[LWKING]

I know there are a ton of threads buzzing around the A10 right now, but I felt that this one was a little more unique than the others. I also apologize for the length

I'm going to try to make this as concise and accurate as possible. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know. I'll address the most obvious issues first.

Specs: Performance Based Review

Processor: Dual Core S4 Pro CPU at 1.7 GHz with Quad core GPU
1. The S4 Pro may appear lackluster at first, but I believe that this setup will make the A10 perform better than just about every Android phone out right now. You have to remember that BB10 isn't Android. The ONLY real processor upgrade over the S4 pro is the 800 and that's only because of the higher clock speed.. All of the other quad core snapdragons are either on par or worse than the S4 Pro for the A10. There are options other than Qualcomm here, but I don't know enough to comment on them.

2. The current iPhone 5 has a 1.3 GHz dual core A6. Apple can pull this off because their OS is optimized. BB10 already boasts great performance compared to the HTC One and S4 with an S3 era processor, yet the S3 is nothing compared to the Z10 performance wise. Imagine the improvement with a higher clock and a quad core GPU.

Display: 720p at 295 ppi.
1. The Z10 and Q10 both had higher pixel densities than the iPhone 5, but the screen on the iPhone 5 was better. Therefore, higher pixel densities don't always make for the best viewing experience. I believe screen brightness and the type of display will hold more weight after a certain ppi ceiling. We'll be getting an S-Stripe pixel arrangement on the Z10. Personally, I'm not sure how that will compare, but we could be in for a surprise here. Let's not knock it quite yet.

Camera: 8MP
1. I admit, I too was really hoping for a bit more in this area. However, as long as the camera is better than the Z10, I think it will be adequate. 10.2 is also bringing Panoramic pictures to the A10. A few more software updates could push this along as well.

Memory: 2 GB of RAM
1. Adequate.

2. The iPhone 5 only has 1 GB of RAM to put things into perspective. All the top end phones have 2 GB. While I would personally like to see more so I can run CAD on my phone just to say that I can, the average user will never utilize it. However, there are some people that are powerhouse users. I think the quad core GPU will take care of pretty much everything.

** In summary, the A10 could very well be faster than the HTC One, the S4, and the iPhone 5S.

Specs: Consumer Based Review
Yes, the A10 may get ripped apart for the 720 p display and the 8 MP camera. I believe these are the only real "weaknesses". For all of you quad core fans, the argument could be made that the A10 is a 6 core phone.

Display
Personally, I've always been one to never judge a display until it's in front of your face and in your hand. That's what consumers are going to see when they walk in a store anyways. They will listen to the store reps, but they will purchase with their eyes. If there is no obvious difference between a 1080p screen and a 720p screen, they're not going to care. Besides, the phone is 5 inches!! That's going to carry more weight than the ppi.

Camera
If I could change one spec about the A10, it would be the camera. This is where the Z10 will lose some points in the store. A good camera matters to some people, but not to everyone. There are plenty of people out there with DSLR's and good digital cameras that may care about other aspects of the phone. There are also people that prefer to just carry their phone around. This one's up in the air. I can't really judge this.

Why I think the A10 will sell
And potentially sell better than the Z10 and Q10. Here is where some of you will disagree with me. I do not believe that specs and features sell phones. To clarify, the specs need to be only as good as it takes for an optimum OS experience. Anything more is unnecessary. I believe that user experience has held more weight in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Let's consider HTC. HTC and Samsung have been going at it for years with similarly specced phones. However, Samsung always had the edge on them. And while they still do, HTC has definitely come around. While the aluminum build definitely helped them get noticed, I think if they were still running Sense 4.0, the phone wouldn't sell nearly as well. Up until now, Sense sucked compared to anything Samsung put out. The Sense 5.0 experience coupled with the new, flashy build is what makes people buy the phone now.

The low specced iPhone5 goes without explanation. It is the lowest specced flagship and is the best selling phone in the world.

The high specced Optimus phones by LG should also be mentioned. They have great specs, but how many people do you know that actually own them?

