BlackBerry's latest creation, the Z30

Everyone knows BlackBerry is in dire straits, but that hasn't stopped the company from taking one more stab at a flagship smartphone. In many ways BlackBerry's latest creation, the BlackBerry Z30, is what the BlackBerry 10 launch device should have been. Unlike the actual BB10 debut product, the smaller Z10, the Z30 is without a doubt the company's biggest, boldest, most advanced gadget yet. Unfortunately, though, this fresh effort from the Canadian handset maker comes way too late. Arriving at just one US carrier, Verizon, this November for $199.99, I fear all those who would have considered the Z30 over iPhones and Android handsets have long since moved to greener pastures.

Sure, the Z30 is compelling. Despite boasting a large 5-inch touch screen, handsome styling, and a high-capacity battery, the device falls short compared with the competition. Specifically the $199.99 Motorola Droid Maxx and $199.99 Samsung Galaxy S4, which, thanks to the growing strength of the Android ecosystem and BlackBerry's uncertain future as a viable company, add up to much better deals on Verizon.

Design
Shaped like your typical rectangular smartphone slab, at first glance we had trouble telling the BlackBerry Z30 apart from the sea of similar-looking Android devices now flooding the market. With its jet-black color scheme, silver accents, and rounded corners, the Z30 could've been crafted by any of today's top handset makers. As a matter of fact, the phone's soft-touch back and subtle striping bears a striking resemblance to the Motorola Droid Maxx. That's a good thing, since people are fond of the Maxx's nano-coated back and soft-touch textures on phones in general.

Prominent BlackBerry logos, both on the back and on the front below the screen, give the Z30 away as device designed in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Verizon couldn't resist slapping its own moniker on the phone, either, above the display and on the rear, but at least they're stenciled in a modest gray.

On the left side you'll find ports for Micro-HDMI and Micro-USB.

Above the Z30's large 5-inch screen sits the earpiece, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and the iconic red BlackBerry notification light. The phone's left edge houses ports for Micro-HDMI and Micro-USB cables, while on the right you'll find controls for play/pause and volume-up and -down. Rounding out the Z30's bevy of physical buttons is a power key on the top edge next to a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The right side holds controls for volume-up and -down plus play/pause.

BlackBerry makes sure to tout the Z30's noise cancellation abilities and the fact that its flagship handset boasts not just two but an array of four microphones. The mics ring the phone, one on each of the Z30's four edges, and they complement the device's set of powerful stereo speakers (top and bottom). Indeed, the first time I fired up the music app and piped a tune through the Z30's sound system I was amazed. The volume this phone's tiny drivers can produce is phenomenally loud, with loads more sound than what you get from the HTC One and Motorola Droid Maxx -- both of which have muscular stereo speakers.

Screen
The Z30 is BlackBerry's biggest-screened smartphone yet. It packs a large 5-inch 720p HD resolution display, which the company says has a pixel density of 295 pixels per inch. Of course, that's nowhere near as sharp as the displays on the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4, whose full HD screens offer 468ppi and 441ppi, respectively. Still, it's practically gigantic compared with the displays gracing the previous BlackBerry Z10 (4.2-inch) and BlackBerry Q10 (3.1-inch).

I have to say, though, that the Z30's display isn't very bright. For instance, the Motorola Droid Maxx, while it has the same 720 HD resolution and OLED screen technology, is much brighter when viewed side by side with the Z30. Still, one benefit of the Z30's OLED hardware is that it has high contrast and wide viewing angles.

Software and interface
A bigger screen isn't the only improvement you'll find on the BlackBerry Z30. The phone's software has been updated as well. The Z30 runs the new BlackBerry 10.2 operating system, which has a few fresh tricks up its sleeve. Along with the familiar Peek gesture that lets you quickly see your messages and the BlackBerry Hub unified inbox, both of which first debuted with BlackBerry 10, there's a new Priority Hub feature.

Priority Hub will pay attention to whom you interact with most, whether on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, or texts, then will float those conversations up to the top of a Priority Hub view. By default, the criteria for tagging messages as a priority is pretty straightforward. Priority Hub will prioritize (hence the name) conversations from contacts who have the same last name as you or those labeled as highly important. The same goes for messages you select as vitally significant. Simply long-press a conversation in your inbox to slap it with a priority icon (represented by an up arrow) to accomplish this. You can toggle these Priority Hub settings on and off as you see fit.

It seems that every OS is catching notification fever, and BlackBerry 10.2 is no exception. Just like Apple's iOS 7, BB 10.2 now supplies previews of messages as they hit your phone. No matter which app you happen to be in or settings windows you have open, new notifications appear as thin headers across the top of the screen.

Tapping these notifications will launch a full view of the message to read its full contents and respond. Hitting an "x" icon within the notification preview will dismiss it entirely. To quickly handle incoming calls, a new feature called Priority Calling lets you receive caller ID notifications then either accept, dismiss, or respond with a canned reply. BlackBerry Messenger alerts provide the extra option of responding inside the notification itself so you don't have to switch out of the app or menu you're currently viewing.

