Our friends over at Verizon Wireless have sent us the BlackBerry Z30 for us to review. In the US, the Z30 is exclusive to Verizon and it is BlackBerry’s phablet. It has been over shadowed by many other devices on the carrier and BlackBerry has not been doing to well and you could say the future is unstable. For now, the Z30 is here and in some ways it reincarnates the brand. It packs some better hardware, certainly a bigger display, and it keeps BlackBerry in the market. At $199.99 with a 2-year contract, it is comparable to other smartphones on the carrier. Is the BlackBerry Z30 your next device, read on to see our full thoughts.
Design
The BlackBerry Z30 looks like a Z10, kind of super sized version of the device. While it is a big device, it has a solid feel and it does feel good in the hand. It has a carbon fiber back to it and it try’s to give it a higher end field. Granted while it is the not craziest or most clean design, it is simple and modern. It is a two hand device, like the Note 3 or Optimus G Pro. The plastic back feels pretty strong in comparison to other plastic devices. The device has some weight to it at 6-ounces and is thick at 0.37-inches. Overall, it is built well and feels sturdy, it’s not a phone that will break instantly.
On the back of the device you will find some branding, including a BlackBerry logo, Verizon logo, and a 4G LTE logo. A speaker and a 8 megapixel camera with LED flash are on the back as well. On the front you will find some more branding including a BlackBerry logo under the display and a Verizon logo up top. An ear piece and a 2 megapixel camera can be found on the top of the front also. The left hand side is home to the micro USB port for charging and a micro HDMI port, while the right side has your volume rocker. Like other BlackBerry’s your power button can be found on the top of the device along with a headphone jack.
Software
The BlackBerry Z30 on Verizon is running BlackBErry OS 10.2, the latest version of BlackBerry 10. This new OS is a complete revamp of the old BlackBerry OS and this update brings on some new handy tools. Multitasking is everything on BB 10, including the homepage. It is built-up of different apps that are running in the background. There are no physical buttons on the device, it is all done through swipe. When you open an application, you swipe up from the bottom of the display to close it. Then it remains in a little application window on your home screen. A swipe from the left side of the display will take you into BlackBerry Hub. This is where you mail, BBM’s, messaging, and social media will live. With the new 10.2 update, the setup of the Z30 is much easier and helps you through it. It essentially will walk you through the OS and teach you’re the rounds.
BBM is getting better, now that it is available for many of your friends who migrated away from BlackBerry. With BBM Now you can utilize this unique messenger from almost anywhere in the OS, soon you will be able to BBM video chat with these users on other OS.
One of my biggest complaints of BlackBerry 10 was no previews or look ins at your notifications via the home screen. Finally, you can see all of the notifications and what they are right from the home screen. They needed this to be on par with Android and Windows Phone. This was a very important update and added feature, it gives the user a much better experience.
In 10.2, BlackBerry Priority Hub is the new feature of BlackBErry Hub. You set rules about message, social feeds, and others. This determines what will stay in the front of your Hub and can highlight important messages for you. You can also flag your own messages, from there it will try to learn and know which messages to flag. For now, it is a good start, similar to how the BlackBerry World store started. More filters will be added in coming updates and this will let you utilize this tool much more.
Hardware
Verizon’s blazing fast and super reliable 4G LTE network is powering the Z30 and this may be one of the best features of the device. Speeds were really good on this device and they were the average ones we usually experience at a minimum. Browsing the web is a very fast experience, pages load very quickly. Streaming YouTube videos or videos in general is a nice experience, especially because you can take advantage of the display. Downloading applications over 4G LTE is fast and they are ready to use quickly. Parts of the NYC Subway lines are wired with 4G LTE connectivity on Verizon, being able to use the Z30 while on the subway is nice. Call quality on Verizon’s network was really good and are quite reliable.
The 8 megapixel camera on the Z30 is the same shooter that is one the Z10. It performs very well, but BlackBerry did not add in many software features. Performance is the same from the Z30, picture quality is just as good, if not exactly the same, as a a Z10. In terms of video recording, you can record with 30 frames per second and up to 1080pHD.
The Z30′s processor is nowhere near as fast as a new Android smartphone like the LG G2 or Galaxy S 4. Powering the Z30 is a Qualcomm 1.7GHz dual-core processor with 2GB of RAM. While it powers the operating system good, things can slow down a bit. Overall, it can handle some gaming and browsing the web, but it is not fastest experience out there.
One really good feature of the Z30 is the battery life, even with Verizon’s fast 4G LTE service. The Z30 was able to last all day, with many texts, BBM’s, and emails. It is a 2880mAh battery, but it is not user accessible. When you take the back off, you can see that it takes up quite a bit of the device though.
Lastly, we have a 5-inch Super AMOLED display and it performs pretty well. The Z10 had a LCD display and it was nice to have a better quality display on the Z30, as it is bigger phone. Sadly though it is not a 1080pHD display, we have 1280 X 720 resolution. When you compare it to other BlackBerry’s, it blows them away. When compared to an S4, LG G2, or HTC One it does not impress.
Bottom Line
The Verizon BlackBerry Z30 is an interesting device, or interesting phablet I should say. It is certainly the best BlackBerry out there, but at the time the company’s future is foggy. It has a really good battery, it will last you the entire day and is really good. Verizon’s 4G LTE network is above par on this device and works very well. If you want a BlackBerry, have you heart set on a BlackBerry, the Z30 is for you. Just remember it takes some time to get used to the Z30′s OS. It is a neat OS and is intuitive, but it does take some time to get used too. If you don’t have you heart set on a BlackBerry, I would suggest you look at one of Verizon’s many other devices. For More Information On The Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Z30, Please Click Here. We would like to thank Verizon Wireless for providing us with a copy of the “Verizon Wireless BlackBerry Z30″.
