Blackberry Z10 vs. Apple iPhone 5
Blackberry Z10 vs. Apple iPhone 5
7:09

Blackberry Z10 vs. Apple iPhone 5

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-What's up Prizefight fans? I'm Brian Tong and this is another big time battle. Everyone wants to know how does Blackberry's first all touchscreen phone stack up to the competition. Well, many of you guys left Blackberry to jump to the iPhone. So, we're bringing you a Prizefight punch out between Blackberry Z10 and Apple's iPhone 5 to see if they've done enough to bring you back home. Our judges for this fight, our senior editor Jessica "Duke it Out" Dolcourt, associate editor Lynn "Valalala" La, and myself "For All the Ladies All Night Long" Tong. Now, we'll take all 3 judges' scores and average them out to the nearest tenth each round. The final Prizefight score will be an average of all rounds using the same system. Let's get started. Round 1 is design. Blackberry brings its classiest looking phone to date with a tight design of the Z10 even if it has some resemblance to the iPhone 5. Its soft leather-esque textured backing and softer curved edges are comfortable to hold. And its 4.2-inch screen is larger and has a higher 356 pixels per inch. Now, we know Apple's iPhone 5 design is one of their best ever, bringing their quality design and leveled craftsmanship, its 4-inch retina display is smaller, but it's still a beauty with 326 pixels per inch super bright display, and its 2-tone design that's still thinner and lighter than the Z10. These phones both look great, but the iPhone 5 takes the round with a 4.7 and the Z10 gets a 4.3. Next round is user interface and controls. Z10 is Blackberry's first all touchscreen phone and it relies on a set of gesture controls to navigate the OS without any specific home button. Now, it has a higher learning curve. It's not pick up and play, but it's not hard ones. You get used to them. You can pull down from the top to access services. Swiping from the bottom takes you to the multitasking screen to close apps and accessing the Blackberry Peek feature to check out your notifications is this [unk]. Now, there's nothing you don't already know about iOS. It's still the easiest UI on planet earth, but it hasn't evolved to add more features like customization or better notifications pull down. My nieces and nephews can use it with these, but Apple can still bring more to the table while keeping it simplified. The iPhone still takes this round with the 4.7 and the Z10 gets a 3.7. So, for averaging 2 rounds, the iPhone 5 leads. Round 3 is features. Z10 brings new features to the table that we haven't seen from other phones with its 1.5 gigahertz dual core processor. I'm a fan of its keyboard that allows you to flick suggestive words as you're typing your messages and then deleting letters or entire words depending on how you swipe backwards and that's pretty nifty. Blackberry messenger is part of their heritage and is their best version yet with video chatting. You'll also have NFC to immediately add contacts and a universal search. And let's not forget, HDMI out and an expandable memory card slot. The preloaded documents to go is nice for business users and the Blackberry balance feature keeps your work and personal lives separate on the same phone, but its drawbacks are a weak maps app that lack local businesses when you zoom and no walking or transit directions. Their voice assistant is pretty mediocre. And the Blackberry World Store has content, but can't compare to the library of apps that Apple brings. Now, Apple's iPhone 5 dual core A6 processor is blazing fast. And Siri becomes more useful with sports, movies, and food recommendations. Now, Siri is arguably the best assistant right now, but it still hasn't lived up to the hype and it takes way too long to get information back from its servers. Maps brings turn by turn directions, but it's still a step back from what it was before. And Passbook still remains rarely used and it needs some help where else. It's another wasted Apple feature. But Apple really shines with its app store that still tops in the industry and no one can match the content available on its platform. Both phones have features that make them unique, but also places where they fall short. So, we're calling this round a tie at 4 points a piece. Next round is web browsing and multimedia. Z10 brings its web kit based browser with tab browsing and has the ability to turn on flash support. It's a solid performer, but we did have a few hiccups rendering some pages correctly. Now, its 8-megapixel rear camera takes overall good looking pictures and 1080p video as well. It also has this cool time shift mode for picking the best picture from a bunch and a robust built-in editing mode with tons of effects and filters. Its media player widget that will appear on-screen when you press on the volume rocker is a cool addition and multimedia looked great on its screen even if it can't get as bright as the iPhone's, but it falls short with its multimedia ecosystem that still trails Apple's. Now, Safari on the iPhone 5 brings a full screen mode and a smooth working browser overall. You can't ignore Apple's iTunes, which brings the most robust library of multimedia that looks great on its screen. Its 8-megapixel rear camera brings a built-in panorama mode and 1080p video support with the ability to take stills while recording video, and it's still really the best camera on a mobile phone with pictures that were more vibrant than the Z10. Now, the Blackberry is no slouch in this round, but the iPhone 5 still takes it with the 4.7 and Z10 gets a 4. So, after averaging 4 rounds, Z10 still trails. The final round that decides it all is performance. Both phones are solid performing ones, but side by side it's the iPhone 5 that's faster to navigate across the board. Battery life received mixed results with the Z10 between our staff, but our labs tested it out. The 10.6 hours of talk time compared to around 8 hours for the iPhone 5. Now, 4G LTE performance will vary in your area, but it was excellent for both phones in San Francisco and call quality was solid, but will obviously be different depending on your location and carrier. Now, fast don't lie and the iPhone takes it. Yup, another round with the 4.7 and the Z10 gets a 4. So, let's average out all 5 rounds. And in a Prizefight where Apple jumped ahead early, they really pin Blackberry down and stayed on top with the iPhone 5 taking this battle 4.6 to 4 and is your Prizefight winner. Now guys, the point of this Prizefight wasn't to give Apple another win, which we did, but it was to show you that Blackberry's back in the game. And although it might not be able to lure hardcore iPhone and android users yet, the new Blackberry has given their diehards a phone they will want and it's a solid foundation to build on. I'm Brian Tong. Thanks for watching. We'll catch you guys next time for another Prizefight.

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