For all BlackBerry's efforts to breathe life into its smartphone platform, it can't hide the lack of many popular apps gracing its virtual store shelves. Sure, many of the major players have found a home on BB10, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Flipboard. The photo-sharing service Instagram isn't available and neither is Pocketcast.

Keyboard
I know many true BlackBerry adherents out there will bemoan the Z30's lack of a physical keyboard. Even so, from someone who gave up tangible keys years ago for tapping out messages on glass panels, the Z30's software keyboard is one of the best I've used. The bigger screen makes for more comfortable typing than on the smaller Z10, and I also appreciate BB10's impressive predictive text abilities.

Able to learn over time what words you're likely working toward, the phone also offers handy suggestions placed over the letter your finger (and eyes) would have to travel to. Flicking upward pushes predicted text into the body of your message. The Z30 also did an admirable job of accurately detecting what keys I hit. The end result is that this gadget lets me type fast and furiously without many errors.

Core components
Powering the Z30's software is a respectably zippy 1.7GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro processor and quad-core Adreno graphics. It's the same thing Motorola packs into both the Droid Maxx and Moto X Android handsets.This CPU engine is backed up by 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. As I mentioned before, the Z30 also comes equipped with a microSD card slot for extra storage.

Camera
If you're familiar with the cameras on the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, the Z30 won't offer many surprises. That's because the Z30 uses the same 8-megapixel sensor and LED flash combo as its predecessors. The camera app is also similarly appointed with mostly identical scene modes and editing options that came bundled with BlackBerry's first BB10 devices.

For example the Time Shift feature takes multiple shots at once so you can choose the best one later. Designed primarily for group photos of fidgeting people, the phone strives to identify faces of folks within the frame. You can then tap on a highlighted mug (outlined in boxes) and slide a virtual knob on the bottom of the screen. This action shifts through points in time so you can select when the person's face in question is either looking into the camera or not blinking.

BlackBerry has added an HDR mode, a function that many of today's camera phones offer, which harnesses the Z30's Back Side Illuminated sensor to brighten shadow detail in strong backlight. In addition to that, there are four other scene modes to choose from such as Action, Whiteboard (very businesslike and so BlackBerry), Night, and Beach or Snow.

Other options include stabilization to smooth out the effect of shaky hands, and burst, which fires the shutter continuously to capture multiple images in quick succession. The Z30 has the ability to process images you take through various filters as well, with examples including Black and White, Lomo, Antique, and '60s. You can also stitch video you've captured together with the Story Maker application. Story Maker lets users create custom slideshows compiled from the photos and audio tracks of their choice.

Despite all this fancy editing prowess, though, many may not be impressed with the quality of raw images I snapped with the Z30. Indoor shots turned out dark with soft details unless I had ample lighting. Additionally, photos of fast moving subjects taken indoors often looked blurry and lacked crispness.

Performance
All in all I found the Z30's new BB 10.2 software responsive enough without unpleasant delays when launching apps or flipping through settings menus. That said, the phone didn't feel quite as nimble as recent Android handsets I've reviewed

I attribute much of the Z30's lack of pep to BB10's animation-heavy interface. For instance, when you tap on an app to open it, BB10 first slides your view to the Active Frame panel, which shows windows for all currently running applications. After that happens, the device will then (and only then) present a full-screen look at your selected app. It's a chain of events that adds a fraction of a second to every app-launching process. Sorry, BlackBerry, I know you want to highlight how many pieces of software BB10 can handle at once, but I'd rather not wait longer just so your phones can prove that point.

In other ways the Z30 proved fleet on its feet. The handset's browser fired up jonesarena.blogspot.com mobile site in a quick 4.6 seconds. The full desktop version of jonesarena.blogspot.com, though, took a much longer 22.2 seconds

Battery life
One bright spot in the BlackBerry Z30's performance, along with call quality, is its lengthy run time. BlackBerry claims the Z30's 2,880mAh battery provides 25 hours of mixed use. This includes voice calls plus audio and video playback. This jived with the longevity I experienced in anecdotal testing. With a full charge bright and early in the AM, the Z30 kept it's charge through a full work day, then overnight, then again through the next day in the office before I had to charge it again in the afternoon.

Conclusion

The good: The BlackBerry Z30 is equipped with a big screen, long battery life, and excellent messaging capabilities. It also boasts great call quality plus a microSD card slot for extra storage.

The bad: The Z30’s BlackBerry 10.2 software is bogged down with unnecessary eye candy. The BlackBerry platform still lags behind iOS and Android in both app number and quality. The Z30’s camera takes unimpressive pictures. The phone is only sold by Verizon.

The bottom line: The BlackBerry Z30 lives up the promise of a flagship phone, but it' maybe too little, too late, except for the most committed BlackBerry users.