Fine screen, fast processor, BB10, decent camera, good battery life, cheaper than other premium handsets
App store understocked, swipe-based interface is a bit quirky
So farewell then BlackBerry, which looks likely to bow out of handset production after this five-inch model, proving that there is zero tolerance in the mobile tech industry for sitting on laurels or taking your foot off the innovation accelerator pedal. It's a shame, because the Z30 has plenty to offer, including a good screen, powerful processor and a fine camera. Pity about the apps...
Design
The Z30 does without BlackBerry's patented hard keyboard to leave more room for that five-inch Super Amoled screen, which delivers a perfectly respectable pixel count of 1,280x720 (295ppi). That's not among the very best, like the Samsung Galaxy S4's 1,920x1,080 and it's certainly not the brightest you'll see, but it still looks plenty sharp whether you're watching movies, browsing the web or viewing your documents (Docs To Go comes as standard).
It's a solidly built device, with the brushed metal shell including a classy-looking strip at the bottom and a grippy rubberised plastic back. There's a rare sighting of a micro HDMI slot on the side which allows you to play back HD material on your telly if you feel the need. Yes, you can do the same via wireless DLNA but the wired option tends to be more reliable.
Blackberry OS 10, features and processor
The BlackBerry 10 operating system didn't revitalise the company's fortunes as hoped but it's really not bad at all. The slide-based system for getting around (slide left to access your apps, right for recent apps, up and right to see your messages collected in the BlackBerry Hub, up to leave an app etc) takes a bit of getting used to, but once you're there it's quick and intuitive. It doesn't feel as cluttered as Android, and it's more immediate than iOS, so even if it doesn't sit head and shoulders above its rival systems, it certainly doesn't fall behind.
Well, except in one area. As the app stores of the two biggest systems surge forward, BlackBerry World looks set to wither on the vine. No-one wants to invest in a system without longevity, so new apps are thin on the ground and likely to get even thinner. Many, but not all, of the important ones are here, but with no guarantee of how long their creators will support updates, their time could be limited.
The dual-core 1.7GHz is backed by a full 2GB of RAM and it does a fine job of nipping through menus, opening apps promptly and doing all the other little jobs that help a handset to feel like a premium device.
Photography
The eight-megapixel camera offers auto and touch focus, an LED flash and a few extra tricks like image stabilisation, burst mode and HDR. It includes a five-element F2.2 lens and does a pretty good job in terms of picture quality, with accurate colours, sharp edges and a good level of detail. There's also a 2 megapixel camera on the front for video calls with BBM Video and other services.
There's 16GB of memory to store your pics and vids and you can boost that further via microSD card.
Battery life seemed pretty good for this type of phone and we managed nearly two days of steady use.
Conclusion
The Z30 is in the zone to compete with the likes of Samsung's Galaxy S4 or Sony's Xperia Z and in terms of processing power, screen quality and style it certainly holds its own. The camera may not be quite as good as those two, but the considerably lower price tag must be a consideration, and the relatively long battery life will appeal to many, it's just a pity that BlackBerry's app store is becoming increasingly uncompetitive and this is likely to be a deal-breaker for many.
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Software: BlackBerry 10
Processor: Dual Core 1.7GHz Qualcomm MSM8960T Pro
Memory slot: microSD
Display: 5in Super AMOLED 1280x720 pixels
Connectivity: Wi-Fi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
Ports: microUSB, micro HDMI, 3.5mm headphone jack
Camera: 8 megapixel with autofocus, LED flash 1080p HD video recording; 2 megapixel front-facing camera with 720p HD video recording
Video playback: 3GP, 3GP2, M4A, M4V, MOV, MP4, MKV, MPEG-4, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, MP3, MKA, AAC, AMR, F4V, WAV
Audio playback: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC, MP3, PCM, Xvid, AMR-NB, WMA 9/10, VC-1, VP6, SPARK, PCM, MPEG-2
Radio: No
Battery: 2800mAh
Size: 141x72x9mm
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
