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A philanthropic spirit encompassed with an entrepreneurial mind, I am passionate about technology and the things technology can help people to achieve.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

BlackBerry Z30 Review - User Interface/OS

So much for the hardware part, let’s now dwell on what this phone can do or what it can do better. I am a user of a BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 so you will find me touching on the evolution of this Operating System for the 10 or so months it has been out.



Gestures
This is the hallmark of BlackBerry 10; you will not find any buttons on the screen. Now let me point out something that I see being sold as a lie about BlackBerry 10, many reviewers say gestures are hard to learn. My take is if you cannot hold a car steering wheel and change gears at the same time then BlackBerry gestures are not for you, in fact it’s harder to ride a tricycle than it is to muster gestures. So those reviewers are probably smoking something.

Battery Life
This phone sports a 2880mAh battery, this sounds like it’s not very much to go on but BlackBerry has one advantage, the Operating System and the Hardware are their own. This means hardware is optimised for use with the software meaning the Z30 will get all the work done using a Dual Core processor hence its power efficiency is above those of its peers in the 5 inch range. I am a heavy user & so I am impressed with how the Z30 has handled, to give an idea of how much my appetite for power is, I can get through 2GB of data within 3 weeks and this is limited to occasional download of whatsapp video like 2 times a week at no more than 5MB each, no Youtube and I do quite a lot of Wifi Hotspot, there are websites I use at work that are not accessible when using the LAN for internet. Wifi Hotspot consumes a lot of battery life, my Z10 was taking a beating in that regard and I was content with 5 hours from full battery to 0%. Within those 5 hours was at least one hour of Wifi Hotspot. On the Z30 I making it through the day, currently I have done 2 hours of Wifi Hotspot and battery is just below 40% with an uptime of 8 since I took it off the charger.

Network Connectivity
I work in an area of Sandton which is like a ditch, on low ground and far from the busy central business district. With my BlackBerry Z10 I could get good network coverage outside the work premises but once sat on my desk I would lose connectivity probably something to do with the building design or too much interference. So I had a perfect place to test out the endurance of the BlackBerry Z30 in that regard. I was eager to see how the Paratek Antenna would stand up to the notorious building. I am happy to confirm that I am getting all 5 bars of network service. So no gimmick, this technology really works in those headache places like basements and remote areas.

Camera Performance
I have seen people frown on the BlackBerry Z30 for having an 8MP camera, often comparing it to the BlackBerry Z10. But like I saw, the megapixels are only half the yardstick to measure how good a camera is, much goes to the medium through which the image is viewed. The Z30 has an OLED display and images appear sharper, even those I took on my Z10 look much different once I had moved them to Z30. The image editor also comes with more options and enhancements.

BlackBerry 10.2 Software
This is a major highlight of the BlackBerry experience, the 10.2 update to the operating system brings a lot of new features which I am still discovering so this will not be exhaustive:

Text Editors
When you are in any type form (text, email, BBM, Whatsapp..) and you select text an on screen pop up will show up with options to Copy, Select All or Share as shown below, yes you can share textlines to Email, BBM, BBM Group, Text Messaging and other Social Media.
 


Text Editor - Copy, Select All & Share

 
When you go to another type form and touch the empty space it will display the options to Paste, Selective Select, Select All or Share as shown below:

 


Text Editor - Paste, Selective Selection, Select All & Share
The above are the additions that came with the 10.2 update, the options for Bold, Italics, Underline, bullets, font adjustments, and text colour remain as on the 10.1 software.
Messaging Handling

 
The gesture based interface made things easy with Peak, in line with the motto #Keepmoving 10.2 update brings the feature to reply to BBM & Whatsapp and other social media from within any application or home screen, when the message comes in, you will see it at the top of the screen, you can tap on it to go to the application, tap the instant reply option to send a quick reply from wherever you are. Below is screen shot of a BBM reply straight from within the Settings Menu:


