BlackBerry Z10 lost in a sea of better smartphones [REVIEW]

I’ll admit it. This was one of the tougher reviews I’ve ever had to write. Why? Because the BlackBerry Z10 isn’t really that bad of a smartphone. It’s just that it doesn’t hold a candle to the likes of an iPhone 5 or a Samsung Galaxy S4.

Navigating the BlackBerry Z10 interface

Let’s start with the navigation. Right out of the gate, I was frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how to close an app. Opening the app was easy but closing it? Not so much. And when a techie like me has to Google “how to close a BlackBerry Z10 app”, that’s not a good sign. By the way, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen.

Like many other smartphones, closing an app doesn’t really close it. It just gets it out of the way. On the BlackBerry, the running app stays as an active frame (about the size of 4 icons) until you touch the “X” in the lower right corner to officially close the app.

These active frames can also be used to display useful “live” information such as the weather much like an Android widget or a Windows 8 tile.

Swiping left and right was also a bit confusing for me. From what I can gather, the running apps line up like the pages of app icons such that when you swipe left past the first page of icons you start seeing the running apps. Swiping right is supposed to do the reverse but I often found myself ending up in an app that I swear I didn’t see the first time around.

Then there’s the swipe up feature. Yes, it is used to close an app. But, if halfway through closing the app, you see a notification icon (they appear on the left and represent new text messages, email, etc.), you can switch swiping direction by swiping to the right to display the BlackBerry Hub which contains all of your notifications. Are you confused? So was I.

What bothered me though more than anything else was the lack of a quick way to get to the home screen (or the first page of apps). The BlackBerry Z10 has no physical buttons like the iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy line of smartphones and, until I used the Z10, I never realized how much I like the physical home button.

Finally something I liked (the BlackBerry keyboard)

Believe it or not, I did find a small “wow” factor with the BlackBerry Z10. It’s in the way it handles type-ahead (or auto-complete) when using the keyboard. Like an Android phone, the Z10 offers multiple suggestions to complete your word as soon as you start typing. But rather than list them all in a row above the keyboard, the Z10 places each suggestion above the next key you are about to touch. For example, start typing the word “animal” and by the time you type “ani” the word “animal” is floating above the “m” key. To choose the suggested word, you simply swipe up on the letter underneath the suggested word (in my example, you would swipe up on the “m” key to complete the word “animal”).

For a quick demo of what I’m describing watch this video: BlackBerry Z10 Keyboard Demo

Another cool feature of the BlackBerry keyboard is that it often predicts the next word you are going to type before you even touch a single letter on the keyboard. Specifically, words like “a”, “in”, “the”, etc. For example, if you want to type “walk in the park” as soon as you type “walk”, the word “in” is waiting above the “i” key. And as you as you choose the word “in”, the word “the” is waiting above the “t” key.

What about the apps?

Wondering about the apps for the BlackBerry Z10? This is going to be quick and painless. I never even bothered installing any of my own apps. I guess I didn’t see any point because there is no way anyone could convince me to use this smartphone over something like the iPhone or any of the leading Android counterparts.

Final opinion

Like I said in the beginning of this blog post, the BlackBerry Z10 isn’t a bad smartphone. In fact, in some ways it’s combined many of the best features from the other popular smartphones. But that’s the problem. Between the existing features of other smartphones and the new features of the Z10, it’s too much of a mishmash and I don’t want to take the time to learn.

So I’ll pass on the BlackBerry Z10. My time would be better spent working on BlackBerry’s eulogy.

Note: The BlackBerry Z10 in this review was provided to me by Verizon Wireless and can be purchased at your local Verizon Wireless store or at www.verizonwireless.com.