Design Article
Teardown: Inside the BlackBerry Z10
Allan Yogasingam
2/6/2013 2:01 AM EST
Big points for touchscreen keyboard
Before we took the device apart, we took a few moments to actually use the BlackBerry Z10. What immediately stood out was the touchscreen keyboard. Unequivocally, I would say that this is the best touchscreen keyboard I have ever experienced. The predictive typing is great and composing emails, texts and BBM notes comes with ease and intuitiveness. I applaud the designers of BB10 for creating a touchscreen keyboard that would make the move from the plastic keyboards of previous BlackBerry handsets very easy for legacy owners.
The screen is also quite vibrant. In terms of the visual to the human eye, it is very competitive with the Samsung Galaxy S3’s Super AMOLED screen and Apple iPhone 5’s Retina display. Overall the BB10 OS flows very well. I experienced no bugs from the first update (which is a marked improvement from the day I booted up my Playbook for the first time) and BB Hub, BlackBerry’s all-encompassing message manager, actually does simplify all messaging on the handset. It just takes some time to get used to the deluge of information that initially might seem overwhelming.
Truthfully, however, there is one noticeable drawback. Nothing in particular stands out as innovative about this handset. Mind you, one can point to Apple and Samsung and state that innovation there has been replaced with iterative improvement design. But the problem in that comparison is that both Samsung and Apple have had months of advance sales on their latest offerings and a huge library of applications from which they are able to build leverage from.
The Z10, on the other hand, lacks some key apps such as Netflix, Instagram, and others that the average person would want in a phone right out of the box. If some of these applications are missing, there needs to be a “wow-factor” that would encourage a Samsung or Apple user to make the switch to the BlackBerry Z10. As it stands, this handset is going to be a huge leap forward for you if you are an existing BlackBerry user. You'll finally have a phone that is comparable in many ways to the market leaders.
However, if you've already made the switch to an Android device or an iPhone, there's really nothing here to make you want to come back, unless you really miss BB Messenger.
The front of the BlackBerry Z10 communications board (click on image to enlarge and expand).
Next: Qualcomm the big winner
Before we took the device apart, we took a few moments to actually use the BlackBerry Z10. What immediately stood out was the touchscreen keyboard. Unequivocally, I would say that this is the best touchscreen keyboard I have ever experienced. The predictive typing is great and composing emails, texts and BBM notes comes with ease and intuitiveness. I applaud the designers of BB10 for creating a touchscreen keyboard that would make the move from the plastic keyboards of previous BlackBerry handsets very easy for legacy owners.
The screen is also quite vibrant. In terms of the visual to the human eye, it is very competitive with the Samsung Galaxy S3’s Super AMOLED screen and Apple iPhone 5’s Retina display. Overall the BB10 OS flows very well. I experienced no bugs from the first update (which is a marked improvement from the day I booted up my Playbook for the first time) and BB Hub, BlackBerry’s all-encompassing message manager, actually does simplify all messaging on the handset. It just takes some time to get used to the deluge of information that initially might seem overwhelming.
Truthfully, however, there is one noticeable drawback. Nothing in particular stands out as innovative about this handset. Mind you, one can point to Apple and Samsung and state that innovation there has been replaced with iterative improvement design. But the problem in that comparison is that both Samsung and Apple have had months of advance sales on their latest offerings and a huge library of applications from which they are able to build leverage from.
The Z10, on the other hand, lacks some key apps such as Netflix, Instagram, and others that the average person would want in a phone right out of the box. If some of these applications are missing, there needs to be a “wow-factor” that would encourage a Samsung or Apple user to make the switch to the BlackBerry Z10. As it stands, this handset is going to be a huge leap forward for you if you are an existing BlackBerry user. You'll finally have a phone that is comparable in many ways to the market leaders.
However, if you've already made the switch to an Android device or an iPhone, there's really nothing here to make you want to come back, unless you really miss BB Messenger.
The front of the BlackBerry Z10 communications board (click on image to enlarge and expand).
Next: Qualcomm the big winner
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VE3ZXT
2/6/2013 9:30 AM EST
It is disappointing to read that the device has low wow factor. I guess that is increasingly true for all manufacturers - the latest iPhone is incremental in terms of its functionality and style.
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Jack.L
2/7/2013 12:12 PM EST
Not sure what you do with wow these days. There is something to be said for the wow of balance if you work in the corp world, and the feature set as a whole is pretty good. 3D camera with measurement? ...that would be fun.
I really just want a smartphone that works... easy, intuitive, etc.
Crazy techy with a BB and an Android and a couple iPhones in the family too. Love the apps/screen on the Android and iPhone, but some things about the BB are just way better ... like proper unified message box and push email on several accounts, a light I can program to match contacts, flexible notification profiles (and I do use them) ... including a mode that turns off all but super urgent messages when on the charger between 1 and 7 am, etc.
You get the impression it is designed by people who use it for business/personal in real life ... but unfortunately completely missed the portable computing aspect.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
2/12/2013 10:01 AM EST
The latest iPhone has zero "wow" factor. BB has a real shot with this.
http://bit.ly/dI3hcF
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bnowak
5/6/2013 12:52 PM EDT
Go away, troll.
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Daniel Payne
2/6/2013 10:35 AM EST
I smell a lawsuit from Apple because the Z10 has a rectangular shape with rounded corners, a black box, and an icon with a telephone, three of the design patents infringed in the Apple v. Samsung lawsuit.
