You probably remember the Canadian firm Research In Motion (RIM) as the smartphone manufacturer that turned out the iconic BlackBerry handsets. Recently that company changed their name to BlackBerry, putting all their focus on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, while also revealing that BlackBerry Z10. The handset ditches the familiar BlackBerry physical keyboard, and is a full touchscreen handset. It was released at the same time as the BlackBerry Q10, which is basically the same handset with a smaller touchscreen as well as physical QWERTY keyboard.
While the company has not released sales figures quite yet, executives with BlackBerry recently released a statement that the new BlackBerry Z10 has “exceeded our expectations.” The Toronto Star credited CEO Thorsten Heins with that statement recently, and Heins went on to state that the company’s goals for the handset were very high previous to the device launch. He admitted to being surprised by the positive response, and contrary to industry analysts who have called the launch “so-so”, many outlets in the UK and Canada have been selling out of product.
BlackBerry will be releasing official fourth quarter financial earnings information on March 28, so we will have to wait until then to see how the actual numbers play out. The BlackBerry Z10 heads in the direction of other smartphones today, both in appearance and in feature set. Previous BlackBerry smartphones looked very different from typical Apple and Android phones, and were quickly identifiable by their physical keyboard.
The company recently announced when they revealed the new handsets and operating system that they would be heading in a new direction. By offering BlackBerry faithful the choice of a physical QWERTY keyboard over a full touchscreen, the company will keep those who prefer that form factor happy, and the new “Android look-alike” Z10 smartphone will appeal to those mobile handset shoppers who prefer touchscreen technology.
The Z10 is a large 4.2 inch LCD display with 1,280 x 760 pixel resolution, delivering an extremely high pixel density of 356 pixels per inch. The handset is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual core CPU, and a full 2.0 GB of RAM memory is found under the hood. 16 GB of internal storage is present, as is a microSD slot. The handset is slim at 0.35 inches (9.0 mm) in thickness, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 system chip is the cornerstone of the hardware package. A rear facing 8.0 megapixel camcorder provides video capture at 1,080P HD resolution.
