BlackBerry Z10 official: 4.2-inch 1,280 x 768 display, 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus, LTE, BB 10 for $200

After months of rumors, speculation and official teases, RIM's BlackBerry's first full-touch BlackBerry 10 device -- the Z10 -- is finally official. Look familiar? It should. Thanks to an incessant stream of leaks, the handset you see in black and white above had become something of an open secret. But now we can confirm that candybar slab does indeed pack specs quite similar to that of the Dev Alpha unit that preceded it.

Bucking the bigger is better trend we've seen in the mobile industry as of late, the Z10 comes outfitted with a palm-friendly 4.2-inch 1,280 x 768 display -- amounting to a pixel density of 356 dpi -- and measures in at 5.13 (130mm) x 2.6 (66mm) x 0.37 (9.3mm) inches, making it significantly bulkier than, say, the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III. So, it's not the thinnest device we've seen as of late, but at 138 grams, the Z10 certainly won't be weighing down your hand. Beneath its mixture of aluminum and hard, textured plastic lies a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus buffered by 2GB RAM, a removable 1,800mAh battery, slots for microSD (up to 32GB supported) and micro SIM, as well as radios for Bluetooth 4.0, NFC (integrated into the backplate) and WiFi a/b/g/n.

Because no 2013-era smartphone launch could go without it, the Z10 will ship LTE-ready for AT&T, Verizon and Sprint, with carrier-branded models across the top four US operators. Long time BlackBerry fans will be glad to note that the Z10 does, indeed, sport that familiar red notification LED, in addition to ports for micro-USB, micro-HDMI and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the imaging front, the handset packs a 2-megapixel front facer (720p video) and 8-megapixel rear shooter capable of 1080p recording -- both perfect for using Sclalado's TimeShift camera software. Of course, it nearly goes without saying that the Z10 is RIM's showcase entry point for its BB 10 OS. Verizon is the first to confirm that it'll charge $199.99 for the handset on a two-year deal when the hardware arrives in March, and has also called shotgun on the white version as exclusive to Big Red.

Gallery: BlackBerry Z10 press shots

Daniel Cooper contributed to this report.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, RIM

Comments