Tired of being handcuffed by contracts of your wireless carriers? Maybe you can try T-Mobile. The carrier has become the first of the big four US carriers to do away with service contracts. T-Mobile is stopping cellphone subsidies, and users can now buy smartphones at full prize or pay in installments or bring their own handset and just pay for the plan in a month-to-month basis.

You can choose a plan with unlimited texting and voice, and 500MB of data at just $50 per month. If you want 2GB more data just pay an additional $10 a month. You can add up to 12 GB, $10 for each additional 2 GB. Or you can get unlimited high-speed data for $20 a month.

So, are you interested in T-Mobile’s new offer? Some are already talking about using the AT&T iPhone on T-Mobile’s network. But those who are on Straight Talk which allows you to pay just $45 per month for unlimited text/voice and 2GB of data won’t find T-Mobile’s new package interesting.

As for more info about their plans, we will have to wait for things to get official at their “Uncarrier” event, at which the carrier is also expected to release their version of the BlackBerry Z10 and announce the launch of their LTE in the US, although we are hearing reports that the service is already available in some cities.

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Feature Overview and Unboxing

I already posted a BlackBerry Z10 unboxing video a couple of weeks ago, so this is just going to be a quick recap. The BlackBerry Z10 is, of course, powered by the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. It gets a 4.2-inch 335ppi touchscreen, dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, 8MP camera, 2MP front camera, and microSD expansion. It also gets both LTE and NFC, as well as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS.

On paper, the BlackBerry Z10 is quite competitive with the iPhone 5 and most higher end Android devices, except that its 4.2-inch screen is noticeably smaller than the much larger Android phones with their 4.7+ inch displays these days. BlackBerry World boasts about 70,000 apps for the Z10, many of which are ported over from their Android counterparts.

Hardware Impressions

The BlackBerry Z10 definitely feels very solid in the hands. I particularly like the rubbery back that provides a great grip. The profile is remarkably thin and I like how the front face is completely lacking in buttons, leaving a much sleeker overall appearance.

The volume controls are along the right side, which is fine, but the power button is in the middle of the top. What I found is that when I wanted to put the phone to sleep (by pressing the power button on top with my index finger), my thumb oftentimes pressed one of the volume buttons by accident. I’m wondering if this could be rectified by either shifting the power button to either side on top, or by placing it on the right side of the phone instead, relocating the volume buttons to the left side.

As I have grown accustomed to Android displays of 4.7-inches or bigger, getting back to the 4.2-inch display felt comparatively small. The overall form factor, in this way, is closer to the iPhone 5. The difference is that the word “BlackBerry” on the bottom is not a home button; it really doesn’t serve any real purpose.

BlackBerry 10 Gestures and UI

People who are coming from legacy BlackBerry products may face some confusion with BlackBerry 10. There is no BlackBerry button, for example, nor is there is a hardware back button. Just about everything is done via gestures and many of these originate from off the screen, not unlike webOS. You get back to the home screen, for instance, by swiping up from off the bottom of the display (where the BlackBerry name is). You swipe in from the right side to access functions and swipe in from the top for certain contextual settings.

The UI isn’t terrible, but there is a bit of a learning curve. One thing that BlackBerry 10 is still lacking, though, are home screen widgets. You only get a page where it displays your last eight apps in a widgetized kind of form, but you can’t “pin” any of these to stay there forever. You can rearrange the apps in the app drawer, but that’s not really the same thing.

And speaking of apps, there just aren’t enough at the moment. The pre-installed YouTube “app” is simply a browser shortcut, for example. The native Twitter app, while functional, isn’t nearly robust enough for power users. It doesn’t support lists and your DMs are bundled together with your mentions in a single column. That’s not good enough. The hope is that third-party developers will continue to adopt this platform and, in time, the app selection will improve.

BlackBerry Hub

Your real home is the BlackBerry Hub, which can be accessed by swiping up from the bottom and then toward the right. Alternatively, it is effectively the leftmost home screen. Here, all of your notifications are amalgamated into a single interface, including texts, emails, Facebook updates, Twitter, Foursquare and so on. There are several “tricks” and UI quirks here that you can use, but I feel there is still a lot that can be improved.

For instance, when you are within one of the notifications, there is no option to easily move to the next one. Instead, you have to hit back to get back to the list of notifications and then choose the next notification. It should be simpler and faster than that.

Camera and Video

The 8MP camera on the BlackBerry Z10 is decent, but it won’t win any awards either. It seems to have a habit of overexposing, leaving some washed out elements, but this really depends on your lighting conditions. Here is a macro-esque shot that I took indoors under soft incandescent lighting.

