BlackBerry Z10: 4.2-inch display, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Plus, LTE, $199

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smartphones, Corporate News, Handhelds

This morning BlackBerry (formerly known as RIM) unveiled the first fully touch-based BlackBerry 10 device, the BlackBerry Z10. It's a handsome device, available in black and white, and matches what was previously leaked. They say that it's what's on the inside that counts, so let's dive in.

The BlackBerry Z10 sports a 4.2-inch 1280 x 768 display with a pixel density of 356 ppi (better than the iPhone 5 Retina display.) It's not a huge phone like the Galaxy Note II, but it does measure in at 5.13- x 2.6- x 0.37-inches, so it's a bit bigger than the Galaxy S III and iPhone 5 in terms of hardware dimensions. That said, it's a nice and light 138 grams. The Z10 is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus processor with 2 GB RAM to keep it speeding along. A removable 1800mAh batter is a nice touch, and you get a microSD slot that supports up to 32GB of additional storage, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. For optics, you can expect an 8-megapixel 1080p camera on the back, and a 2-megapixel shooter up front that records in 720p. This will also be the first BlackBerry with 4G LTE support for AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless.

The BlackBerry Z10 is set to launch in the US in March for $199.99, with the white version being touted as a Verizon exclusive.