BlackBerry Z10 Reviews

BlackBerry Z10 Review at Engadget

BlackBerry's BlackBerry Z10 is genuinely a pretty nice phone. Performance, helped by the lightweight QNX-based OS, is more than acceptable. The form factor offers you plenty of screen size in a device that may not feel luxurious, but does at least seem durable. And, bucking the trend, the battery is removable. Camera performance is adequate in most cases and overall there's really a lot to like.

But, tragically, there's really nothing to love. Nothing in the Z10 stands out as class-leading and, while the BB10 OS does have a lot of charm and brings all the best productivity-focused attributes of BlackBerry to bear in a much more modern package, the app selection is poor and the gestures here aren't so good that they make up for that major shortcoming. Will more and better apps come with time? Absolutely, but after waiting this long (and then making Americans wait another month yet) BlackBerry really needed to make a huge impact out of the gate. Unfortunately, it hasn't. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at CNET

There are two questions at hand. The first is: how well did RIM do with the Z10? The second is, should I buy it?

From where I sit, RIM did a good job with the Z10. For a company with a short, terrible track record with touch-screen devices (see the Storm and Storm 2, prior to the acceptable Torch 9850,) the Z10 looks good, has desirable specs, and gets the basics right.

But this time around, the Z10 represents more than just itself. With its first BlackBerry 10 device, RIM stands at a crossroads, bearing the weight of its unevenly-provisioned OS. On the one hand, BlackBerry 10 is a brand-spankin'-new mobile platform that can only grow and mature. On the other, RIM has had plenty of maturation time, drawing on a legacy of secure e-mail and messaging that predates the iPhone takeover. BlackBerry 10 wasn't some rush job; RIM all but suspended production for years to work on the hardware and software to make the Z10. For a future that hinges on this first device, shouldn't there be fewer missteps? Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at TrustedReviews

It’s still a little early to fully judge the BlackBerry Z10 as it could be the case that a few quick software updates and a flurry of new apps quickly put it strongly into contention. However, as it stands it comes up a little short. 

On the hardware front BlackBerry hasn’t done much wrong. The design is a little dull and the plastic back a tad cheap looking but overall it’s a smart looking device that despite being a black plastic slab actually manages to stand out from the crowd. And as for features, it wants for nothing with an impressive camera, good screen, NFC, 4G, and a microSD slot, though performance is a little below par. 

That said, there’s no one killer hardware feature and BlackBerry 10 is still a bit shaky. As well as the lack of app support there are plenty of tweaks needed to just tidy things up a bit and improve performance. Add in the convention-defying multi-tasking centric homepage and it could be some time before the overall experience really rivals that of other handsets. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at TechRadar

The Z10 is a decent smartphone offering up a strong range of features and a fancy new operating system that may catch the eye of the technologically adventurous.It does pretty much everything we'd expect from a high-end device and there are no major flaws to go running to the presses about.

That said, the Z10 also lacks any killer selling points. It's hard to find reasons why we'd recommend this over say the Samsung Galaxy S3, iPhone 5, Sony Xperia Z or Nokia Lumia 920 - all of which are around the same price as the Z10.

The unproven operating system and severe lack of headlining applications will turn a lot of consumers off at point of sale, and it's the image of the BlackBerry brand as a whole which needs to be worked on fast if it stands a chance of winning back the hearts of the general public. The BlackBerry Z10 has the weight of a whole company on its plastic shoulders. It's holding up, but we're not sure for how long. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at SlashGear

BlackBerry 10 is a huge step forward over the versions that came before it, that much is clear. It’s easier to use, looks better, is more consistent and understandable for new users, and sensibly implements touchscreen gestures rather than a spray of buttons under the display. BlackBerry Hub and its attempts to collate every notification and update may not be to everybody’s taste, but if your social life is spread across your phone, there’s a good argument for pulling everything together in one, easily-monitored place.

Unfortunately – and you just knew there’d be an “unfortunately” – a huge step isn’t enough to make BlackBerry 10 a must-have. Yes, BlackBerry has itself a good OS, but the mobile industry has more than its fair share of “promising but dead” platforms, each with clever ways of addressing smartphone complexity, and yet each failing along the way. As MeeGo and webOS demonstrated, you can have software with touches of genius but it may still end up in the graveyard. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at MobileBurn

People have clamored for RIM to produce a smartphone worthy of comparison to the iPhone and the Android elite, and the company has mostly been able to meet that criteria. However, there are still some areas of concern with BlackBerry 10, so the BlackBerry Z 10 suffers as a result. There are enough inconsistencies of BB10 navigation and app choices to make it difficult to choose the Z10 over other leading platforms, and the disappointing camera doesn't help provide additional convincing.

The saving grace of the Z10 is that even though the first edition of BB10 has some issues to address, the software debuts on hardware that is a joy to hold. The Z10 has a large screen without an obscenely large body, and it's thin profile and comfortable materials make this one of my favorite smartphones to carry. It also does enough things well - like communication and the browser - to make this a sensible purchase for business-minded individuals and BlackBerry loyalists. Others will see the Z10 as just another smartphone that doesn't quite do what they've already managed to do on their existing device. There's nothing about this that might make others abandon their smartphones, so BlackBerry can't yet convince most consumers that the Z10 makes more sense than more popular and mature options. The BlackBerry Z10 is a hero device, but it's no savior. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at LaptopMag

With the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry has created a platform that should not only keep many faithful from jumping ship but also win some back. In fact, there are some features here that all sorts of smartphone buyers will appreciate, especially the superior keyboard and BlackBerry Hub for seeing your emails, BBM and social alerts in one place. And while it's not totally unique, we appreciate the camera's TimeShift function.

Click to EnlargeThe Z10's screen is on the dim side, and the camera doesn't shine in low light, but we can overlook those drawbacks. Is there anything here that will win over iPhone and Android fans? Those focused on being more productive have some reasons to look BlackBerry's way, but we don't see anyone making that jump--at least until the new BlackBerry World is a lot more fleshed out. Assuming BlackBerry speeds up the performance and gets its app act together, the Z10 should find plenty of takers. Read more...

BlackBerry Z10 Review at TechCrunch

With the Z10, BlackBerry has created a smartphone that’s worthy of being mentioned in the same conversation as the latest Android devices and the iPhone. That alone is an accomplishment for a company that has seemed on the verge of extinction for quite a while now. But a lot of what they’ve provided with this flagship device is narrowing, or at best, eliminating the feature and hardware gap between it and the two mobile platforms that have legions of users already, including a number who have already migrated away from BlackBerry devices.

BlackBerry 10, and by extension the Z10, need to be Cinderella stories to bring BlackBerry back from where it is now, and while extremely solid and with a few very impressive features, I’d be hard-pressed to say there’s anything here that will necessarily convince an Android-loving BlackBerry convert to come back to the platform. Thanks to BlackBerry Balance, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server-dependent feature that I wasn’t able to test but that silos work and personal life on one account, I imagine a number of enterprise IT departments will embrace it. And it’s still a good mobile OS, good enough that it should also slow the tide of users flowing away from BlackBerry. But based on my testing, it’s not yet close to being a conversion experience for those already on other platforms, and that’s exactly what BlackBerry needs.

More than RIM’s name changed when they launched this phone. However, even more needs to change – app availability and battery life being tantamount – before this can truly right BB’s sinking ship. Read more...