New BlackBerry? New BlackBerry
Let me be honest, I really don’t care about the new BlackBerry phones. I specifically started this site so I could pass on writing stuff I knew was not really worth considering, like this.
But I am writing about it anyhow because I am really turned off by the amount of hype and noise around this launch and I think it’s more fair to take the time and tell you about the phones and the software’s highlights so you can decide for yourself if I’m right or not.
Let’s begin.
First, are you detail-oriented? If so, scan this fine piece by Tim Stevens at Engadget about the basics of the phones, and then some. And then check out Engadget’s piece on the new Blackberry software.
Otherwise, let’s talk about the most important things.
For BlackBerry’s new OS, app selection is horrible. It’s not their fault, and maybe it’s even pretty good for a new OS with over 70,000 apps available at launch, but that doesn’t matter for you because in the end, that means they’re still far worse than the Android and iPhone/iPad libraries today. They don’t have, for example, Netflix. Oh, but Angry Birds is coming soon though.
To make sure I knew what I was talking about with apps, I reached out to Mark Spoonauer of Laptop mag. He said, “BlackBerry deserves credit for making sure many social apps are here on Day 1, which is critical because of integration with the BlackBerry Hub. And I’m encouraged by the promised game selection. For example, Nova 3 looks pretty sweet as a first-person shooter. Gameloft said it didn’t take much effort to port the iOS app over to BB 10.
However, there are a lot of missing apps, such as Instagram, Spotify, Netflix and Yelp, as well as ones I use all the time like Concur for expenses. I’m also concerned about quality. Some apps look just as good as their Android and iOS counterparts, while others (The Weather Channel and ESPN ScoreCenter) seem more watered down. Like mobile websites masquerading as apps.”
This is a big deal to me, because why pay the same for a handset with with less software to offer? You never know what apps you might need if you pick up hobbies or develop interests or need tools for work or life, and those tools are guaranteed to be more available on iPhone and (to a slightly lesser degree) Android.
The operating system has gesture controls, which are nice to see on a handset–in theory. Swipe the screen up and you get the main interface, and you can switch between your running apps (up to 8 at once, a weird limitation.) Swiping from left-to-right or right-to-left switches apps. Swipe up and to the right and the phone brings up BlackBerry Hub, which brings up all the communication mediums you can use to reach out to your contacts. That’s super powerful.
The keyboard is supposedly the best keyboard to ship with any smartphone, letting you swipe downward to get to numbers and characters while the autocomplete for text shows up on the keyboard, not in the text above, making it easier to trigger. See:
Maps are not so good.
Let’s talk about the phones themselves.
There’s a keyboard phone with a tiny screen. I’m not even going to try to pretend to understand the demographic that likes physical keyboards anymore over the expansiveness of full-body screens, so I am going to leave that one alone. If you like BlackBerry and keyboards, I’m not going to try and change your mind and I’m certainly not going to try to understand you. I accept you, and we can agree to disagree.
Let’s talk a bit more about the touchscreen phone. It looks like any other smartphone these days, but with no home button and a horrible camera (says my friend Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo). Yes, it has a screen, is kind of thin, and has volume and a unlock button and near field communications abilities (AKA NFC; AKA I still don’t know why this is useful) and a Micro HDMI port. It has fast wireless data AKA LTE. Tim Stevens says, “Call quality was average” but the speakerphone is low on volume. I’ve already said too much. It’s average, and less than average sometimes, too, in its physical form.
You should not buy this phone unless you have emotional and cultural reasons to love Blackberry, or some arcane enterprise reason I will not pretend to understand. Tim Stevens agrees, saying, “I think the Z10 is a really nice device, and I think that BB10 is a really nice OS. The problem is it just isn’t a standout in any regard. But, and this is an important but, I think BB10 will make those stalwart BlackBerry fans very happy, and will keep them faithful.”
I don’t mean to be dismissive of BlackBerry’s efforts as a company but I know where my loyalties are, and it’s not with Android or Apple or any company. It boils down to this–I would never ever tell anyone I care about to consider these phones. So, that’s what I think about BlackBerry’s new stuff.
We actively moderate the comments section to make it relevant and helpful for our readers, and to stay up to date with our latest picks. You can read our moderation policy FAQ here.