I have been using the Blackberry Z10 for a while now and it's been a wonderful surprise and a steep learning curve. When I first delved into the world of smart phones, I started off with a blackberry Storm 1 and after that I went for the Storm 2. I gave Blackberry another chance by going for the Blackberry 9860, another touch screen version. From that time till now, Blackberry has been losing its 'cool factor' and they were issues with the OS (operating system); the freezes, the constant battery pulls, it was endless. I decided my next phone wasn't going to be a BB. My next phone was either going to be the Windows Lumia 920 (a good phone by the way) or the Samsung Note 11; but then the Z10 was launched and the Crackberry in me was aroused. I got the Z10 as soon as it was launched.
All I can say is that so far I have been pleasantly surprised and quietly pleased. It handles superbly, I haven't had a freeze in weeks and it feels cool again to just leave my phone on my office table. Everyone now wants to have a look. I have been using the black Z10 but I've now changed it to the white Z10. I must say the white one looks really cool. The z10 is not as you know it with former BB phones; it takes getting used to with its entirely new way of doing things.
Specs-wise the Z10 packs a punch. I don't want to bore you with technicalities and jargons but be rest assured that it is more or less on par with the Iphone 5 and the Samsung galaxy3 or any other high end smart phones out there. It's got the best predictive keyboard in the market, it does not only predict your next word but it tries to predict your sentence ( more or less); other reviews have confirmed this. The Z10 is very capable of multi- tasking unlike its predecessors that froze when tasked. You can have your own 'live tiles' on your home screen which Blackberry likes to call 'active frames' or tiles (just like Windows 8 phones). With the Z10 you can have a maximum of 8 apps in active mode running on the home screen as minimized apps (active frames).
You can decide to populate your home screen with a weather app (Accu Weather for me), a Clock, BMM, Twitter, Facebook, Linked-in etc and they all stay live and active on the home screen. A quick glance at your home screen and a handful of information is acknowledged.
For those of you that use BBM and BBM Group chats, this has been revolutionized. I always have my BBM set up on my home screen as a tile. This live tile updates with submissions/chats on BBM Groups, personal BBM texts, what music your BBM contacts are listening to and Picture changes (whether in a group or BBM personal contact); whatever anyone does in that eco system is transmitted live on to your home screen. You can also make calls over wifi or network to BBM contacts, unlike BB7 which was only over wifi.
Now who is this phone for? It's for someone who wants to try something different, be different, he who wants to be set apart from the rest of all the android and apple heads. It's for the workaholic - those who want to have a personal phone and work phone imbibed in one instead of carrying 2 phones. The Z10 has what is known as a 'Blackberry balance'. This allows your phone to have 2 separate and unlinked profiles on the Z10. So with a swipe you can activate your phone for work profile, where work or office emails, BBM's, documents, data, apps etc all exist and with another swipe you will be taken back into your personal profile. These 2 profiles stay separate and information, data etc. can't be mistakenly transferred or copied into either profiles. The z10 is also for BB heads that have stayed loyal and true to the game.
The z10 isn't without its fault; battery life is less than a full day, but a spare battery can be bought. As a new OS, it's not apps populated as the Android or IOS ecosystem but this isn't a problem for me as major apps developers have promised to support BB10. Skype, instagram, whatsapp, etc are all underway. BB10 launched on day one (Jan 30th) with 70,000 apps and for a new OS this is phenomenal as no other OS has done this before. If I have my facts rights, IOS and Android launched on day one with less than 100 apps. BB10 apps are growing at the rate of a 1000 apps a day as I heard or read somewhere, as of today B10 should have 100,000 apps and counting.
People want cool gadgets and this is what the Z10 is. Most reviews on the web have been very positive; it's been the best review for a blackberry phone in ages. Can the Z10 bring Blackberry back into the game?.........
Many thanks to a Nigerian based BBM group chat/forum known as HOA, which has its exclusive members in 3 continents. Thanks for allowing HOA to be used as a case study for this Z10 article. HOA , I hail!!
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