The BlackBerry Z10 hit Jamaican stores last week and teenAGE has had just about that time to run through all the features.

Ease of Use:

When we first got the Z10 we found it quite hard to navigate. A couple Google searches later, we found out what BB!) Flow and the BB10 Hub were, and it all came together.

Blackberry Flow

Unlike majority of the previous Blackberry models, the Z10 completely touchscreen, and suprisingly, has no home, menu or back buttons. This is where BB Flow comes in. Like with the Blackberry PlayBook, you swipe up from the bottom of the screen to close that window, and you swipe from the sides of the screen to change windows. Though a bit confusing at first, as soon as we got the hang of it, we realised how easy it was to do multiple tasks like browsing, playing games, and taking pictures all at the same time, with out missing beat, and while still keeping up with our incoming notifications.

Speaking about keeping up with our notifications… all hail Blackberry Hub

Blackberry Hub

Every wished that you could check your facebook notifications, emails, Blackberry Messenger conversations and practically every instant messaging notification all in one place? Well Blacberry read your mind and created the BB Hub. Instead of opening each application every time you receive a notification, just swipe till you reach your left most screen, and all of your notifications can be found in th Hub.

Since this is a teenAGE review, we’re sure what you teenAGErs really want to hear about are music and video playback quality, camera quality and Blackberry Messenger (BBM).

The Z10’s music play back quality rivals that of any other smart phone we have used, so it isn’t really much to write home about. On theother hand, the 768 x1280 pixel, 4.2 inch screen makes even the most casual video playback a near cinematic experience.

As for the eight-mp camera, it had its kicks too. Though the camera was average at best when taking low light shots, it really showed off when faced with taking pictures of nature, portraits and fast paced shots of people/animals in motion. Perfect for a day out with friends, or a flashy night out on the town.

Time Share

And if you ever have an issue getting the perfect shot, Blackberry has a remdy for that too. Their amazing (AMAZING) time shift feature couples the milli seconds before and after each shot you take, and allows you to dial back to the picture to when your eyes were actually focusing on the camera, and then dial back your friends face to when the were smiling, giving yo the perfect shot.

So now that you’ve taken the perfect shot, why not turn up the contrast on the photo, add a couple effects or graphics and make your picture share worthy.

Story Maker

So what do you do when you have all of these now beautifully edited pictures of your friends, along with HD video clips of all the good times with them? You use Z10’s built in StoryMaker app to paste pictures, video, music and captions together and create a memory you can simply tap to share to Facebook.

If you’re a big fan of sharing then you’llalso enjoy the new BBM. This BBM not only rings, and allows you to shae pictures, videos, music and documents with your loyal contacts, it also allows you to video chat with them. Much like iPhone’s face time, BBM’s video chat allows you share your jokes and antics with your friends in real time, instead of just telling them about it later. Wth the Z10 being so new, it was too bad we didn’t have anyone to share with over the video chat.

One downer of the Z10 though was that alot of the apps we are used to on other smart phones, did not come standard or were not yet available in blackberry app World, or were now paid for apps. Plus the apps that did come standard took up 4.8 gbs of space. But with Blackberry App World’s 700 000apps and counting, we’re hoping it’s only a matter of time until that’s all sorted out.

So to conclude, if you love social media, staying in contact with your friends and sharing every aspect of your dail lives, you’ll love the Z10. And thoug it may have it’s downfalls, we still applaud Blackberry for their first attempt at this next generation smart phone which can be considered competition for Apple’s 5th.

Specs

SIM Micro-SIM

Body Dimensions 130 x 65.6 x 9 mm (5.12 x 2.58 x 0.35 in)

Weight 137.5 g (4.83 oz)

Display Type Capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors

Size 768 x 1280 pixels, 4.2 inches (~355 ppi pixel density)

Multitouch Yes

Sound Alert types Vibration, MP3 ringtones

Loudspeaker Yes

3.5mm jack Yes

Memory Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB

Internal 16 GB storage, 2 GB RAM

Data GPRS Yes

EDGE Yes

Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash, check quality

Features Geo-tagging, face detection, image stabilization

Video Yes, 1080p@30fps, video stabilization, check quality

Secondary Yes, 2 MP, 720p@30fps

Battery Li-Ion 1800 mAh battery

Stand-by Up to 312 h

Talk time Up to 10 h

Sensors Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass

Messaging SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, BBM 6

Browser HTML5

Radio No

GPS Yes, with A-GPS support

Java Yes, MIDP 2.1

Colours Black, White

– SNS integration

– HDMI port

– BlackBerry maps

– Organizer

– Document viewer

– Photo viewer