I believe the spec race will end in 2013 as the line of performance difference in phones blur. Experience and design will take over in 2014 more than ever. This further supports my point that specs don't and will not sell phones.

Blackberry 10
The Z10 suffered and is still suffering a bit from lack of carrier pushed updates. The random reboots and other kinks certainly did not help with the overall experience of BB10. 10.2 will fix these problems and add much desired features. The app situation will be much better upon the release of the A10, and with the updated support of Android apps, the BB10 experience will be MUCH better and much more fluid. Reviewers won't have as much reason to nit pick as they did in the past and all the more reason to praise it. As long as the A10 is priced reasonably, I think that the A10 will fare much better than the Z10 and Q10 did assuming Blackberry markets the hell out of it

Thoughts?

[kevinnugent]

What percentage of S4 and S3 sales did Samsung achieve with their 5" star the Note 2? That will tell you roughly how many A10's BlackBerry will sell. Just use that percentage on the Z10's sales numbers.

[LWKING]

What percentage of S4 and S3 sales did Samsung achieve with their 5" star the Note 2? That will tell you roughly how many A10's BlackBerry will sell. Just use that percentage on the Z10's sales numbers.

I'd say that's a pretty fair estimate. On that note, I may already stand corrected
The point is that it won't flop like popular belief

[Speedygi]

Yes it will sell. But how much before the analysts deem to be worthy of their lofty estimates?

It's getting ridiculous. How does anyone expect Blackberry to sell as many BlackBerry 10 phones as they have traditionally sold BBOS phones?

But my guess is many Note or Note 2 users will take notice or even come back to Blackberry from Android. First things first, that would be decent improvement for sure.

Posted via CB10

[tiziano27]

You have to compare the A10 with the coming iPhone 5S. The A10 won't compete with the iPhone 5.

[Otech#CB]

I love it! You summed it up pretty well. I wish it was 1080p, but that's okay. Who knows if I'll get that as a second phone or just for fun. Well done!

Posted via CB10

[Brutal Efficiency]

You have to compare the A10 with the coming iPhone 5S. The A10 won't compete with the iPhone 5.

I expect more of a GPU bump rather than a CPU bump with the iPhone 5S. I also expect a camera bump.




People also have to remember that the HTC One camera is 5MP. BlackBerry Q10/A10/Z10 already have a 60% increase on the camera. HTC One is selling very well in the city I live. Every day I am out, I can see it in the wild.

My Tech-Fleet: Q10; Z10; PlayBook; Surface Pro; Xbox 360; HP TouchPad; iPod Touch 5

[MPF94025]

The A10 may sell, but it should NOT be positioned as the "flagship" BB10 product. This will be marketing suicide. The product should be positioned as an incremental step in the rebuilding of BBRY that will take place over the next 1 to 2 years.

Anything more than this will provide fodder for smartphone users, investment community, and even some of the BBRY faithful to mock the company's restructuring efforts as out of touch, behind the times, and out of the game. The chances an Android user will give up their phone to use this device is close to 0. While we heard that the original purchases of Z10 was 1/2 from other platforms, we did not hear that at the quarterly report or AGM meeting: those thinking this is the case for large scale defections to BB10 devices are dreaming.

So if the device does sell well, it's a hit, if it does not it's a minor, not major disappointment. BBRY can ill afford major disappointments.

Whatever major marketing efforts are considered or planned should go to the Z10 and Q10 as the potential sales of these devices dwarf whatever sales will come of the A10.

[SDTRMG]

Small minded people won't understand your post, and will still complain. Its the "MOMMY I DONT WANT THE $100 JEANS WHEN THATS ALL I NEED, I WANT THE $300 PAIR OF JEANS BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE HAS IT". These people are spoiled.

Its funny when they speak about specs they only mention 5 android devices, that proves 1080p and quad core are not standard.

I always ask where's Microsofts, Apples, and Googles "Motox', 1080p quadcore phones? There smart enough not to join a pointless spec race, and the A10 burping the only 5" none android device is a plus as well.

