Gadgetory

this is a new era for rim and the BlackBerry z10 here is the first device to determine if the company lives to see another batch of smartphones and tablet I'm Jessica's all court with CNET taking a look at the good and bad in the BlackBerry z10 now the z10 is a beautiful looking device but it's also very familiar-looking one that would be hard to distinguish from a black iPhone 5 if it weren't for those BlackBerry logos on the front and on the back if you're picky about build quality the z10 isn't as finely tooled as the iPhone but in my opinion it feels a little bit better in the hand and in my test so far it has been durable there's a 4.2 inch HD LCD screen on the all-black z10 and a subtly textured soft touch finish on the back the edges are straight and the corners are rounded you won't find any buttons on the phone's face and that's because the z10 uses only a series of gestures to navigate around for more on those be sure to check out my full video and review of the BlackBerry 10 OS you'll find the usual light and proximity sensors on the front and a 2 megapixel camera lens there as well there are also two microphones one each at the top in the bottom the phone has a micro HDMI port right next to the micro USB charging port so you'll be able to easily connect the phone to your TV the power buttons up top and the volume buttons are on the side they do triple duty to also take screenshots and to trigger the camera shutter the button in between these two launches voice control on the back of the phone you have an 8 megapixel camera lens and flash plus the NFC module below the back panel you'll find the micro SD card slot which comes with a gigabytes pre-installed and which takes up to 32 gigabytes of your own memory the z10 runs on a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 plus processor and supports 4G LTE and HSPA+ there's also support for global roaming now that we've got all the important specs out of the way let's talk about what you really want to know how well this phone works and if you should switch let's start with the camera the 8 megapixel shooter was able to take some nice crisp photos through the standard and time shift modes although there is autofocus with this you can't move the focal point from the center so you have to get tricky if you want to focus on something a little off to the side I do love the extensive photo editing tools though you can take 1080p and 720p HD video on here and 720p HD video from the front camera blackberry messenger is classic rim and in this version you get video chats and screen sharing as well as the usual free BlackBerry to blackberry messaging it's a good feature apps will be a sticking point with the z10 and all other BlackBerry devices going forward at launch you'll find Twitter or Facebook LinkedIn and Foursquare Angry Birds Star Wars is the most fun pre-installed by far and don't be fooled by this YouTube app it's just a bookmark to the mobile site so should you get the BlackBerry z10 let me just say that if you've been patiently waiting for rims next touchscreen smartphone then I think you're really gonna love this phone it's got a grown-up look and feel and it keeps all the security and business features the smart Keyboard tricks and blackberry messenger app that RIM is really known for however if you're not especially enamored of blackberry to begin with and you're happy where you are I recommend staying put for at least another software iteration so that RIM can further build up its app base and iron out these first-generation and OS cakes for CNET I'm Jessica's all-court you can read the full BlackBerry z10 review and blackberry 10 OS reviews on CNET com