Rich Jaroslovsky
Reports.
BLACKBERRY has done a lot right with the Z10, the first smartphone to run its new, bet-thecompany operating system.
The touchscreen phone – a version with the traditional BlackBerry physical keyboard is expected, too – is handsome, intuitive to use and a whiz at multi-tasking. The key question, which the market will answer, is whether all that will be enough to rescue the company after years of mediocre products and corporate floundering.
At first glance, the Z10 could be an iPhone 5 clone; same rounded corners, same thin side bezels. On closer examination, though, differences become apparent. The Z10 has a slightly bigger screen – 4.2 inches, versus the iPhone’s 4in – and is a bit taller, wider and thicker. It is also a little heavier, though by no means uncomfortable. On the front, there is no physical button to interrupt the smooth black rectangle; the textured back pops off to reveal (thank you, BlackBerry) a userreplaceable battery, as well as a MicroSD slot to augment the 16 gigabytes of included storage.
The new operating system, called BlackBerry 10, differs from Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android in its greater use of finger swipes rather than just taps on icons to move around the interface.
The central feature is the BlackBerry Hub. It is a universal inbox that encompasses not just your email accounts but also texts, updates from Facebook and Twitter, messages from the BlackBerry Messenger service and other sources.
You access the Hub from within virtually any application by sliding your finger up and to the right from the bottom of the screen. As you do, the screen slides to the right, giving you a peek at the Hub inbox underneath.
If you don’t see a message you want to interact with, slide your finger to the left and resume could not get a good read on just what that meant because a bug on my test device caused the battery to discharge when the phone was idle. The company says it is a known problem that will be fixed before the Z10 reaches customers.
I was also unable to test a key feature for corporate users, BlackBerry Balance, which sets up separate identities for your personal and work lives.
The idea is that when your phone is in personal mode, anything goes: You can customise to your heart’s content, download apps and content from the BlackBerry World store, and basically do what you damn well please. Flip to work mode, though, and your environment is determined by your company, which can limit what you can install, down to the wallpaper.
Safeguards prevent anything stupid you do on the personal side from affecting the corporate side – and, the company assures the paranoid, any of your personal data from being accessed by your employer. Such features suggest that you may be as likely to be handed the Z10 by your company IT department as to buy it yourself.
Either way, you won’t have to wince at the prospect.