[SDTRMG]

I expect more of a GPU bump rather than a CPU bump with the iPhone 5S. I also expect a camera bump.




People also have to remember that the HTC One camera is 5MP. BlackBerry Q10/A10/Z10 already have a 60% increase on the camera. HTC One is selling very well in the city I live. Every day I am out, I can see it in the wild.

My Tech-Fleet: Q10; Z10; PlayBook; Surface Pro; Xbox 360; HP TouchPad; iPod Touch 5

Small minded people can't see passed a spec sheet, they use the htc one to compare the 1080p screen but don't mention the camera. Or that most android devices and apps don't utilize quadcore CPU. Is all for show.

[tiziano27]

Small minded people won't understand your post, and will still complain. Its the "MOMMY I DONT WANT THE $100 JEANS WHEN THATS ALL I NEED, I WANT THE $300 PAIR OF JEANS BECAUSE EVERYONE ELSE HAS IT". These people are spoiled.

Its funny when they speak about specs they only mention 5 android devices, that proves 1080p and quad core are not standard.

I always ask where's Microsofts, Apples, and Googles "Motox', 1080p quadcore phones? There smart enough not to join a pointless spec race, and the A10 burping the only 5" none android device is a plus as well.

Well, Microsoft is adding support for quad-core and 1080p in the next update. Apple started the dpi war with the retina display, probably the iPhone 5S will improve in that area.
The Moto x is a good example, but is innovating in other areas and the screen is just 4.4 inches. The A10 use the same resolution in a 5 inches pixelated screen.

The HTC One has an ULTRA-pixel camera, read the specs again.

[ssbtech]

Big phones look stupid against someone's head:



I'm normally one to say these goofy products favored by consumers are good for the brand in general as they attract customers and developers, but I'd rather see BlackBerry spend some resources on developing a better foundation before building the house.

Who knows, maybe the A10 will launch with a properly working copy of BB Link and with all the BB10 bugs resolved and missing features included. Or is that wishful thinking at this point?

[Brutal Efficiency]

Big phones look stupid against someone's head:

http://i1089.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7c677e0d.jpg

I'm normally one to say these goofy products favored by consumers are good for the brand in general as they attract customers and developers, but I'd rather see BlackBerry spend some resources on developing a better foundation before building the house.

Who knows, maybe the A10 will launch with a properly working copy of BB Link and with all the BB10 bugs resolved and missing features included. Or is that wishful thinking at this point?

To my understanding 10.2 fixes a lot of bugs and has really nice addition of features (I <3 actionable notifications).

An alliance between Nokia and BlackBerry to bring the 41MP PureView camera to future BlackBerry phones would truly be mouth watering!!
Or an alliance with Nintendo to bring Pokemon and Mario and Luigi would be awwweeesssooommmmmeeee. Can you imagine how fast BlackBerry would sell if they had Pokemon and Mario and Luigi available!?

My Tech-Fleet: Q10; Z10; PlayBook; Surface Pro; Xbox 360; HP TouchPad; iPod Touch 5

[SDTRMG]

Well, Microsoft is adding support for quad-core and 1080p in the next update. Apple started the dpi war with the retina display, probably the iPhone 5S will improve in that area.
The Moto x is a good example, but is innovating in other areas and the screen is just 4.4 inches. The A10 use the same resolution in a 5 inches pixelated screen.

The HTC One has an ULTRA-pixel camera, read the specs again.

Microsoft is in a update coming in months that most likely won't have phones using it till next year.http://bgr.com/2013/07/17/nokia-lumia-625-photos-leak/

Apples rent in a display is not even 720p, it's just under 690 actually. It's that they do software wise to make it look better. The z10 has more poi then the iPhone 5.

The motif is a good example with hardware and specs, what makes you think 10.2 would be a sufficient update? I've been using ios 7 beta and it's nothing special I'm actually more excited for the official 10.2.

