Performance

Typically our performance testing has an entire suite of tests that we go through but being a BlackBerry device our GLBenchmark benchmarks weren’t available so I was limited to in browser benchmarks only. Even then our Sunspider JavaScript benchmark failed as well. So we were limited to Browsermark 2.0 and Google Octane v1, we better make it worthwhile.

First I want to point out that Browser based test results can vary depending on the browser, a good example of this in the past has been different results when using chrome or android’s built in browser. Anyhow Our Octane v1 results actually had me wondering if we had a problem because as you can see they are low. It wasn’t until I saw our Browsermark 2.0 results that I felt a little more comfortable. The Z10 is obviously a quick phone when it has a test that works properly with it, coming in second out of all of the devices we have tested.

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We all know it’s not just all about a few performance tests though, what I was most excited about the Z10 was the new BlackBerry OS 10. So how did it perform? Well I was really impressed that BlackBerry has gone so far from what I remember back on my Storm. There are still things like the app listings that really haven’t changed much, but they did a great job of designing an OS that doesn’t need the home and back buttons that I have grown accustomed to. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Palm OS, sliding up unlocks the phone, sliding up again will take you to the blackberry hub where you can see your messages, missed calls, app alerts, etc., sliding up while in a program will push it onto a page where you can revisit programs that you have been using or click X and close them one at a time.

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It’s in the small things that I was most impressed though. The dialer was snappy and easy to use and as to be expected from a business focused phone the speakerphone was worlds above my last few Android phones. What I felt to be the best feature of the Z10 and OS 10 was the keyboard. I’m sure all of the owners of traditional keyboard BlackBerrys are doubting me now, but the Z10 had the easiest to use and read touch keyboard that I have ever used!

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It’s not all perfect though, there are a couple big issues that I ran into and frankly these are partially out of BlackBerry’s hands. First, there are just a few options for anyone who has a lot of their net life in Google like me. There aren’t Google specific apps for anything but Google talk (now hangouts). The two apps that I really wanted to see were a Gmail app and a Google Voice app. On the plus side you are able to do both via their mobile websites that use HTML5 and are honestly better than an app in a lot of ways. More importantly as an Android owner I really had a hard time adjusting to the app store. Its not that you can’t navigate it, but the selection is considerably smaller. It’s easy to forget that Android and iOS owners have it really good when it comes to apps, BlackBerry is much better than what my Storm had but it still feels like a third world country when you have actually seen what an app store can be.

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