BlackBerry Z10 vs. iPhone 5

Blackberry-z10-vs-iphone-5-00-602x449

Is BlackBerry back? No one knows yet but its faith may rely on one device: the Z10. The company that was once known as RIM is giving it all on their latest smartphone just like how Nokia is giving their all on their Lumia phones. Nokia is surviving, can BlackBerry do the same? It must be able to match up with the current top guns in the market first and that’s what we are going to find out.

Looks

BlackBerry smartphones are always known to be good-looking and the Z10 is no exception. The dark color, aluminum buttons, and chromatic highlights keep that professional persona that have always been tied to BB. It really reminds us of iPhone 5 though not one of their dimensions match. The Z10 is also heavier than Apple’s current smartphone.

Blackberry-z10-vs-iphone-5

Performance

Running the show is Qualcomm’s dual-core 1.5 GHz CPU. A quad-core one could have been better but everything seems to run fine; apps and web pages don’t take time to open up. The 2 GB of RAM really helped in this case as well as the Adreno 225 GPU. Early tests suggest that the dual-core/triple-core chips of the iPhone 5 is still better though. According to SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks (the only test that can be done since BB Z10 has a new OS), the iPhone 5 is twice as fast as the Z10.

Display

The BlackBerry Z10′s display is intriguing. It has a higher pixel count than the iPhone 5 (768 x 1280 vs. 640 x 1136 pixels) and is very bright. You’ll have no problems using this phone outside even under direct sunlight. Colors are accurate too and contrast ratio is good. The only thing missing is Corning Gorilla Glass for protection.

Battery Life

The battery of the Z10 is replaceable, something that can’t be said for the iPhone 5. But it also lasts shorter: only eight hours compared to the iPhone’s eleven. There’s also that slow boot up when removing the battery. I counted seventy seconds before I saw anything on the screen.

Software

The new BlackBerry OS 10 is way better than its predecessor. It has lots of new things and the space here would be not be enough so maybe we’ll just write a Android, iOS, BB 10 comparison for that. For now, all you need to know is that it works mostly on gestures. The sad thing remains though and that’s app selection. This was what plague the BlackBerry PlayBook and the BB 10 could suffer the same fate. Meanwhile, Apple keeps on adding to their already massive collection of apps.

blackberry-10-os

 

Price

MerchantProductPriceBuy Now
AmazonBlackBerry Z10 Unlocked Cell Phone - International Version with No Warranty (Black)

$592.00
Go to Store
AmazonApple iPhone 5 16GB (Black) - Unlocked

$703.70

used from: $569.99
Go to Store
Product prices and availability are accurate as of May 20 13:56:18 UTC but are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on the merchant site at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.

Summary of Specs

[etable]

“”,BlackBerry Z10, Apple iPhone 5

OS, BlackBerry OS 10, iOS 6

Processor, 1.5 GHz Dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 Krait, 1.2 GHz Dual-core Apple A6

RAM, 2 GB, 1 GB

Storage, 16 GB w/ microSD slot, 16/32/64 GB

Display, 4.2″ 768 x 1280 px, 4.0″ 640 x 1136 px

Dimensions, 5.12″ x 2.58″ x 0.35″, 4.87″ x 2.31″ x 0.30″

Weight, 4.83 oz., 3.95 oz.

Camera, 8 MP rear/2 MP front, 8 MP rear/1.2 MP front

Connectivity, LTE/Wi-Fi/NFC/Bluetooth, LTE/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth

[/etable]

Conclusion

The BlackBerry Z10 looks really good and it has all features you expect from a modern smartphone. But the fact that this phone is even more expensive than the iPhone 5 might only attract a few consumers. The ecosystem still needs work and this flaw is much more obvious now because of our need to consume multimedia content. Nevertheless, it looks like BlackBerry gave it their all on making the Z10.

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