And really? 4.4 vs 5" can you really tell the difference on .6" of an inch lol.

Posted via CB10

[nah.uhh]

In regards to "the iPhone only has 1gb of ram! "

Tell that to playbook owners (1gb of ram).
While the ip4, 4s and 5 (that means, the current device, the previous device, and the one that preceded that one as well..)got some form of ios7, specifically all of the ui enhancements.. according to blackberry, they wanted to but bb10 can't run on 1gb ram. So, the a10 is potentially another doa device, it is technically being released with the bare minimum ram to run bb10. So after the playbook debacle Im not exactly optimistic that my z won't meet the same fate, where 1-2years down the road, the hardware can't keep up with the software. Everyone that invested in an ip5 (that released before the z) will have their software kept current for a few years past that.

Perfect example......
The blackberry playbook was touted as the first dual core tablet to market. They bragged and bragged about how great it would be, and that they would be the first to be great... then apple shut rim up, by releasing the ipad2 with a dual core processor before the playbook made it to market. PlayBook could no longer claim yo be first with a dual core.

Fast forward to today. As much as I love my BlackBerry products, my apple buddies just won their race.
My newer playbook was killed while their older ipad 2 was rejuvenated, given an new life or at least an extension. ios7 is the ipad2 makes me feel like an iteeot for thinking blackberry wouldn't fudge up

If there isn't 32+gb internal storage and 3+gb ram at release. Roflmao is all I have to say.

Oh, and the ipad mini is essentially spec to be slightly better than the playbook, with a worse screen and a better/newer cpu and gpu. Still 1gb of ram I imagine. It's running ios7, along with the ipad2 and the iPhone 4. If blackberry ran apple, those devices would be dead.

BlackBerry needs to stop developing products for today, and start focusing on tomorrow.

[LWKING]

The A10 may sell, but it should NOT be positioned as the "flagship" BB10 product. This will be marketing suicide. The product should be positioned as an incremental step in the rebuilding of BBRY that will take place over the next 1 to 2 years.

Anything more than this will provide fodder for smartphone users, investment community, and even some of the BBRY faithful to mock the company's restructuring efforts as out of touch, behind the times, and out of the game. The chances an Android user will give up their phone to use this device is close to 0. While we heard that the original purchases of Z10 was 1/2 from other platforms, we did not hear that at the quarterly report or AGM meeting: those thinking this is the case for large scale defections to BB10 devices are dreaming.

So if the device does sell well, it's a hit, if it does not it's a minor, not major disappointment. BBRY can ill afford major disappointments.

Whatever major marketing efforts are considered or planned should go to the Z10 and Q10 as the potential sales of these devices dwarf whatever sales will come of the A10.

I don't think Blackberry is in it for the "flagships." I think that right now they are developing the A, Z, and Q series with a high end and mid tier device for each series. I think they're just going to update each phone yearly. It's starting to make sense now. I would have preferred if they released a phone that was 4.65" but if they did that the phone would compete with the Z10. This way, Blackberry covers every market on the high end and the middle tier. It's not a bad plan if you ask me.

Apple started the dpi war with the retina display, probably the iPhone 5S will improve in that area.

I'm not so sure they will. There's not much of a reason too. Their screens are already fantastic.

While the ip4, 4s and 5 (that means, the current device, the previous device, and the one that preceded that one as well..)got some form of ios7, specifically all of the ui enhancements.. according to blackberry, they wanted to but bb10 can't run on 1gb ram. So, the a10 is potentially another doa device, it is technically being released with the bare minimum ram to run bb10.

BB10 can run on 1GB of RAM. The dev alphas all had 1 GB. The Playbook was running BB10 on 1 GB too, but TH pulled the plug because he wasn't satisfied. 1 GB is the minimum for BB10. 2 GB is sufficient right now. You have to look at it in context. iOS is on it's 7th major update. Blackberry has only just released it's first minor update! There is tons of room for improvement, yet look at where we already are. It sounds like you're hurting a bit over your Playbook. It'll be alright buddy.