Clarity and detail are good enough to get the job done most of the time. Much like the rest of BB10, the camera app has a bit of a learning curve. For instance, it’s not tap-to-focus, as it is continually hunting for autofocus. It’s tap for shutter, so you have to make sure the square is green before tapping the display. I uploaded a full 1080p HD video to YouTube, as well as more photo samples to Flickr if you want to see some more. They’re all untouched and unedited, taken straight out of the phone.

Conclusion

I tried to be optimistic about the BlackBerry Z10. This was supposed to represent the rebirth of the company and a real push to, at the very least, be seen as a legitimate number three in the world of smartphones behind Android and iOS. The device has been able to attract some new users, to be sure, but we can already see that they’re starting to run low on momentum.

BlackBerry 10, as a platform, is an overall improvement over previous versions and it’s good to see that BlackBerry is prioritizing the development of third party apps. The phone itself is solid and it performs well, but it still feels incomplete compared to the more mature Android and iPhone offerings already on the market. It lacks a unique selling proposition that would make me want this instead of what Google, Samsung, HTC, Apple and others are giving us.

If BlackBerry manages to survive and if the Q10 gives them a little boost later this year, then I’m hoping that the BlackBerry Z11 and Q11 will be the real stars that the Z10 and Q10 should have been.

Mobilemag Score: 7/10

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AT&T, Verizon and T-mobile will be offering BlackBerry’s new flagship Z10 smartphone sometime in the near future, but it appears like Sprint will be the only major carrier which will not launch the device on their network. Instead they have announced plans to introduce the BlackBerry Q10, a QWERTY BlackBerry 10 device.

“We aren’t saying there’s anything different about our customers. We think our customers will be happy with the qwerty keyboard and touch screen on the Q10”, said Mark Elliott, a spokesman for Sprint.

Features of the Q10 include a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, a 3.1 inch 720 x 720 AMOLED display placed above a QWERTY keyboard (similar in style to the Bold 9930), and the same cameras seen on the Z10 – a 2MP front cam with 3x digital zoom and 720p HD video recording, and an 8MP back cam with auto focus, 5x digital zoom and 1080p full HD video recording.

Sprint’s customers will now have to wait longer to experience BlackBerry 10 OS since Q10 will only arrive after Z10 hits the market. As for why the carrier is not interested in the Z10, they haven’t given out any hints. It’s probably because the carrier does not want the touchscreen only Z10 to affect the sales of their iPhone. The carrier entered the iPhone game late and they have also invested heavily on the device.p

So, are you interested in the Q10?

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As a quick refresher, the BlackBerry Z10 features a 4.2-inch 768 x 1280 pixel display, a dual core Qualcomm Snapdragon Krait 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a microSD slot for additional storage. There’s an 8MP camera on the back with LED flash and a 2MP camera on the front for video calls. Naturally, it comes with the usual assortment of LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth and NFC radios in tow.

As far as the contents of the box, there aren’t too many surprises. Aside from the phone itself, you get a stereo headset, USB cable, wall adapter, and documentation. The elongated battery looks a little different than most and boasts a capacity of 1800mAh. The rubbery textured back is similar to what we’ve seen in previous Berries, but it does feel a little extra rubbery this time around. The phone did feel lighter than expected, even after I put the battery in, but it still felt quite solid in the hands.

My initial impressions are mostly positive, but the 4.2-inch display feels comparatively small in a market flooded with 4.7+ inch Android devices. There’s also a definite bezel around the display, since BlackBerry 10 requires those gestures to originate from beyond the screen. I’ll be putting the Z10 though its paces for the next while and the full review will follow shortly thereafter.

The post Video: Unboxing the BlackBerry Z10 Smartphone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

This comes by way of BlackBerry European MD Stephen Bates. He says that BlackBerry wants to be seen as a “high-end” company first and foremost, so it will only be launching flagship devices like the Z10 and the upcoming Q10. However, they are going to “evolve that portfolio to enter the mid-tier” at some point. They won’t, though, get “to the entry level tier for some time, certainly not this year.”

Given that a substantial part of BlackBerry’s current market share comes in the form of cheap prepaid phones on cheap prepaid plans, they’re not giving up on the entry level just yet. That said, that end of the market is just going to be stuck with a BB7 Curve for the foreseeable future. Indeed, “it was important for us to show that we’re not giving up on BB7…. we launched BBM voice and it connects into the BB10 world where we’ve added video and screen sharing.”

BB10 will get to the entry level market eventually, assuming that BlackBerry is still around to see it. Just know that if you want some BB10 action this year, it’s at the higher end with the Q10 and Z10.

