Hands on with the Blackberry Z10
Blackberry 10 has finally burst into the sunlight after spending a year deep in the earth maturing and developing features like adaptive typing, Hub, Flow, Peek, and a few other verbs. The phone leading the charge, the Blackberry Z10 (pronounced “zed-10” by all employees), is a bold but earnest attempt to give consumers what they want in both software and hardware. It certainly comes closer to doing so than any Blackberry handset in recent memory.
Some of the design cues on the Z10 match that of the latest iPhone: with the 4.2-inch screen off, the matte bars that border the screen at the top and bottom look very similar to Apple’s latest design. Once the screen is on, the black bezel needed for BB10’s many gestures stands out. The back is distinctly Blackberry (formerly RIM), with the logo embedded in the rubberized, textured back. The Z10 is slightly thicker than the iPhone 5 at 0.35 inches to the iPhone’s 0.3 inches, but maintains a design with a user-replaceable battery. Above the screen, there is a red LED light that seems to blink incessantly unless all of your messages are read.