[kevinnugent]

But the rumored specs of the A10 don't make it high end. It may be for Blackberry, but not the rest of the competitors.

[SparkyBC]

To me it seems blackberry is building devices with old competitor part scraps. They have yet to push any boundaries in terms of hardware or manufactured parts. It's just average hardware other devices left in the dust a year ago..

Judging from the a10 seems more of the same. Lack luster parts.

[Jeremy Bivens]

I really like the way you think! Not because you're right or wrong, but because you're thinking on the other side of the table. I don't believe BlackBerry made the A10 with the mindset of "yea, let's make a crap phone! That's what will do it!" They probably have to balance efficiencies with their products. Can't bet it all on Red.
Someone also mentioned, BlackBerry may not be in it for the flagships... that's an interesting POV. Maybe the goal isn't to have the most popular phone on the market, but to give BlackBerry users the best experience possible. The Z10 & Q10 were standard "sweet spot" phones for those who wanted an updated BlackBerry, but didn't want the hooplah other devices are pushing. The Q5 is for the lower end of users, and the A10 is for those who simply want a bigger phone. Everyone who uses BlackBerry will have a device for them. Instead of trying to play in Android's game, BBY is creating its own league. And whomever is on BlackBerry's team will have the best experience for them

...just a theory.

[nah.uhh]

BB10 can run on 1GB of RAM. The dev alphas all had 1 GB. The Playbook was running BB10 on 1 GB too, but TH pulled the plug because he wasn't satisfied. 1 GB is the minimum for BB10. 2 GB is sufficient right now. You have to look at it in context. iOS is on it's 7th major update. Blackberry has only just released it's first minor update! There is tons of room for improvement, yet look at where we already are. It sounds like you're hurting a bit over your Playbook. It'll be alright buddy.

Stop telling lies. If bb10 could run on 1gb than the pb and the dev alphas would be supported. Earlier versions of bb10 were tested on dev alphas and playbooks, but 2gb is the minimum needed to run bb10.

Only just released it's first minor update? So the upgrades pbos1 >2 >2.1 then changing to >bb10 >10.1 never happened? Uh.. bb10 was supposed to be the second major upgrade for the playbook, and it was not delivered. 1gb is not the minimum, 1gb is unsupported. The bare minimum required for bb10 is 2gb ram. 7 major upgrades from apple? And most of their old devices are still supported on the latest software!

"2gb is sufficient right now.", isn't that what they said about 1gb playbooks?
Hurting over my playbook? Nah, I just don't like being lied to repeatedly then expected to believe /trust them, when their actions show that they have learned /changed nothing and they actually plan to release devices with short lifespans to force people to upgrade. 16gb internal storage for example, 8mp camera and 2gb of ram.. the z limped out of the gate with those specs 10 months earlier.

16gb isn't enough right now, what makes you think it will be enough come Christmas? I don't have any problems with the 8mp camera. But I do run low on ram and have run out of space on the phone because of apps. Aka, I had to stop buying app as because I had no more spacd!

[sergey_IL]

One thing I wanted to add: OpenGL ES 3.0 support by hardware. But, what is strange it still no supported in Native SDK.

[sergey_IL]

8 MP camera is more than optical resolution of such a small camera, on any smartphone. Even entry level DSLR can not utilize 14 MP resolution sensor. Perceptional quality on most phones is improved by image processing algorithms, which I think is poorly implemented on current BB10. I'm convinced that Apple puts very high post processing on their camera. I have some experience with image processing and cameras, and it seems like BB10 devices simply get row picture from the camera without any processing. In small sensor cameras processing is essential to improve sharpness, color, gamma and of course noise reduction. As I have found many Nokia cameras use noise reduction algorithms on their cameras. So, its natural to use 41MP so you get much more data to get better picture by post processing.

NOTE: IMHO.

NOTE: Most image processing algorithms can be accelerated using GPU (fast matrix operations).