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Jack.L
2/7/2013 11:55 AM EST
While RIM (Blackberry) has been sued by the usual groups of patent trolls, I have to imagine that someone like Apple would be careful going after RIM. In the specific smartphone space, RIM likely has as large a patent portfolio as anyone even likely bigger than Samsung. I am sure a lot of countersuits could result.
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seaEE
2/7/2013 9:46 PM EST
Also berries and apples are close enough in the plant kingdom that there may be an infringment or at least some inadvertent cross pollinization going on.
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iniewski
2/6/2013 10:36 AM EST
How do you get a wow factor when each smart phone has already 99% of what is needed for vast majority of people??? Revolution happens only once in a while, evolution happens all the time
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C VanDorne
2/8/2013 5:00 PM EST
Really? Nobody ever misses the mark, or takes a step back?
In other words, the only constant is change, not evolution.
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selinz
2/6/2013 5:18 PM EST
As with the windows phone, the delay in introduction resulted in many loyal users "flying the coupe." This phone would have been very nice 1 year ago.. But better late than never. It'll be interesting to see if they can land some serious government contracts to help keep them alive.
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RTewell
2/8/2013 3:29 PM EST
I don't know...I think its brilliant. They are still "in the game" and it isn't the same ole' thing. QNX driven OS - traditional Blackberry features. I am really excited for them!!! Good show!
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tangey
2/7/2013 8:57 AM EST
"the BlackBerry Z10 is powered by the MSM8960 baseband/applications processor."
Only in the US/LTE markets. The rest of the world gets Z10s powered by TIs Omap4470, making it a big win for TIs app pro.
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hazydave
2/7/2013 1:04 PM EST
And a lose for non-LTE countries.. the Qualcomm chip is a better SOC... faster cores. Yeah, a good win for TI, but they don't seem all that interested in smartphone and tablet anymore.
It's curious that this shares so much with the Galaxy SIII. For anyone else, that would be a step back, debuting your flagship based on a near clone of a platform about to be replaced. But on the other hand, this is the first time a Blackberry phone has been even close to current in ages, so Blackberry fans have reason to cheer. And it's also sharing that core with the Windows Phone flagship, the Nokia Lumia 920. The real contest this year will be between Microsoft and Blackberry for third place.
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justatoms
2/7/2013 11:56 AM EST
You really need to spread this article over 14(!) pages?
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Knowl_Edge
2/7/2013 12:50 PM EST
Yet, many bought the phone. Disintegrating/Disecting the phone would be another nightmare, wouldn't it?
Blackberry, before even Apple had a chance to get into the market, you were there.
Good going!
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randombox
2/9/2013 1:33 PM EST
In the very competitive consumer technology sector, where timing is everything, I hope BB is not shooting themselves in the foot by delaying US roll-out of their new/late offering until March 2013!
Dare I ask; haven't smartphones already become a commodity, like the proverbial microwave ovens and laser pointers?
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krh
2/10/2013 7:03 PM EST
I might have missed it, but don't see any Broadcom (BRCM) design wins. Interesting, could take this two ways:
1) Blackberry sees BRCM too much in Apple and Android phones, so where possible Blackberry tries to use "other" suppliers to keep them loyal.
2) BRCM knows its mobile market so doesn't see the gain from a focus on Blackberry, yet.
My vote is #2.
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brionski
2/11/2013 11:25 AM EST
I miss my blackberry. I've been using a Droid X and tried an iPhone 5. Because of company security concerns, I have to use additional software on these other phones (Good technology) and it isn't as convenient as BB. I also store password hints and equations in my contact lists. Outlook and BB allow be to store a series of letters and numbers in phone fields. When I transfer these to Droid or iPhone, I loose all the letters and now my PW equations are gone! Had I known this was to happen, I might have placed the equations in the "notes" field, but how was I to know. Now I have way too many entries to fix. If BB is there when my current contract is up, I may well return to them. It just seems to be a better business solution.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
2/12/2013 10:00 AM EST
It's actually a pretty solid phone.
http://bit.ly/dI3hcF
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Tubeman
3/25/2013 1:45 PM EDT
I just bought a Z10. It is not bad and lives up to expectations -- except the Z10 does NOT operate under the Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) in North America (nor I believe in Europe). This is something that Blackberry appears to have kept silent. It means that small business operators such as myself, who have relied on Blackberry's well respected and proven email filtering and control, have been abandoned by Blackberry. In effect, without this differentiation Blackberry has become just another "me too" smartphone maker pushing bells and whistles instead of solid and useful communications functionality that Blackberry users have become highly dependent on. With no apparent substitute for BIS, I might as well join the Android or iPhone crowd where I can at least have more apps and models to choose from -- or get my old Blackberry Torch fired up again.
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bboyle
3/30/2013 10:33 AM EDT
As an engineer I can appreciate the clean construction design of the Z10. Comparatively, the Samsung Galaxy N3 is a total disaster - requiring special tools to disassemble it. Also, I love the QNX OS that the Z10 uses - I've been a QNX user/developer for 30 years, and hands-down, it is the best (and most reliable) commercial real-time embedded OS available. Android and Linux? Not hard real-time, which may explain their occasional "glitches" - I have a Nexus One given me by Google several years ago at the Linux Collaboration Summit, and it was my main phone for 2 years. These days I am using a Nokia Lumia 900, which all things considered, is a nice bit of gear. Of course, it is a company-issued phone... :-) When I am ready to purchase a new personal phone, the BB will be high on my list of candidates!
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