BlackBerry Z10 appears competitive against Apple iPhone 5

A video with not quite final software for the BlackBerry Z10 offers a side-by-side comparison with the Apple iPhone 5. Perhaps for the first time, looking at the video allows you to see how competitive BlackBerry will be in 2013, and we have to say it is looking good for RIM. The video shows the specs of both phones being compared. The Apple iPhone has the 4 inch Retina display vs. the 4.2 inch screen on the BlackBerry Z10. The 356ppi pixel density on the latter beats out the 326ppi on Apple's device. Another difference is the removable 1800mAh battery on the Z10 compared to the non-removable 1440mAh cell on the iPhone. Keep in mind that while 1800mAh would be considered somewhat lacking in the Android world, BlackBerry has always been able to get optimal battery life from its cell. Also, the Z10 has a microSD slot, unavailable on the Apple iPhone.

The video showed both BlackBerry Voice Control up against Siri, dictating an email. Apparently, Siri had some trouble with the message. The BlackBerry Z10 had the message correct and was said to be faster. Other differences were pointed out in how a user of each model is notified of a text message, and how the Z10 allows for a quick peek at a text message and lets the user quickly resume his prior activity. Going from one active app to another appears quicker on the BlackBerry as multitasking requires fewer steps on RIM's new OS. When it comes to the browser, the video showed that the BlackBerry Browser was quicker than mobile Safari. The early buzz has been to expect a world class browser on BlackBerry 10, and it seems that RIM has achieved this.

The last feature shown is BlackBerry Balance which allows you to have a different home page and apps for business. The Apple iPhone does not have anything like this, and we have to give kudos to RIM for taking advantage of the BYOD trend that is cropping up in the enterprise.  Requiring a password to get into the business part of the phone, apps must be enabled by BES which allows the IT department at work to have some control over your device while still giving you full access to BlackBerry App World at home.

Is BlackBerry back? we won't be able to say for sure until we see how consumers react to BB10, but we must say that at this stage, the new OS seems quite impressive.

source: Telekom-Presse (translated) via Crackberry