The Blackberry Z10 from an Android Perspective

Hooray, I finally got my Z10! Now What? If any of you follow the
international new device rule like I do, charge it all the way first.
The thing about the Blackberry Z10 is it won’t charge turned off, it
will automatically start up and entice you. It worked on me, so with in
seconds of start-up I was quickly glancing back and forth from the
“Start Here” manual and my Z10, but only for warning against using it
right away, which I never found. So while charging I set up my new toy
to get a feel for what I was going to be handling for the next 3-years,
or so.

My Video Review

Setup

Setup is simple, choose language, keyboard language, enter Blackberry
ID, setup Wi-Fi, and add email, social media accounts, and a How-to
guide on gesture controls. If you are like me, before exploring my
phone, I delved into the setting and adjusted everything before I was
ready for my expedition into the new BB10 OS. I was now equipped with
simple and clumsy knowledge on my device, which was ok because the Z10
like to point me in the right direction when I get lost with helpful
hints via animated arrows.

The Hub

The Hub is a centre for all of your social media and media messaging
such as text, email and BBM. Instantly I wanted things gone from it like
Facebook notifications and Twitter updates. That’s ok, because you can
remove or add most aspects of all your favourite social media app like
Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and many more, if it has an app that
supports the Hub. The Hub has layers and layers of views and modes you
can choose to display, which at first can be a bit overwhelming. After a
while, it becomes second nature, but in reality it is just an advance
version of Android’s notification bar, or Sony’s Timescape. I do
appreciate the easy accessibility, but I am not to sure it is something
I would initially be looking for in an OS.

Home screen

The home screen is just a bunch of recently opened app. Handy,
different, but personally I wouldn’t have chosen that as a home screen.

App Menu.

Same as any other phone right now, this is a nice familiarity.

Camera

Nice. My favourite feature is Timeshift which lets you take a picture
and rewind or fastforward just a face and it will superimpose it to the
body, and a similar feature to Burst shot, where you can choose which
picture is the best. The camera also includes Burst shot. The over all
quality of the still camera is decent, nothing special. The video
quality is a bit better, but both do not work great in low light but
then again, it’s not just a camera. Also included is simple editing
software for applying filters and cropping.

Keyboard

The keyboard is my second favourite feature to this phone. Predictive
text is included in all current smartphones, but there is something
magical about the Z10’s. As you type the next word will appear on the
corresponding first letter in the work. A lot of the time it is correct.
If it doesn’t, you tap a letter or two then there it is, and to select
the word, you just place your finger on the letter and flick up.

Browser

I hate it. It’s fast, but the whole setup is a bit confusing and even
once you do set it up, it’s still a bit shoddy. My favourite feature of
an Android browser was the ability to select “Fit to screen” where the
text on most web pages would be made to fit edge to edge and default to
the font size you have selected. I also hope that Blackberry will decide
to create a custom Facebook setup versus using the default
m.facebook.com, but if you don’t use FB, then no worries. If you want to
“View in Desktop mode”, you have to go into the browser settings, then
the developer setting to change it back every time.

Gesture Controls

This is my number one feature of the Blackberry Z10. To seamlessly glide
through your phone like waving a magic wand between messages, recently
opened apps, setting and sub-setting of all of your apps. When I am
tired of being in an app or the Hub, I love sliding my finger up to get
out of it and on to somewhere else. I really notice it when I am on
another device and I am constantly swiping my finger up. It’s similar to
when I got an ASUS Transformer, then I would use a friend’s laptop and
try to use the non-touch screen the same.

Conclusion

I will definitely need more time to get used to everything the Z10 has
to offer, and I hope to have some of the problems I have with it fixed.
I love the design, feel, look and it fits perfectly into my hand. The
overall OS is pretty much a beast, solid, responsive without a question.
The App selection is always brought up, but that was one of the reasons
why I decided to try out the Z10 because I really don’t use too many
apps on my phone anymore. Will I stick with it? For now I will see if it
becomes a part of me. The gestures are a key factor in wanting to keep
it. There is no going back once I fall in love with something; I can
only hope that the rumours about the Samsung S IV having gesture control
is true, then I would be truly happy.