BlackBerry Z10 Teardown: Inside the Inscrutable Phone

Ever since I dropped a beautiful, pristine BlackBerry Z10 on a sidewalk and rendered it useless, I’ve wondered why the Z10 failed where other smartphones survived.

As you may recall, I performed a series of drop tests from three heights (waist, ear and over my head) on three different surfaces (rugs, wood and concrete). The Z10 made it through to the ear-high, concrete drop, which shattered the screen and, to my surprise, made the touch-screen function inoperable. The LCD continued to work, but I could no longer control the phone.

I’ve seen a lot of broken smart phone screens, mostly iPhones that, despite a fractured-glass spider-pattern on the display continue to respond to touch. What about the BlackBerry Z10, a flagship phone that the recently rechristened BlackBerry — nee RIM —- is more or less betting the company on, made it so different that a broken screen would render it useless?