as to the word you’re most likely to want. If you’ve typed “made of sil,” for example, the word “silicone” appears over the letter I key, “silver” over the V, and “silk” over the K. You can fling one of these words into your text by flicking upward from the key — or ignore it and keep typing.
In Blackberry’s favor, they launched a complete ecosystem: a new OS, two new phones, an online store with apps, music, movies, and sync software for Mac and Windows platforms. They launched with 70,000 apps available, which is more than what Windows Phone launched with.
Brian Lam of The Wirecutter thinks, though, that it doesn’t really matter. He says:
This is a big deal to me, because why pay the same for a handset with with less software to offer? You never know what apps you might need if you pick up hobbies or develop interests or need tools for work or life, and those tools are guaranteed to be more available on iPhone and to a slightly lesser degree, Android.
Bottomline: We tend to agree with Brian Lam’s take. The Z10 looks like a really good phone, but at this stage of the game, it has to be better than great to entice former BB users to switch back, and new smartphone buyers to choose it over iOS and Android and Windows Phone models.
You should not buy this phone unless you have emotional and cultural reasons to love Blackberry, or some arcane enterprise reason I will not pretend to understand. Tim Stevens agrees, saying, “I think the Z10 is a really nice device, and I think that BB10 is a really nice OS. The problem is it just isn’t a standout in any regard. But, and this is an important but, I think BB10 will make those stalwart BlackBerry fans very happy, and will keep them faithful.”
