 "BlackBerry Z10: A Specifications Review")
BlackBerry (BB) 10 is currently the buzzword in the tech space and the BB Z10 is the current flagship platform to showcase this new OS. Just like Microsoft, BlackBerry has completely overhauled its OS experience and this time, has optimised it for gesture based control. Apart from the software, BlackBerry has also paid close attention to the hardware that went into the new Z10 so that it is on par with today’s high-end smartphones in the market. While we await the arrival of our test unit, here’s a preliminary breakdown of the specifications of the Z10 and how it stacks up against the competition.
OS – BlackBerry 10
BB 10 is BlackBerry’s reimagining of the mobile OS. Gestures play a vital role in navigation and the new BlackBerry Hub is accessible from any app, with a simple swipe. It has also completely redesigned the onscreen keyboard which now learns your typing style. BBM Video is something similar to what Apple did with FaceTime. Apart from sharing the view from your camera, you can also share documents, photos, etc. through the Screen Share feature. As far as apps go, we can expect around 70,000 BB 10 apps in the store with all the popular ones like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare will be pre-installed.
Cellular network – Quad-band GSM and 3G support
The Z10 has got you covered as far as network support is concerned. We have full quad-band GSM and 3G support and well, the US verison of the Z10 will have LTE while the global version mostly won’t.
Display – 4.2-inch multi-touch
While there’s no mention of the type of display on BlackBerry’s site, we know it’s a 4.2-inch screen with a 1280 x 768 resolution. This brings the pixel count up to 356ppi, which is in keeping with today’s trend of high ppi displays. We don’t know for sure if BlackBerry has used any scratch resistant coating for the Z10 and if it has, there’s no mention of it anywhere.
Running the new BB 10 OS
Form factor and weight – 9 mm thick and weighs 135 g
The Z10 has a comfortable form factor. The dimensions and weight are well within the limits of what we consider comfortable. In terms of the design, the Z10 does have a bit of excess bezel at the top and bottom but still manages to look smart.
Wi-Fi – Dual-band, 802.11 ‘n’
The Z10 supports the 802.11 draft ‘n’ specification and also features dual-band support. Once again, this is right up there along with the other high-end smartphones in the market.
SoC– TI-OMAP 4470 dual-core
As far as we know, the global version of the Z10 will have a SoC from Texas Instruments whereas the US version with LTE will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960T S4 SoC. The OMAP 4470 SoC is not as sophisticated as Qualcomm’s newer batch of S4 SoC, but packs in enough grunt to get the job done. It’s still based on the older 45nm fabrication process as compared to the newer 28nm process used by Qualcomm and Nvidia. Inside, we have two ARM Cortex-A9 cores for the CPU and a PowerVR SGX 544 GPU. The SoC alone could be one of the reasons why initial impressions of the Z10 show a relatively weak battery life. The SoC is also accompanied by 2GB of RAM, which should keep things flowing smoothly.