[Source]

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The Blackberry Z10 is already here in the United Kingdom and Canada, so how’s it selling so far? Actually, the initial launch seems to be going quite well.

According to Blackberry, the BB10-based Blackberry Z10 has been breaking records for the company in a big way, with a 50% better launch day in Canada than any other Blackberry device before the Z10. In the UK, Blackberry says they are seeing “close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a Blackberry smartphone”. Of course this early in they aren’t talking specific numbers or figures. Keep in mind that the Blackberry Q10, a more traditional Blackberry device, has yet to launch, so this is only the beginning.

That said, all new platforms tend to get a reasonable amount of excitement and attention in the first few weeks after a launch. The big question is whether Blackberry can keep the momentum going or not. Does it surprise you that the launch is breaking current records for Blackberry in Canada and the UK or not?

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Although Blackberry have been ecstatic about impressive sales in the UK and Canada, the United States is still missing out on the Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry Q10, and for the latter of the new BB10 models, a long wait is ahead before it does reach the US market.

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Blackberry has shared to the Associated Press earlier this week that the Q10 full-qwerty Blackberry phone will not be introduced to the US smartphone space till about eight to ten weeks after the release of the Z10 full-touchscreen model. Furthermore, the Z10 won’t reach the United States till around March. According to Heins, part of the delay is due to carrier’s ‘rigid testing system,’ but he has added that he will try hard to work with the carriers to speed up the process.

This is a bad situation for Blackberry in regards to the US market space, particularly because right now the market lacks 2013 flagship devices available for retail. By pushing the release till around March-May for both handsets, Blackberry are digging their own grave. A lot of manufacturers will use MWC to grab consumer’s attention later this month, and there’s no doubt that the Galaxy S4 and HTC M7 will soon be revealed to the world.

Blackberry has already had trouble gathering market space in the United States in the past, and pushing the release closer to other smartphone announcements is really going to wreck their sales potential. Blackberry is going to have to hope for a miracle to get the Blackberry Z10 and Q10 to sell well against its competition in the United States later this quarter.

Do you think Blackberry’s BB10 has enough to compete with the current smartphone offering on the market?

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The post Blackberry Q10 Still Many Months Away From U.S. Launch appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The Blackberry Z10 has now arrived to Canada through Bell, Telus, and Rogers. So how much will they set you back? If you sign a three-year contract with Bell expect to pay $139.95. At Telus, its $149 with contract. Finally, Rogers is selling the phone for $139.99 on 3-year contract.

For those that are wondering what kind of specs the Z10 packs, the phone features a dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB storage, microSD, NFC, micro-HDMI, and HSPA/4G speeds. While the specs are far from “impressive”, they aren’t exactly weak either.

The biggest reason to get a Blackberry is of course the new OS. BB10 is a massive improvement over older versions of the OS, though whether or not its better than Android or iOS probably comes down to personal opinion. What do you think of the Blackberry Z10, interested or not?

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While we heard some non-specific rumblings about the BlackBerry Z10 making its way to the United States “in a couple months,” now we have some harder evidence saying it’ll debut with T-Mobile on March 27. That doesn’t necessarily mean that T-Mobile will be the first American carrier to offer the new BlackBerry, but that is the first “solid” date that we’ve heard. This comes by way of a leaked image from what appears to be some internal documentation, along with some information about a few upcoming Samsungs and an LTE mobile hotspot.

It’s quite possible that other American carriers, like Verizon or AT&T, will be launching the BlackBerry Z10 around the same time. It’s also quite possible that the QWERTY-packing BlackBerry Q10 will be ready by that time too, so perhaps that’s why they’re waiting out. As a quick refresher, the BlackBerry Z10 has a dual core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, microSD slot, 8MP main camera, and 2MP front camera. Given that Canadian providers are selling the BlackBerry Z10 for as low as $140 on a three-year, I imagine standard US pricing will be about $199 on a two-year contract.

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Desperately wanting the new Blackberry Z10? For those with near-endless supplies of cash, you can always hit up Ebay.

It seems that the Blackberry Z10 has already managed to arrive totally unlocked at everyone’s favorite online auction site. So how much do you have to pay for such a device? Easily over $1000, from the looks of it.

While this is a pretty high asking price, for those that absolutely like having something early that will stand out in the crowd, the option is there. Just keep in mind that you are paying nearly a $300-$500 premium over the expected unlocked price of the handset.

The other problem with dropping $1000 on the Z10 so early is that this is the time that is ripe for scammers. The UK already has the phone on sale which ensures that SOME of these auctions might be legit, but you should still be very careful with checking feedback and other details.

So anyone out there willing to drop this kind of cash on the Blackberry Z10 or are you more than willing to wait a bit longer?

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