Design
The BlackBerry Z10 is the touchscreen flagship model, with a Qwerty keyboard version coming in the form of the BlackBerry Q10. It measures 130 x 65.6 x 9mm and comes with a 4.2-inch four-point multi-touch LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels, a sharp 355ppi. The screen isn't finished with Corning Gorilla Glass as found in most top-of-the-range smartphones, but RIM promises us it is still very much scratch-resistant and tough enough to endure daily rigours.
While the screen is only a fraction larger than the iPhone 5, the phone is considerably bigger. It's only slightly smaller than the Samsung Galaxy S3, even though that phone has a much bigger 4.6-inch display.
The front features a 2-megapixel camera and no buttons, although the bezel surrounding the screen looks like it could have happily taken plenty. Instead, you get a silver BlackBerry logo at the bottom so you know what you've got in your hand. As with the company's PlayBook, there is a volume and voice activation button in a single configuration on the right side, and a separate power button next to a 3.5mm headphone socket on the top.
Camera
The camera is one of the key focus areas for RIM and one of the key ways the Z10 shines. The Z10 features an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus. There are three shooting modes: normal, stabilisation, and burst; and five scene settings: auto, action, whiteboard, night, beach or snow.
You can set the flash to fire automatically or not at all or change the aspect ratio from 16:9 or 4:3. Unlike Windows Phone or Android there is no control over exposure, white balance, ISO, or the ability to tap to focus either. You can pinch to zoom, and you can use the volume key to snap a picture if you don't want to touch the screen
Battery life
It's too early to tell what the battery life is really like as we've not been able to use the phone enough to give you a full verdict just yet, but we aren't impressed so far. In our tests we've had NFC running, but not used it, and had emails set to 15-minute intervals rather than push. We have used the phone in a standard manner (we deem ourselves as heavy users).
One of the big selling points of the BlackBerry Bold was that it had a great battery life: here we've struggled to get through till 6pm from an 8am start.
BlackBerry 10
A new beginning, a fresh start, a different way of using your phone. That's a fairly accurate way of describing the first 24 hours of using BB10, although you'll soon start to notice a mish-mash of features from previous BlackBerry operating systems and others too.
The main influence has been the BlackBerry PlayBook. BB10 has inherited gesture control from the PlayBook OS. There is no home button, for example, while the grid icon layout copies iOS and the opened apps panel reminds us of Android.
Swiping
Hit the power button and you are presented with a lock screen that shows you several icons if you've got messages be it email, text messages, or other notifications. It's all very Windows Phone in its approach and this list of icons is visible at any point wherever you are by swiping up from the bottom bezel with your finger.
Once you've unlocked the phone, there are three core areas. The app grid is like any other app grid on any other OS out there. You can folder apps, you can re-arrange them, basically manage them as you would on BB7, iOS or Android. Swipe across to your left and you get the open apps page, that will list the up to eight apps you have opened. These take up more real estate on the screen - and with the Z10 you'll get four per page with the option to scroll down to see another four.
Keyboard
Powered by SwiftKey, the keyboard is one of the most important parts of the new touchscreen phone, especially when you are trying to convince all those owners of the BlackBerry Bold that you've got the best offering on the block. Designed to look indentical to the new Qwerty keyboard of the Q10 (which itself is a modernisation of the Bold keyboard) RIM has not only made the keyboard well spaced out and easy to use, but also predictive.
Browser
RIM has done a lot to improve the browser and even on a standard 3G connection (via Vodafone), the speed was very impressive, outperforming the iPhone 5 and Chrome browser on the SGS3 we've been testing it against, although we have to stress, we are still testing it.
The browser still supports Adobe Flash, for those who still care, and that means you do still get to use services like BBC iPlayer without worrying that there isn't a dedicated app (the one in BB World is just a link to the website).
We've struggled however to get the browser to work with mobile sites, but that might be just a teething problem we are experiencing. Another reason this is a hands-on review rather than a full review
Apps
If you like apps and want to enjoy the latest consumer app releases then as it stands the Z10 and BlackBerry 10 OS isn't for you, but this is day one. As a new (ish) platform, it's behind the curve on support for third-party hardware, and that's unlikely to change anytime soon.
Developers and hardware manufacturers are too busy building speaker docks or devices for Android and iPhone. Microsoft has been fighting the same problem with Windows Phone, and it's still not there yet, three years down the line, so BB10 will have to make it's mark before the ecosystem expands.
Verdict so far
BB10 and therefore the Z10 has some really nice features to it. Based on the time we've spent with it so far, we love the keyboard, although suspect Android users will get something equally as powerful in the next iteration of SwiftKey, and we like the Time Shift feature in the camera app.
While the messaging element, or BlackBerry Hub, has remained core to what is on offer here and very nice too, we can't help feeling that RIM has done what it has always done: made an amazing smartphone for its customers and no one else.
That's fine when RIM ruled the roost and it had lots of customers, but there is nothing overly amazing here that is going to woo back Android or iPhone users who are disgruntled.
Those disappointed with the Android experience are likely to go iPhone or Nokia's Window Phone 8. BlackBerry is having to fight a battle on many fronts and we're just not sure this is the device to give them the power to survive that fight.
This is not the end of RIM though: when it comes to enterprise customers, Android and iPhone don't come near it. The BlackBerry Balance feature will be applauded by system admin guys around the globe, while BlackBerry Bold users who are brave enough to ditch the keyboard will now own a device that means they won't have to carry two phones with them.
But the Z10 isn't going to appeal to the kids, another of RIM's core audiences, or pull people back from self-imposed exile.
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