Review: BlackBerry Z10 is good stab at rebirth

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Associated Press :New York, Jan 31 2013, 14:24 IST

Are you ashamed to have a BlackBerry? It's not exactly a status symbol any more, at least not in the US, after it got left in the dust by the iPhone. Now, there's a new BlackBerry that wants to get back into the cool club: the Z10.

It's the first phone to run the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, and it is, at first blush, a very good stab at regaining at least some of the cachet of the BlackBerry.

The problem is that no one has ever succeeded in turning around a failing smartphone maker. Remember the Palm, anyone? It's simply a brutal industry. So even if the Z10 does everything it set out to do, it might not be enough to save Research In Motion Ltd, the home of the BlackBerry. The company is changing its name to BlackBerry, but that could just be the prelude to riding the brand into the sunset once and for all.

It doesn't exactly help that the Z10 looks like every other smartphone on the shelf. It's a flat black slab with a touch screen, nearly indistinguishable at 15 feet from the iPhone 5 or a bevy of Android smartphones. The screen measures 4.2 inches diagonally, a bit bigger than the iPhone but smaller than most Android phones. It will go on sale in the US in March, probably for about $200 with a two-year service contract, in line with the iPhone and other rivals.

Turn it on, and the differences become more evident. Older BlackBerrys

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Reader's Comments (3)| Post a Comment

Meaningful change is one which last long term addiction in silent mode

Rajnish | 31-Jan-2013Reply | Forward

BB ,whome you intend to convince in copy cat style. one, Owners still want it as a serious business device with key-in-input and not the one to be handled by wife and children in the Car, for navigation , online play etc. Try if you can provide it a distinguist finish and tech update which increases comfirt level and or finish /looks like black venom GT car looks like to catch eyes rather than n number of audis of same colour .Tiatanium , platinum & any good alloy look same but delivers deiffrently . If BB is thinking en-mass - as its customer base ,it is contradicting its on foundations -that is addiction is by choice not by eyes alone.

I Disagree

Gulshan Vohra | 31-Jan-2013Reply | Forward

The Peek and Flow features of multitasking in the BB OS 10 are great. It shows what multitasking truly is. Separating the work spaces is a brilliant idea, now it has video calling too from skype and others. The screen share feature in BBM is absent in any other technology. Remember, Blackberry OS in one of the most secure OS to be used in phones. The playbook didn't go well but it was the the only tablet device that passed all the security tests. The BB OS 10 has been certified for government use before it was even launched. Now, there is blackberry fusion which can manage android, ios and blackberry from a single point making it easy for admins, so the Bring Your Device will not be a problem. No other phone maker has dedicated email servers all around the world and blackberry enterprise server will surely have a lot. The most regular apps are available now, other will join soon, it was always greater than windows and it has a huge number of loyalists too.