Verizon BlackBerry Z10 Reviewed, Discounted Price Tag

The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone hit the United States in late March, and recently received a discounted retail price tag from Amazon. That online retailer is currently discounting the price of the handset to $139 on contract running on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE system. BlackBerry calls their Z10 the “most advanced BlackBerry smartphone yet” and it is hard to argue with that description. The handset delivers a high resolution and pixel density, a large 4.20 inch LCD screen, double the typical amount of RAM memory found on a smartphone, and 4G LTE connectivity.

BlackBerry, formerly RIM, has totally reinvented their iconic handset’s design. Gone is the ever present physical keyboard of old, and now the BlackBerry Z10, running the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, is totally touchscreen driven. The back of the handset has a “soft touch” material which feels good to your hand, and the Z10 offers a microSD slot for storage expansion and offboard data access. BlackBerry has also done a great job of keeping the handset slim and light, as it measures 0.35 inches (9.0 mm), and weighs just 4.85 ounces (138 g).

The 4.20 inch display mentioned above offers a resolution of 768 x 1,280 pixels, and that capacitive, multitouch screen delivers more than 16 million independent colors at the rate of 356 pixels per inch. By adding light and proximity sensors, BlackBerry helps conserve battery power by automatically dimming the display when it is not needed, as well as automatically adjusting for the proper display brightness. This helps the 1,800 mA battery on board the handset deliver 10.0 hours of talk time and 13.0 days of standby power from a full battery charge.

The BlackBerry Z10 is capable of functioning as a Wi-Fi mobile hotspot for multiple wireless devices, and offers NFC wireless support out-of-the-box. Anything you are viewing on the screen can be exported to a TV or monitor thanks to microHDMI connectivity, and the rear facing camcorder provides digital image stabilization, a built-in LED flash, autofocus and touch to focus features. The sensor is 8.0 megapixels, and the f/2.2 lens is perfect for low light situations. That rear shooter records video in 1,920 x 1,080 pixels (1,080P HD resolution), and is joined by a front facing 2.0 megapixel chat cam in the handset’s camera combo.

BlackBerry has chosen a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus MSM8960 system chip to handle device operations, and the BlackBerry Z10 hardware package is centered around a dual core 1.5 GHz CPU. 16 GB of internal storage is present, and the handset multitasks efficiently thanks to 2.0 GB of RAM memory. An Adreno 225 GPU handles all graphics processing.