Usually, a flagship device from a smartphone manufacturer is all about upping the game, making it tougher for the rivals to catch up, enticing existing users to upgrade, and raking in all the moolah. With BlackBerry, and the Z10 specifically, things are a little different. This time around, it is all about survival. The stakes are quite high, because the Z10 is responsible not just for its own survival, but the survival and the rise of BlackBerry 10 platform and the company itself.
The biggest question is, does the BlackBerry Z10 make the cut? We try to find out if the spec sheet stands up to the rivals, for starters.
This is a table comparing the basic specifications of the flagship devices that are currently in the market. With this, we pit the BlackBerry Z10 against the Apple iPhone 5, LG Google Nexus 4, the Nokia Lumia 920 and the very popular Samsung Galaxy S III.
| Model | BlackBerry Z10 | Apple iPhone 5 | Nokia Lumia 920 | LG Google Nexus 4 | Samsung Galaxy S III |
| Processor | Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon | Apple A6 | Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon | Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon | Exynos 4412 Quad |
| Cores | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| Clock Speed (GHz) | 1.5 | 1.2 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.4 |
| RAM (GB) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Display Size | 4.2 | 4 | 4.5 | 4.7 | 4.8 |
| Display resolution (pixels) | 1280 x 768 | 1136 x 640 | 1280 x 768 | 1280 x 768 | 1280 x 720 |
| Display type | LED-backlit IPS LCD | IPS LCD | IPS Plus LCD | Super AMOLED | Super AMOLED |
| Pixel density (Ppi) | 355 | 326 | 332 | 318 | 306 |
| Graphics | Adreno 225 | PowerVR SGX 543MP3 | Adreno 225 | Adreno 320 | Mali-400MP |
| Internal Storage | 16GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 32GB | 8GB / 16GB | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB |
| Expandable memory? | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Primary Camera | 8MP | 8MP | 8MP | 8MP | 8MP |
| Battery | 1800mAh (user removable) | 1440mAh | 2000mAh | 2100mAh | 2100mAh |
| Platform | BlackBerry 10 | iOS 6.1 | Windows Phone 8 | Android 4.2.1 (Jelly Bean) | Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) |
Let us take it spec by spec to see which device comes on top where.
First up, the power stakes. The BlackBerry Z10 has exactly the same dual-core processor and graphics combination as the Nokia Lumia 920, albeit the 920 comes with 1GB of RAM compared to the 2GB of the Z10. While the Lumia 920 proved in testing that it is a very powerful device, we will have to reserve judgment on the Z10 for the time being, considering the platform is completely different. And more intuitive visually than the Windows Phone 8, no matter what the Windows fanboys may have to say. The Nexus 4 and the Samsung Galaxy S III have the quad core power under the hood.
The display on the BlackBerry Z10 is the 4.2-inch real estate LCD with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels. This is exactly the same as the Lumia 920, the LG Nexus 4 and the Samsung Galaxy SIII, but the latter three all offer this in progressively bigger display sizes. As was the case with the processor numbers on the spec sheet, the Apple iPhone 5 with the 4-inch 1136 x 640 pixel display is the lowest in terms of resolution. The BlackBerry Z10 has the highest pixel density with 355ppi. The Lumia 920 is second with 332ppi and the Apple iPhone 5 has 326ppi. The LG Nexus 4 is the second lowest with 318ppi while the Galaxy S III has the lowest at 306ppi. On paper, the Z10’s display looks fairly good. However, we will reserve judgment till we test it for factors like brightness levels, black depth, text readability and its reflective nature.
The BlackBerry Z10 comes with 16GB built-in storage, and a memory card slot to increase that by a maximum of 64GB. Apart from the Galaxy S III, none of the other flagships offer a memory card slot. We are hearing that Dropbox has an official app for BlackBerry 10, so that is an added bonus. We will be testing a BlackBerry 10 device soon, and see how it compares in real life to the other flagship devices. Till then, we will hold back on any comments regarding the comparative camera quality performance and stuff like build quality and battery life.