Well I was going to buy a Z10, I was all set on it - but had reservations.
Thankfully I was able to loan a Z10 off a friend who bought one from Phones4U in the UK sim free - if I liked it - I would have bought it off him.
The phone itself I liked, although it's more plasticy in person than it does appear to be in reviews and screenshots. But it doesn't feel like cheap plastic - it feels similar to the polycarbonate type cases from HTC's One X series.
The version I tested was the white model... The rear of the case (the battery flap) was a shiny hard plastic whereas I believe the black version comes with a matte back. I think a matte soft finish would work better but that's just subjective preferences.
The screen is very nice, but compared to my previous handsets i've owned in the last year (4S/5 One X, 8X etc..) it seems a little on the 'dull' side. Like it's not as bright as those other devices. It still looks great, but just like its been dialed back on the "in your face" settings.
BIS... Data ! Thankfully because the z10 no longer uses Blackberry Internet Service it meant I didn't have to change anything with my carrier (other than get a blank micro-sim) but other than that I didn't have to go onto any different plan for it to work which is a plus. My last experiences with Blackberry was the Torch 9860 & Bold 9900 which I had to get set-up with my carrier specifically for Blackberry service.
The OS is great, as I expected. Yeah it reminds me of webOS and iOS and MeeGo all rolled into one nice mix. The gesture system took me 5 minutes to work out as I had already done lots of research.
Blackberry Hub is great, but if you add your Social feeds to the agrigated hub, it can get rather messy. Thankfully you can filter, but I like to drop in and out of my Facebook & Twitter, seeing 100's of notifications is a bit messy in practice.
Email is great, had to manually set up my .mac email account however.
Google mail worked grand.
My BB account was recognised from my previous BB phones when I set it up which was good, however my previous purchased content wasn't available.
The OS was stable for the most part (until I started sideloading some Apps that I really need on my phone) and it was only when running these 'gimped' android apps (gimped because they are out of date and shockingly crumby performance) that I did end up having to do a pull battery style reset.
Stock apps are ok, but few disappoint. Youtube being just a browser link, often things in Twitter / Facebook take you to the mobile browser to complete rather than doing it in app properly like on Android & iOS.
The Blackberry world was as bad as I thought it would be. I had a playbook a good while ago and sold it because of lack of apps, so I really wasn't expecting much. Whilst it's nice to see some games finally on an BB device, the app selection is poor at best, utterly broken and flawed at worst.
You cant tell what apps are android and what are native. The android apps on the store are BRUTAL as in really bad and most dont work. Quality control of the very early days of android levels of crapness. What's worse a lot of the ones I tried were in the BB recommends catagory !!!
The content on BB world is region specific too meaning in some territories you may get even less choice. Here in Ireland it was ***** - plain and simple.
The stock apps are ok, the reminder app is a bit over convoluted.
Had trouble connecting the Z10 to my car's bluetooth, it would work, but once disconnected once - it was a pain to reconnect requiring too much messing about turning on and off bluetooth on both devices to get it to pair properly again.
Music player is grand, but basic. But at least it has an EQ you can change without having to leave the application (Apple please take note).
So the phone is nice, but €600 nice ??? No I simply couldn't justify it. I was most disappointed with both the lack of apps and general crapness of the content that is there, and also surprisingly 'call quality' was no way near as good as either my previous blackberry handsets in the past (9860 & 9900 - the 9900 actually is fantastic for call quality)....
So overall I liked the OS, keyboard IS FAB. So I'm glad I got to taste it for 48 hours, but I wouldn't be rushing to pick up the full lunch.....
A great OS doesn't make a great phone, but for those that never had anything other than a BB it may be a good solution.
I'm glad I saved my money for an Android device instead. I need the apps - pure and simple, and I don't have too much faith in company's promising something 'coming soon' as I have been burned way too many times in the past to go on 'faith'....