Personal Small Business Enterprise

BlackBerry Z10: The Tech Expert

In this five-part series, we’ll bring you information and hands-on insight into the new BlackBerry Z10. With input from five Bell employees of varying perspective, ranging from “The Busy Executive” to “The Perpetual Tweeter”, we’ll provide a well-rounded view of the new BlackBerry Z10, its operating system and its capabilities.

I’ve had the BlackBerry Z10 for approximately three weeks now. During this timeframe, I’ve used it for virtually every task I could think of – including writing emails, making phone calls, surfing the web, taking and editing pictures, screen sharing on BlackBerry Messenger and video calling. During this time, three main aspects of the BlackBerry Z10 really jumped out at me:

LTE connectivity – The BlackBerry Z10 is the first ever BlackBerry to feature LTE connectivity, which is currently the gold standard in wireless communication. As soon as I opened my email, I immediately noticed the difference from previous BlackBerry devices. My inbox loaded extremely fast, and with no lag whatsoever. I could send and receive large files via email in a timely fashion. Furthermore, I noticed that everything I did that required a data connection was now substantially faster than any of my previous smartphones that ran on HSPA or 4G connectivity – this included loading web pages, streaming YouTube videos and downloading apps. Of course, add the 1.5 Ghz, dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processor to that and you have a mobile device with some serious horsepower. Click here for a detailed look at the specs.

BlackBerry Hub – For anybody that is constantly on their smartphones, design features like the BlackBerry Hub – which unifies all of your messages in one central location – make day-to-day usage incredibly simple. Seeing my messages from email, BBM, Facebook and Twitter all appear on one screen saves me time and allows me to respond to people much more quickly. Also, I enjoyed having the ability to “peek” in an out of my email messages, work files, conversations, etc. without interrupting my work flow or exiting my current application.

The BlackBerry Z10’s keyboard – After using this phone for the past few weeks, I’m comfortable saying that the BlackBerry Z10’s touch keyboard is among the best in the industry – matching, and in some ways, exceeding the typing experience that the iPhone offers. The Z10 is incredibly accurate in predicting words and simple gestures like the ability to simply swipe left to delete the last word make typing on a touch screen keyboard a breeze. One of the best features is how predictions simply float on top of the corresponding letters on the keyboard and you can simply flick them up to complete the word. As a result, this makes one-handed typing easier and faster than other solutions like SWYPE.

Say what you will about BlackBerry’s previous attempts with touch keyboards, but they nailed it on the BB10. In fact, typing this review on a BlackBerry Z10 was a breeze and that is a testament to BlackBerry’s expertise in its home court.

When I was first approached to review the BlackBerry Z10, I didn’t know what to think. I had heard the “buzz” around the industry about the Z10’s innovative features and functionality, but I had to experience it for myself to truly appreciate just how good this device is.

Let us know what you think

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