It has been slightly over a week since I laid hands on the Z10 and I am onto my second handset already. I had to get the first handset replaced because of a software bug and it was not possible to reload the software even with the help of Blackberry Technical Support.
Hardware
At about 136g, the Z10 is a tad heavier that the Samsung Galaxy S III (133g) and iPhone 5 (111g).
The width of the Z10 is about 2.6″. It is somewhere between the iPhone 5 at 2.3″ and Samsung Galaxy S III at 2.8″. Personally I think the size is right – small enough to be portable yet big enough to fully utility the browser.
A notable design feature of the Z10 is that there is no “home” button the the front panel. This is an innovative feature that maximises the potential of the wholly gesture based operating system.
There is no physical keyboard. The Z10 is fully touchscreen. Being a QWERTY keyboard user for the longest of time, I was initially apprehensive about the switch. But I find the learning curve to be small. For Anglo-Saxon users, the predictive text function is great. Swiping up the suggested word that appears between the keys soon become second nature. However, users inputting Chinese characters will find it a pain (see below).
In terms of design, I feel that the Z10 is not as sleek as an iPhone but definitely more refined than a Samsung Galaxy S III.
Battery Life
The Z10 has a decent battery life when on standby mode. I left the handset on overnight (with 8 IMAP email accounts syncing every 30 minutes, 1 ActiveSync account on push, 1 Linkedin account, 1 Twitter account and 1 Facebook account) and the battery indicator barely barged. Battery level does deplete fast with moderate usage.
Software
The Z10 runs on the new BlackBerry 10 Operating System (BB 10 OS). The CEO, Thorsten Heins touts that the BB 10 OS will be a platform for the next decade of mobile computing. Whilst the OS is great at multi-tasking, I am not sure if it puts too much strain on the phone’s processor, resulting in the handset becoming very hot with low to moderate usage.
My handset is running OS version (10.0.9.2372)/software release (10.0.9.348). Generally I feel that this built has lots of bugs and not fit for general release. Some bugs/missing functions are so fundamental that it makes me wonder whether BlackBerry has a rigorous beta testing program in place.
Bugs
- Deleting email from Gmail account in BlackBerry Hub does not actually delete the email – When deleting an email from a Gmail account, the email disappears from the message list on the BlackBerry device. However, the message does not appear in the Trash folder in Gmail webmail. The deleted message can be found in the All Mail folder.
- Unable to add or modify CalDAV Gmail calendar account – Google announced back in Q4 ’12 that they will be withdrawing ActiveSync support for free Gmail accounts. This means that at some point in the near future, the only way to access Gmail calendar is via the CalDAV protocol. However when I attempted to setup my Gmail calendar, I got the following error message: “Your email and contacts accounts were successfully added. At this time, thewww.google.com/calendar/dav/xxx@xxx.com/events server is unavailable and your calendar account can’t be added. Please try again later.” Apparently this is a known bug to BlackBerry and there is no workaround at the moment.
- Facebook feed does not display all posts – The Facebook app that comes with the Z10 is not a native app created by Facebook. Whilst the speed of downloading the feeds is lightning fast, the new feeds are sorted by Top Stories rather than Most Recent. There is a workaround in place but that requires adjusting the settings in the desktop version of the Facebook website.
- Unable to paste into the Dial Pad while in the Phone application – For example, I received a friend’s contact details via email. I selected and copied his mobile number. When I launched the Phone application, I am unable to paste his mobile number into the Dial Pad. This should be such a basic function of any smartphone.
- BlackBerry Link Wireless Sync will not work when the computer is connected through a VPN session.
- Tone volume – When selecting a new alert tone/music, the default “test” volume is extremely loud. There is no way to tone it down.
Missing Functions
- The Time Shift function is a great party trick but it lacks the ability to zoom or take photos with flash, thus making its usability limited.
- No support for multiple calendar/contact groups – At present, only the master Gmail calendar and contact group can be synced.
- IMAP sync timeframe – The maximum number of days for the initial IMAP sync is set at 30 days. Using the same email protocol, iOS and Android allows unlimited sync timeframe.
- Lack of a battery % indicator option.
- Lack of industry standard VPN support such as PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, Cisco IPSec.
- No security wipe function after entering a wrong password – In previous BlackBerry OS, there is a function that wipes the handset if the user enters a wrong password consequently. Sadly this function has been removed.
- Lack of Mandarin handwriting and Jyutping support. This effectively means that BlackBerry will be an inferior handset in countries like China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia.
Ecosystem
At the launch event, Martyn Mallick, Vice President, Global Alliances & Business Development at BlackBerry boosts that there are 70,000 apps in BlackBerry App World, more apps than any first generation OS. Logos of popular cross platform applications like Skype, WhatsApp, Bloomberg and Kindle were flashed across the presentation. BlackBerry announced that developers of the top 1,000 “must have” applications around the world have committed to BlackBerry 10.
If like me you rushed to get a new Z10, hoping to find the 1,000 “must have” applications ready for download, you will be sorely disappointed. The word that Martyn Mallick used during the presentation is “committed”, not “submitted”. The current selection of apps for Blackberry Z10 is pathetic to say the least. There may be over 70,000 apps available, but it is the quality and not the quantity that counts.
Some of the apps that I use on a regular basis that are missing from BlackBerry App World (or not native apps):
- Amazon
- BBC iPlayer
- BBC News**
- Bloomberg Mobile
- Ch NewsAsia
- Classic FM
- CNBC Realtime
- CNN
- Dictionary.com*
- Facebook**
- Financial Times
- Gmail
- Google Map
- Google Authenticator
- ITV Player
- MeRadio
- Pleco
- PPS TV
- PPTV HD
- Reuters
- Security trading apps like IG Trading, TD Direct Investing, Sippdeal,……
- Shazam
- Sky News
- Skype
- Straits Times
- Thomson Reuters News Pro
- Twitter**
- Week Cal
- YouTube**
*Dictionary.com app is available at launch but come with a price tag of £2.00. The app is free to download on the iOS and Android platform.
**Not native BB 10 apps.
Personally I find it a chore to search for apps on the Blackberry World app. The User Interface is not designed to promote new/top apps. Rather it merely acts as a platform for users to search for apps that they have seen on iTunes or Google Play.
BlackBerry Link
BlackBerry Link is the new desktop software for the BB 10 operating system. It replaces the BlackBerry Desktop Software.
BlackBerry Link is meant to allow users to synchronise their music, photos, videos and documents. Compared to the BlackBerry Desktop Software, BlackBerry Link has limited functions and is rigged with bugs. Whilst I am able to synchronise my music with iTunes, not all the data was transferred across successfully (e.g. the Playlist was not synchronised).
But the most important function that is missing from BlackBerry Link is its ability to synchronise Outlook’s calendar/contacts/notes/tasks with the Z10. Why did BlackBerry choose to remove this function is beyond me. It certainly does not help that users like me cannot use setup our calendars using CalDAV.
Conclusion
Being a BlackBerry user for the past 9 years, I have to say that if I had known the Z10 have so many bugs/missing functions and an abysmal ecosystem, I will not have taken the plunge to upgrade from the Bold 9790.
As a previous iOS user, I find the battery life unacceptable but at least I have a fully functional handset with lots of decent apps to choose from. If by the time Z10 launches in the US with no significant improvement, I will reconsider my choice of handset.