The first phone of the new BlackBerry era will be released in South Africa a month from now. Arthur Goldstuck (@art2gee) gives his initial impressions of using the Z10.
The long-awaited resurrection of BlackBerry has begun, with a single phone model released. Another is on the way, with promises of half a dozen to follow, all on the back of the new BlackBerry 10 operating system on which the company has staked its future.
The first of the new generation of BlackBerry devices, the top-of-the-range Z10 touchscreen phone, was unveiled last Wednesday night. A second model, the Q10 with QWERTY keyboard, was briefly introduced but not demonstrated. The Z10 was released in the United Kingdom on Thursday, but will only arrive in South Africa on 1 March. The crucial US market will receive the device at the same time as South African outlets.
Meanwhile, a few advance units arrived in the country last week, providing the opportunity to get to know the device through using it in the real world, rather than through prototypes and demos. Consider this a preview, ahead of more in depth and comparative reviews.
The most surprising feature of the Z10 is not how well it lines up, visually, alongside the rival high-end phones from Apple and Samsung. That was always a minimum requirement.
The big surprise is how appealing BlackBerry has made the user experience.