Reply BBM, Text, Email, Whatsapp from Anywhere

BBM Natural Sound
You probably have heard of BBM Natural Sound, I set out to make a test call, a BBM Voice call. It was amazing how the clarity of the call came through as if you are speaking to the person face to face. This is not only great for BBM Voice and Video, since the application comes with screen share, this will be an awesome way to share that awesome stadium atmosphere, that party and other events and make the people being shared with hear it as if they part of the proceeding. Think of a sales man selling a hi-fi audio system telephonically and the customer wants to know how the sound works out, they can have screen share with natural sound without having to be in loco. BlackBerry is built with business savvy users in mind, Natural Sound can bring Executives in different countries to speak as if they are in one room, no problems of distorted sound.


BBM Voice & Video with Natural Sound

App Manager

This is a nice feature which allows you to see what is happening on the device, it has a Device Monitor which is like the Task Manager on your Windows PC and also View Default Apps which sets what application will be used for certain tasks such as opening maps will be dedicated to either of Google Maps, BlackBerry Maps or other application.

The Device Monitor is the best, it allows one to see how open apps are performing or those running in the background, suppose an application is leaking memory you can see how much it is using and also check those apps which run in the background which can potentially use up data. This is a great tool for diagnosing source of problems on the smart phone.  Below is a screen shot of the Device Monitor:



Device Monitor in App Manager

 
Round Up
 
So this is not a full review of all the specifications, I picked up additions to the features added on BlackBerry 10.2 update. There is still much to discover like how the phone adjusts to how you are consuming content for example if you receive a voice note on Whatsapp and play it with the phone on your desk or hands, the audio will come out of the loud speakers, when you move the phone to your ear piece it will recognise this and audio will come through ear piece without you changing anything. More hidden features will be unearthed and highlighted, thank you.


 

BlackBerry Z30 Review - Hardware

So we have seen reviews from PhonearenaCrackBerry et al, I managed to get my hands on the BlackBerry Z30 & did a test drive. What follows is a review based on 2 days testing hence it will not be complete but will be adding more features as I discover them. So here goes.

In The Box
Here you will find the phone, a USB cable, 2 pin charger, a set of headphones and depening on egion you can get the UK 3 PIN charger. You will find that there is not battery because the Z30 has a non-removable battery, the first on a BlackBerry Device.

The Boxed Accessories
Setting Up The Phone
 
This is very easy if you have BlackBerry Link or Desktop Manager software, just connect your old phone and initiate a device switch. For step by step instructions on how to do this, Click Here. You will get step by step method of doing this.
One thing I found about the BlackBerry Z30 that will likely annoy you is removing the back cover to insert Micro-SD card and Micro-SIM card. The cover is not made to be removed many times so it’s made to fit well and that means you will need nails to open it, unfortunately I had cut mine down to the base so I had nothing to work with. I also check on the internet to see if there is a trick to do it and I found something here courtesy of CrackBerry but still that was not enough. After I had opened it I decided to take some pictures so when someone faces the same problem they can refer and know what they need to do.
Facing Down/Latch Contact Areas
 
In this position the phone is facing down, in Green is the left cover latch and in red is the right side latch. So to open put your finger in the opening where you place your finger nail then slide it to the right or left until you lift off the latch for one side, repeat the same going to the other side.
 
Latch Contact Areas on Cover
 
Above is the screen shot of the cover itself showing the right and left latches and their positioning so that when you open it, you will have a sense of how much your finger should move before initiating a lift. Of course if you have longer finger nails this might not be much of a problem to you.

 

The Full Rear View
 
Above is a snap shot of the back of the Z30, of course the battery is hidden below as it is non-removable. The Micro-SIM & Micro-SD card slots are also marked for easy reference, the departure from previous BlackBerries is that instead of the gold chip/connectors facing down, you now insert them facing upwards.
Initially thought of making it a one review but didn’t want to bore you with a lengthy one so I thought I will do hardware. I have left out some stuff which I believe the referenced reviewers delved much into. So let’s take a break and we will look at what’s inside the phone in terms of usability.

 
~~ END~~