back to article Everyone's waving their 5-inchers: BlackBerry outs new supersized Z30

Slumped phone giant BlackBerry has announced its fourth BlackBerry OS 10 mobe: the Z30, a five-inch OLED-touchscreen device. The display is not all that's big. The new mobe, pictured below right, sports a suitably supersized 2880mAh battery giving 25 hours of "mixed use", and similarly large internal mobile radio antenna, …

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  1. Afflicted.John

    Good. But slow.

    There is a lot to admire about BB10 but I just wish that BB would be quicker about issuing these devices - they won't stand a chance unless they pull their damned fingers out...

    Good looking phone though but they need to price it below the droid competition.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Slow to release

      In essence it's their answer to the Galaxy S4.

      Same size screen (but lower res and ppi), probably the same 600 series processor as the quad-core S4 as well.

      Pity it's 4 months late to the game, oh well.

      1. ItsNotMe

        Re: Slow to release

        Pity it's 2 YEARS late to the game, oh well.

        There...fixed it for you.

    2. LarsG

      Re: Good. But slow.

      And still no one buys them

      1. Ted Treen
        Thumb Up

        Re: Good. But slow.

        I'm happy with my iPhone 5;- BUT I'm glad to see Blackberry produce and release a good phone. When manufacturers strive to increase or maintain market share through product development and innovation, it's we who benefit, whether we're using iOS, Android, Winphone or whatever.

  2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    There is a better indicator that 5 inchers have come of age

    My wife bought me a new pair of jeans off La Redoute last week. The IT angle - the rear pockets on them are now designed to accommodate anything up to a 6 inch phablet. So are most autumn models by other retailers coming out.

    IMHO that means that we are now _EXPECTED_ to carry a 4+ inch blower around - clothes are being designed for that. Anything smaller (f.e. your wallet or anold nokia 3xxx ) will slip half the way down your thigh past your bottom and be right pain in the a*** (literally) to carry.

    So the fact that BB is shipping one should not come as a surprise to anyone.

    1. Mark .

      Re: There is a better indicator that 5 inchers have come of age

      Though what phones do your wife's jeans accommodate? It will be curious to see if the clothing industry finally realises women might want to use technology too, without having to carry them in their hands all the time...

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
        Paris Hilton

        Re: There is a better indicator that 5 inchers have come of age

        Ha-ha.

        Most of the women I see would rather drop something than let go of their phone.

        I saw one lady take a tumble last week Her handbag went flying but the phone was held onto with a grip of steel.

        Paris obviously.

        1. Jason_H

          Re: There is a better indicator that 5 inchers have come of age

          This makes perfect sense - we keep hold of what's important when disaster happens :)

          I fell-off the side of a mountain a few years ago, slid/dropped about 15ft but still managed to keep hold of the sandwich in my left hand. I was very hungry to be fair.

    2. ratfox
      Go

      GOOD!!

      I got tired long ago already of the then-fashionable idea that pants pockets are not supposed to contain anything.

      1. Steven Raith

        Re: GOOD!!

        Who the hell keeps £400+ of phablet/smartphone in their back pocket? Surely that's a disaster waiting to happen in multiple manners (theft, damage, crushed glass up the jacky, etc)??

        Or am I just not down with the kids any more? :-(

        Steven R

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: GOOD!!

          You wear the trousers low so that the front is just at the base of your p3n1s, that way you won't sit on the phone and look incredibly cool, too.

  3. J.G.Harston Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Z30 ?

    My eyes keep reading that as Z80

    1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: Z30 ?

      Ah I see, they plan to trick people getting a Z80 before they realise they paid more for it!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You need

      your vision checked.

  4. K

    Never had a BB, but

    I could be tempted.. looks pretty sharp.

    1. TheRealRoland

      Re: Never had a BB, but

      I switched a couple of months ago to a galaxy note2, after having used a bb8310, torch and 9930 bold.

      *sniff*

      There are so many things so well integrated into bb7/bb10, that it's very hard for me to like android. a lot of the times you'll hear me curse about how each app has a slightly different behavior, or how apps are trying to solve simple problems in an elegant way.

      I wish them well. They were on to something, but the market decided otherwise.

      Unfortunately I'stuck with the note2 for a while.

      mind you, it's still very nice as a remote for my canon 7d...

      so, give me the z30 with a slideout keyboard. I would be in heaven if they make that happen...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So that makes it three top end BB10 handsets and just one "mid-range" BB10 handset. Isn't that a bit arse backwards?

    Prior to the buyout Nokia was succesfully clawing back market share and relevance not with the top end phones designed to grab headlines but with its better than average, average phones such as the 520 and 620 which punters could pick up for free on £15 or lower contracts. Unless Blackberry can get BB10 handsets into the PAYG or sub £15 contracts I don't envisage them being around much longer.

    1. Mark .

      True, Nokia does seem to be having significant growth recently at the low end.

      Though I find it curious that 2.7m phones in 90 days for a new platform is seen as a failure by the media for BB, yet 1m phones in 76 days was hailed as a runaway success for a certain fruit company in 2007. Apple's sales only grew over the years, partly because as new devices came out, their older phones were then sold at lower prices. Similarly, BB's strategy could work long term - even if for now their new platform is high end, that will seep down to the lower end with time.

