BlackBerry Z10

BlackBerry Z10
Manufacturer	BlackBerry
Slogan	"Keep moving."
Compactible networks	LTE PCS CDMA HSPA+ EDGE GSM
Availability by country	January 31, 2013 (UK) February 5, 2013 (Canada) February 10, 2013 (UAE) February 25, 2013 (India) March 22, 2013 (US)
Related	BlackBerry Q10, BlackBerry Z30
Type	Smartphone
Form factor	Slate
Dimensions	130 mm (5.1 in) H 65.6 mm (2.58 in) W 9 mm (0.35 in) D
Weight	135.4 g (4.78 oz)
Operating system	Blackberry 10.2.1 Released January 28, 2014
CPU	ARM 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus (MSM8960) (STL100-2 & STL100-3 & STL100-4) Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 (STL-100-1)
Memory	2 GB RAM
Storage	16 GB flash memory
Removable storage	Up to 32 GB microSDXC
Battery	1800 mAH removable battery
Data inputs	Multi-touch touchscreen, on-screen keyboard
Display	1,280 x 768 px (0.98 megapixels) 4.2-inch (built on 71µm pixel) at 356 ppi, 15:9 aspect ratio
Rear camera	8 megapixels, 1080p video capture
Front camera	2 megapixels, 720p video capture
Connectivity	IEEE 802.11n-2009, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, Micro HDMI, Micro-USB
Website	blackberry.com/blackberryz10
Made in	Mexico/Canada

The BlackBerry Z10 is a high-end 4G touchscreen-based smartphone developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM. The BlackBerry Z10 is the first of two new BlackBerry phones presented at the BlackBerry 10 event on January 30, 2013. The BlackBerry Z10 was followed by the Z30.

Development

BlackBerry's chief operating officer Kristian Tear and chief marketing officer Frank Boulben fought against co-founder and former co-CEO Mike Lazaridis to have the touchscreen Z10 prioritized over the Q10 which has a physical keyboard.

Boublen was then responsible for and received "criticism for the marketing campaign that supported the Z10 launch, including a confusing Super Bowl advertisement which some board members hated".

Both Tear and Boublen were ousted on November 25, 2013 by new CEO John S. Chen, whom weeks earlier had replaced Thorsten Heins.

Software

The BlackBerry Z10 uses the new BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system based on QNX. The user interface of BB 10 is based on the concept of direct manipulation, using multi-touch gestures. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the BB10 operating system and its multi-touch interface.

The Z10 comes pre-loaded with: BlackBerry Browser (with Flash Player), BlackBerry Hub, Contacts, BlackBerry Calendar, BBM, Text Messages, BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Remember, Docs To Go (for PowerPoint, Word, Excel), Pictures, Music, Videos, Story Maker, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare,BlackBerry Maps, Games, YouTube, Voice Control, Weather, Active Frames, Clock, Calculator, Compass, File Manager, Box, BlackBerry Connect for Dropbox, Print To Go, Smart Tags, Settings, Android Runtime, Adobe Reader, Phone, Camera/Video Camera/Time Shift, Setup, Help, SIM Toolkit,Search.

The phone has a mobile hotspot functionality, which supports up to 8 devices, sharing its internet connection. It accesses the BlackBerry World, an online application distribution platform for the BlackBerry OS. The service allows users to browse and download applications, games, music, videos from the BlackBerry World store.

The touchscreen keyboard provides an advanced typing experience. It learns the user's writing style and suggests words to help the user type faster, more accurately and with the least amount of effort.

The BlackBerry Z10 has an 8-megapixel camera on the back with autofocus and LED flash capable of shooting 1080p video, while there's a 2-megapixel camera on the front that shoots video at 720p". A unique feature in the Z10's camera app is TimeShift. "BlackBerry has been showing it off for a while, and it lets users dial back the time on certain pictures so that people aren't making less-than-ideal faces in it (like blinking mid-shot)." From initial release 10.0.9.348 of the BB10 OS to the version 10.2.1.2141 BlackBerry Z10 isn't able to show full picture preview before a picture in 16:9 mode has been taken (15:9 screen doesn't resize 16:9 picture preview before taking that picture).

The Z10 has Voice Control, that allows the user to operate the phone by spoken commands. Voice Control recognizes natural speech patterns, so that the user can talk naturally and always be understood. It can be used to send messages, compose emails, dictate documents, and search the phone just by speaking to the app.

Hardware

BlackBerry Z10 in white

There are four SKUs for the Blackberry Z10, corresponding to the North American carrier band distribution and international versions. The LTE version of the Z10 features the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus (SoC) which has a dual-core CPU running at 1.5 GHz, and an Adreno 225 GPU for LTE-capable units. For markets where LTE is not supported (international model), BlackBerry released the Z10 with the Texas Instruments OMAP 4470 (SoC) which has a dual-core CPU running at 1.5 GHz and a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. It will use STE M5730 modem.

