Gadgetory

hi guys this is Brian Bennett from seen it and right now we're taking a first look at the new BlackBerry z30 the Z 30 isn't exactly new it hit the European markets at the end of September 2013 still the device is just beginning to make its way to other Shores for example Verizon said it will sell the handset in November for one $99.99 the Z 30 is BlackBerry's biggest screen smartphone yet it packs a large 5 inch 720p HD resolution display which the company says has a pixel density of 295 PPI of course that's nowhere near sharp as the HTC One and Samsung Galaxy s4 whose Full HD screens offer 468 PPI and 441 PPI respectfully I have to say that the Z 30s display doesn't seem very bright either still since it uses OLED technology it has high contrast and wide viewing angles shaped like your average smartphone slab at first glance the Z 30 could be any Android handset as a matter of fact it's black chassis and silver accents not to mention its soft touch back remind me of phones I've seen from HTC and Motorola if you look closer though you begin to see what sets this device apart even if you didn't notice the Z 30s twin blackberry logos above the screen is the iconic blackberry notification light which flashes an angry red when alerts occur there's a 2 megapixel front camera here too two ports for micro HDMI and micro USB connections sit on the left edge up top is a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack and power button while on the right you'll find volume and play pause controls ringing the device though our six microphones which Blackberry claims will help the phone deliver unprecedented ly clear calls and pristine recorded audio quality the z30 also has a set of powerful stereo speakers two on the top and bottom edge of the phone I can vouch that they indeed get very loud perhaps the loudest I've ever heard from a smart phone yet under the back cover is a high-capacity 2880 milliamp battery road warriors will certainly appreciate that it's also removable placed here as well are slots for microSD memory cards and micro SIM cards also slick is that the BlackBerry z30 supports the Qi standard for wireless charging blackberry boasts to that the c30 should have a mixed used runtime of 25 hours another bold claim blackberry makes is that thanks to something called a para tech antenna the Z 30 can adjust its cellular reception on-the-fly the idea here is to grab a better lock on data and voice connections when signal strength is low the Z 30 also connects to Verizon's LTE data network if you're within its 4G cellular footprint the Z 30 software has been updated as well the phone runs the new blackberry 10.2 operating system that has a few fresh tricks up its sleeve along with the familiar peak gesture to quickly see your messages and the BlackBerry hub unified inbox there's a new priority hub the priority hub will pay attention to who you interact with most whether on Twitter Facebook email texts or what have you then float those conversations up to the top of a priority hub view if you're familiar with the cameras on the BlackBerry z10 and q10 the Z 30 won't offer many surprises the Z 30 uses the same 8 megapixel sensor as its predecessor in addition to the time shift feature which takes multiple shots at once so you can choose the best one BlackBerry has added an HDR mode which uses the backside illuminated sensor to brighten shadow detail in strong backlighting powering the Z 30 software is a 1.7 gigahertz Snapdragon s4 pro processor and quad-core Adreno graphics that's backed up by 2 gigabytes of RAM and 16 gigabytes of internal storage I'm Brian Bennett for CNET and you've just taken a first look at the BlackBerry z30 for more check out our full review