While the BlackBerry Z30 (Quick Review) was launched a few days back, the Z10 has been in the market for a long time now. Both phones are BlackBerry’s attempts to capture lost market share, and both devices share a lot in common including a full-touch form factor. If you are confused between the two, read on and we will help clear your mind on the same.
Weight and Body Design
BlackBerry Z10 dimensions: 130 x 65.6 x 9 mm, weight: 137.5g
BlackBerry Z30 dimensions: 140.7 x 72 x 9.4 mm, weight: 170g
As you can see, the Z30 is quite a bit larger and particularly chunkier with its 170g of mass. The device will not be ideal for people with small hands, especially the fairer sex. On the other hand, the Z10 should suit hands of all varieties.
Display and Processor
The Z10 comes with a rather unusual screen size of 4.2 inches, whereas the Z30 features a much more acceptable and widely used 5 inch screen. The resolution on the 4.2 inch panel of the Z10 is 1280×768 pixels, while the Z30 features a more mainstream resolution of 1280×720 pixels. Due to the smaller screen size on the Z10, the device does a much better job at the pixel density department, where it stops the meter at 355ppi against Z30’s 294ppi. However, some people would definitely find the 4.2 inch display a little too small for their liking.
Coming to the processor side of things, both devices feature variants of the same chipset from Qualcomm. As you would’ve expected, the Z30 comes with the updated and more powerful of the two, featuring a 1.7GHz dual core processor while the Z10 comes with a 1.5GHz dual core one. Graphics on the devices are handled by Adreno 320 and 225 on the Z30 and Z10 respectively, which means that the Z30 will be the undoubted king.
Camera and Memory
Nothing much to choose from in between the two devices on the imaging front. Both, the Z10 and the Z30, come with an 8MP main camera at the rear which is assisted by LED flash and autofocus. On the front, both devices feature a 2MP shooter. However, you can expect the Z30’s camera to be better overall, since it is expected of BlackBerry to improve the quality of components used, if not the megapixel count.
We’re left for no choice on the again, on the memory front. Both devices feature 16GB of on-board ROM along with a microSD slot that can work with cards of up to 64GB in size. On the RAM side of things, the phones both feature 2GB of RAM which should suffice even for the most advanced users who tend to have a load of applications running in the background.
Battery and Features
The Z30 again shows its supremacy over its younger sibling with its 2880mAh battery, which seems like a mammoth in front of the 1800mAh unit on the Z10. However, there’s a larger screen to deal with, which should minimize the extra battery life you would’ve expected on the Z30. In any case, the Z30 should deliver about 2-3 hours of extra usage on a single charge when compared to the Z10.
Both devices run BlackBerry’s own BB OS. While the Z30 comes with an updated v10.2, the Z10 features v10 but is upgradeable to v10.1.
Key Specs
| Model | BlackBerry Z10 | BlackBerry Z30 |
| Display | 4.2 inches, 1280x768p | 5 inches, 1280x720p |
| Processor | 1.5 GHz dual core | 1.7 GHz dual core |
| RAM | 2GB | 2GB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB expandable by up to 64GB | 16GB expandable by up to 64GB |
| OS | BB OS v10 | BB OS v10.2 |
| Cameras | 8MP/2MP | 8MP/2MP |
| Battery | 1800mAh | 2880mAh |
| Price | About 27,500 INR | 39,990 INR |
Conclusion
The Z10 retails at anywhere around 27k INR, which is way cheaper than the 39k+ INR price tag of the Z30. Given that there’s not a lot of difference between the two devices under the hood with equal RAM and ROM, dual core processors, etc., it might be a good idea to go for the Z10 and save some bucks. However, this will imply that you live with a 4.2 inch screen which is seen as ‘small’ now, and indeed, you might have troubles browsing the web on a screen like that. Plus the Battery back up wont be impressive either. If you can live with these conditions, you might as well go for the Z10, and the Z30 otherwise.