      On the other hand, Apple and BB may lose out long term, if the low end becomes the main area of growth, and it's already dominated by Android and WP.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        But that is almost seven years ago, back then 1m was a large piece of a small pie, now with the explosion of Android 2.9 is a small piece of a very large pie.

        The main difference between the platforms is that Apple has always been a "high end" commodity/fashion statement and has been something people have wanted to pay top dollar for. Blackberry on the other hand made its sucess of the back of texting teens/chavs and businesses but is changing tact and going for the fashion conscious and tech aware market while pretty much ignoring their existing consumer base. I don't feel that Blackberry has a strong enough foundation to weather this change.

  6. Moktu

    I'm having one of these bad boys

    I have just emailed my EE presales rep to tell him that carrying these is a prerequisite to me singing on the dotted line. I forgot the smilies.

    I'm a big fan of the Z10 (I've had a demo one for a couple of weeks), but my personal phone is a Galaxy note and sub 5" screens don't cut it any more.

    1. Moktu
      FAIL

      Re: I'm having one of these bad boys

      Singing on the dotted line(sic).....

      Not a typo.. I ratify all contracts with a few show tunes.

      1. Levente Szileszky

        Re: I'm having one of these bad boys

        Damn you, I've just spit my coffee across my 27" primary monitor... :D

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. Mark .

    PPI, a rubbish stat

    "It retains the same screen resolution as the 4.2-inch Z10's 1280 x 768 resolution, meaning the Z30's display density of 295 pixels per inch will be lower than the Z10's 356."

    And when I upgraded from my 20" HD TV to my 42" HD TV, the density went much lower. But wait, like everyone else, I don't care - I prefer watching on a bigger screen, and as long as the resolution is the same or higher, I haven't lost out.

    Perhaps one might argue that 1280x768 is low compared to the now standard Full HD on Android phones, or one might argue it's good enough, but pixel density is often not a good metric - just because the density has reduced doesn't make it worse. Just because you can make up a metric like (pixels/size) doesn't make it a useful one. If anything, for those wanting bigger displays (be it phones or TVs), the metric (pixels*size) is better than (pixels/size). We only hear about this statistic from manufacturers because it's a way to claim a device is "better".

    1. Simon Barker

      Re: PPI, a rubbish stat

      And when I upgraded from my 20" HD TV to my 42" HD TV, the density went much lower. But wait, like everyone else, I don't care - I prefer watching on a bigger screen, and as long as the resolution is the same or higher, I haven't lost out.

      That's a poor comparison to make because the bigger the television the further you're supposed to be from it but with a mobile you're going to be holding them at the same distance so a difference in pixel density becomes more obvious (not forgetting you're comparing doubling the TV size against a 20% increase on the mobile).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: PPI, a rubbish stat

        I remember when apple brought out their 'retina' screens and almost to a T the android idiots screamed that no-one wanted anything higher res... how things change eh?

        If you have half-decent eyesight then 200-300 dpi/ppi/whatever is more than enough to look 'crystal clear'. Anything more is just stupid posturing UNLESS you make the screensize bigger to go along with the increase.

  8. Z-Eden

    I'm loving my Z10 - really nice bit of kit and well worth a look if you don't like either of the top 2 offerings. Really intuitive UI as well. Quite refreshing after using iOS slightly dated UI and Androids rather crude UI..

  9. bear_all
    Mushroom

    Now or never

    If BB do not release this phone as a loss leader and claw back some of the market they are doomed, as simple as that.

    Some half baked idea they can charge premium prices for a phone that has little to no fan base will sink them.

    It's an Apple and Android world and the only thing BB have to play with is price.

    1. Levente Szileszky

      Re: Now or never

      Tell that to TH - the CEO is busy keeping the costs very low so he can show nice books to his invited buyers... what, he's losing the game in the meantime, you're saying...?

      Oh no, he's winning it - because he gets a $50M+ windfall in case of a change in ownership so he is busy winning *his* game, actually.

      1. bear_all

        Re: Now or never

        So it looks like you've changed the direction of the post to the gains of one individual, which let's be fair, is not unheard of.

        But, it's no good making cans of air for 10p and then selling them for £10 if no one buys them. If the product has no basis for growth or increase in any margin then it's buying a cheap product with nowhere to go.

        See Nokia for details. Cheap product with no fan base. End result is that Microsoft buy them to get a hardware portal for their software. Who is going to want to buy BB? Red Hat?

        With no (obvious) out-and-out interested hardware / software vendor on the horizon for BB it needs to make sales to show value.

  10. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Updates

    The Z30 will arrive with version 10.2 of the QNX-based OS, which should also seep out to beleaguered Z10, Q5 and Q10 owners by the middle of next month via an over-the-air update. This brings a bunch of much-needed fixes and enhancements, including a new notification system that allows one to fire off message replies in an instant.

    In other word BlackBerry are much better at getting updates for phones out than Microsoft.

    Looks like a nice bit of kit.

  11. skuzzzy

    battery life

    My Z10 currently gets zapped if I leave the browser open or some apps in the background, the 2880mah battery sounds suitably beefy and wish the Z10 had more juice/slightly more optimised software (battery life seems to vary wildly between good and bad depending on which software version is installed)

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