Ten key features of BlackBerry Z10 and Q10

NEW DELHI: The new crop of BlackBerry smartphones has finally arrived after a lengthy delay that allowed other mobile devices and operating systems made by Apple, Google and Samsung to build commanding leads in a market that is redefining society and technology.

Research in Motion, now re-named to BlackBerry unveiled its long-awaited line-up of revamped smartphones and software at simultaneous events held in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, Jakarta and Delhi. Underscoring the stakes riding on the products, RIM announced that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry.

Also check: ET's special coverage of Blackberry 10

BlackBerry unveiled two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard.

Here are some key features of BlackBerry Z10 and Q10:

1) The Z10 which has a 4.2-inch screen(1,280 x 768 display), will be sold at an unsubsidized price of $599, but can be obtained through some carriers for $149 with a three-year contract. Pricing for the Q10, the keyboard-equipped sibling, was not made available.

2) At 130 millimeters (5.1 inches) in length and weighing 137 grams (4.8 ounces), Z10 is slightly longer and heavier than the iPhone 5. On the other hand, BlackBerry Q10 has a squarish screen measuring 3.1 inches (7.8 centimeters) diagonally.




3) The smartphones are being offered with a 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 dual-core CPU with 2GB of RAM.

4) The BlackBerry smartphones have 16 gigabytes of storage, plus a memory-card slot for expansion. However, the phones don't support cards larger than 32GB.

5) On the back is a 8-megapixel camera which is capable of taking videos of 1080p. The camera is located on the top-left corner of the back and paired with a LED flash. The front has a 2-megapixel camera which is capable of recording videos of 720p.

6) It has Multilanguage support, and users can flick words with one thumb. Also improved are the picture editor, and a multitude of other features that positions the device both as a consumer device and an enterprise device simultaneously.



7) The glass is designed exclusively for Z10, it is supposedly thinner but stronger than plastic.

8) The device aggregates information intuitively; it recognises and pulls up all the connections into the contacts, like the last email, last meeting, last Twitter post.

9) The battery life is estimated at 10 hours talking time and 13 days on standby. Another feature is a mini-HDMI port to allow connections to a television or projector.

10) Apps like Facebook have been completely integrated with the BlackBerry 10 hub. All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve center accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email. The company said that more than 70,000 apps are available for users in the BlackBerry World.