While Blackberry's newest flagship phone no longer carries the same high-profile as other manufacturer's top-of-the-line offering, that doesn't mean the Blackberry Z30 is something to immediately pass up. Or does it?
Design
In terms of design, the Z30 looks like any premium smartphone, with rounded corners, predominantly black shell, silver accents, and soft-touch back. Far as we can tell, there's really no distinguishing feature that makes it a "Blackberry" as opposed to some other handset, although it's stylish and comfortable all the same.
Display
Sporting a 5-inch 720p display, the Z30 is the biggest-screened Blackberry ever. Brightness is a little lacking and the lack of a full HD resolution, a standard among flagships, is a bummer, although the screen does bring excellent contrast, wide viewing angles, and vibrant colors.
Camera
It uses the same 8.0 megapixel sensor and LED flash combo as Blackberry's newer smartphones, complete with the same software and editing options, save for a few extras like a new HDR mode. Quality is good, although indoor shots leave a lot to be desired, requiring plenty of lighting and very steady handling.
Features
It comes with all the usual roster of wireless connectivity options, as befitting a modern flagship. Running the new BlackBerry 10.2 operating system, the phone brings a selection of fresh tricks up its sleeve. We're big fans of the Peek gesture for quickly glancing at messages, the unified Hub inbox, the Priority Hub (automatically puts threads with those it deems important to the top of the pile), header notifications, Priority Calling, and more. While not quite as filled with extras as iOS or Android, the BB OS is now a full-featured platform, more so than it has ever been. The lack of apps, of course, remains the sore thumb, considering some mainstream apps (e.g. Instagram) remain missing from the selection.
Performance
A 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro orchestrates the action paired with 2GB of RAM, making for zippy performance with zero delays both when navigating features and launching apps. If there's anything that feels slow, it's Blackberry's cosmetic touches to the platform, such as the split-second full-screen view of a lunched app, many of which are absolutely unnecessary.
Call quality is great, with voices coming through clear with a very warm sound. Speakerphone is equally impressive. In fact, those on the other end, said it sounded even better than regular calls. There's plenty of volume to go, making it viable for use even in loud environments. The Z30's 2,880 mAh battery lasts quite a long time, going a full day (as in, near-24 hours) on moderate use with a single-digit percentage remaining.
Overall
Priced at $199.99 on Verizon, the Blackberry Z30 is easily the best all-touch smartphone the company has ever made. At that price point, though, it's competing with the best of the best in modern smartphones and, compared to them, it just comes up a tad short.
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