Availability

In Canada, the BlackBerry Z10 is available at Bell Mobility (including Virgin Mobile Canada), Mobilicity, Rogers Wireless (including Fido), SaskTel, Telus Mobility (including Koodo Mobile), WIND Mobile, and Vidéotron Mobile. It went on sale February 5, 2013. MTS mobility started a presale for the Z10 with an unknown launch date for the phone. Mobilicity and Eastlink have also released the Z10.

In South Africa the Z10 became available on February 22, 2013 on MTN. Vodacom had announced their intention to make the Z10 available, the day before on 21st Feb 2013.

In Nigeria, the Z10 became available on March 1, 2013 on carriers Etisalat, Glo, Airtel and MTN Nigeria.

Claro República Dominicana announced pre-order date of March 7 on Facebook and sale on March 14 in the Dominican Republic. Orange Dominicana also announced pre-order of March 7 with a launch of March 14 on their Facebook page.

On February 10, 2013, prepaid provider and T-Mobile US-MVNO Solavei became the first in the United States to offer the BlackBerry Z10. In March 2013, T-Mobile USA announced that the Z10 would be available for business pre-order on March 11, with pick-up on March 13. The store wide launch was scheduled for March 27. On March 11, AT&T announced a March 22 release date for the device, with pre-orders beginning March 12. Verizon announced pre-ordered for March 14, with a release date of March 28.

Mexican Telcel announced pre-orders for Z10 on March 21 on Facebook and finally released on April 2.

In Australia, major telcos Optus and Telstra announced their intention to stock on March 25 and March 26 respectively.

In New Zealand, Vodafone NZ made the BlackBerry Z10 available for sale on June 18, 2013.

In India, the Z10 was launched on February 25, 2013.

In Taiwan, Taiwan Mobile announced that Blackberry Z10 is available on 15 April 2013.

Model comparison

Model	STL-100-1 (RFG81UW)	STL-100-2 (RFH121LW)	STL-100-3 (RFK121LW & RFF91LW)	STL-100-4 (RFA91LW)
Countries	Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Spain, Turkey, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, El Salvador	Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Singapore, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Brazil	Canada, Mexico, United States	United States
Carriers/Providers	Ncell, Vodafone Spain, Orange España, Yoigo, Turkcell, Avea, Vodafone Turkey, Celcom, DiGi, Maxis, U Mobile, Smart, Sun Cellular, MTN Nigeria, Airtel Nigeria, Etisalat Nigeria, Glo, Vodacom, MTN South Africa, Cell C, Telkom South Africa, STC,Mobily, Zain Saudi Arabia, Etisalat UAE, Du, Claro Colombia, Movistar Colombia, Tigo, Movistar Chile, Entel, Digitel, Movistar Venezuela, Taiwan Mobile	Altel, Optus, Telstra, A1, 3 Hong Kong, PCCW Mobile, Smartone Hong Kong, Globe Philippines, M1, SingTel Singapore, StarHub, Vivacom, Orange France, SFR, Bouygues, Vodafone, O2 Germany, Deutsche Telekom, O2 (Ireland), Vodafone Italia, TIM, WIND, KPN Netherlands, T-Mobile Netherlands, Vodafone Netherlands, Orange Polska, Play, TMN, Vodafone Portugal, Optimus, EE, O2 UK, Vodafone UK, 3 UK,TIM Brasil, Claro Brasil, Oi, Vivo	Bell Canada, Rogers, TELUS, Telcel, AT&T Mobility, T-Mobile US, Wind Mobile	Verizon Wireless
2G	Quad band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)			Dual band CDMA Cell and PCS (800/1900 MHz)
3G	Quad-Band HSPA+ 1, 2, 5/6, 8 (850/900/1900/2100 MHz)	Tri band HSPA+ 1, 5/6, 8 (2100/850/900 MHz)	RFK121LW: Quad band HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6 (850/1700/1900/2100 MHz) RFF91LW: Tri-band HSPA+ 1, 2, 5/6 (850/1900/2100 MHz)	Dual band CDMA（EVDO） Cell and PCS (800/1900 MHz) Dual band UMTS (900/2100 MHz)
4G	N/A	Quad band LTE 3, 7, 8, 20 (1800/2600/900/800 MHz)	Quad band LTE 2, 5, 4, 17 (700/850/1700/1900 MHz)	LTE Band-13 (700 MHz)
Weight	135.4 g	136 g	136.3 g	137.5 g
SoC	Texas Instruments OMAP 4470	Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus (MSM8960)
CPU	1.5 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9	1.5 GHz dual-core Krait
GPU	PowerVR SGX544 + Vivante CGPU	Adreno 225

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Last updated on 30 October 2014 at 07:24.