Selling 1 million units shortly after launch, and quicker than analysts expected, the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone has been initially successful for the Canadian smartphone manufacturer formally known as RIM. And that is a good thing, because BlackBerry has put all of their eggs in the proverbial Z10 and BlackBerry 10 operating system baskets. The handset has now been available in the United States for just over three months, so we thought we would run it through a 90 day price and specs checkup.
The BlackBerry Z10 – 4G LTE is available for a reduced sale price now starting at $0.01.
Currently retailing for around $49 with a standard two-year contract, the BlackBerry Z10 is 4G LTE enabled. The company is calling it the most powerful BlackBerry smartphone ever created, and that is easily the case. By ditching the old physical QWERTY keyboard and going with a totally touchscreen driven form factor, BlackBerry is hoping to cash in on the popularity of the slim, rectangular design and large high-resolution displays which have made Apple and Android devices bestsellers.
BlackBerry technicians have done a excellent job in keeping the phone light and slim, as it weighs 4.85 ounces (138 g), offering a thin 0.35 inch (9.0 mm) profile. The display is the largest found on any BlackBerry phone, measuring a full 4.20 inches. HD+ resolution runs 768 by 1,280 pixels, and that is delivered at an exceptionally high pixel density of 356 color pixels spread across each inch of display space. More than 16 million colors are used to create visual displays, and the usual capacitive, multitouch gestures for device navigation are supported.
The BlackBerry Z10 also uses standard light and proximity sensors to automate certain tasks, such as screen brightness adjustment and display dimming. This helps conserve battery power, allowing the standard sized 1,800 mA battery on board the Z10 to deliver 25% better talk time than the average 4G smartphone, at 10.0 hours after a full charge. At the cornerstone of the BlackBerry Z10 hardware package is a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 system chip. This is built around a speedy 1.5 GHz dual core central processor, Adreno 225 GPU, 2.0 GB of RAM memory and 16 GB of built-in storage space.
The phone also supports external memory cards up to 64 GB in size via its microSD slot. The premier camera on the phone is a rear facing 8.0 megapixel camcorder, and a 2.0 megapixel chat cam rides up front. That rear snapper delivers a feature BlackBerry is calling Time Shift, which allows you to shoot an ultra-short video just milliseconds before and after a snapshot. This allows you to then choose the perfect frame for the best results, and is one of the many customization and personalization features that rear shooter offers. Video is recorded in 1,080P HD resolution, and the Z10 can function as a mobile hotspot for multiple wireless devices.
The BlackBerry Z10 – 4G LTE can be purchased at a discounted price tag now starting at $0.01.