[canu900]

I know there are a ton of threads buzzing around the A10 right now, but I felt that this one was a little more unique than the others. I also apologize for the length

I'm going to try to make this as concise and accurate as possible. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know. I'll address the most obvious issues first.

Specs: Performance Based Review

Processor: Dual Core S4 Pro CPU at 1.7 GHz with Quad core GPU
1. The S4 Pro may appear lackluster at first, but I believe that this setup will make the A10 perform better than just about every Android phone out right now. You have to remember that BB10 isn't Android. The ONLY real processor upgrade over the S4 pro is the 800 and that's only because of the higher clock speed.. All of the other quad core snapdragons are either on par or worse than the S4 Pro for the A10. There are options other than Qualcomm here, but I don't know enough to comment on them.

2. The current iPhone 5 has a 1.3 GHz dual core A6. Apple can pull this off because their OS is optimized. BB10 already boasts great performance compared to the HTC One and S4 with an S3 era processor, yet the S3 is nothing compared to the Z10 performance wise. Imagine the improvement with a higher clock and a quad core GPU.

Display: 720p at 295 ppi.
1. The Z10 and Q10 both had higher pixel densities than the iPhone 5, but the screen on the iPhone 5 was better. Therefore, higher pixel densities don't always make for the best viewing experience. I believe screen brightness and the type of display will hold more weight after a certain ppi ceiling. We'll be getting an S-Stripe pixel arrangement on the Z10. Personally, I'm not sure how that will compare, but we could be in for a surprise here. Let's not knock it quite yet.

Camera: 8MP
1. I admit, I too was really hoping for a bit more in this area. However, as long as the camera is better than the Z10, I think it will be adequate. 10.2 is also bringing Panoramic pictures to the A10. A few more software updates could push this along as well.

Memory: 2 GB of RAM
1. Adequate.

2. The iPhone 5 only has 1 GB of RAM to put things into perspective. All the top end phones have 2 GB. While I would personally like to see more so I can run CAD on my phone just to say that I can, the average user will never utilize it. However, there are some people that are powerhouse users. I think the quad core GPU will take care of pretty much everything.

** In summary, the A10 could very well be faster than the HTC One, the S4, and the iPhone 5S.

Specs: Consumer Based Review
Yes, the A10 may get ripped apart for the 720 p display and the 8 MP camera. I believe these are the only real "weaknesses". For all of you quad core fans, the argument could be made that the A10 is a 6 core phone.

Display
Personally, I've always been one to never judge a display until it's in front of your face and in your hand. That's what consumers are going to see when they walk in a store anyways. They will listen to the store reps, but they will purchase with their eyes. If there is no obvious difference between a 1080p screen and a 720p screen, they're not going to care. Besides, the phone is 5 inches!! That's going to carry more weight than the ppi.

Camera
If I could change one spec about the A10, it would be the camera. This is where the Z10 will lose some points in the store. A good camera matters to some people, but not to everyone. There are plenty of people out there with DSLR's and good digital cameras that may care about other aspects of the phone. There are also people that prefer to just carry their phone around. This one's up in the air. I can't really judge this.

Why I think the A10 will sell
And potentially sell better than the Z10 and Q10. Here is where some of you will disagree with me. I do not believe that specs and features sell phones. To clarify, the specs need to be only as good as it takes for an optimum OS experience. Anything more is unnecessary. I believe that user experience has held more weight in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Let's consider HTC. HTC and Samsung have been going at it for years with similarly specced phones. However, Samsung always had the edge on them. And while they still do, HTC has definitely come around. While the aluminum build definitely helped them get noticed, I think if they were still running Sense 4.0, the phone wouldn't sell nearly as well. Up until now, Sense sucked compared to anything Samsung put out. The Sense 5.0 experience coupled with the new, flashy build is what makes people buy the phone now.

The low specced iPhone5 goes without explanation. It is the lowest specced flagship and is the best selling phone in the world.

The high specced Optimus phones by LG should also be mentioned. They have great specs, but how many people do you know that actually own them?

I believe the spec race will end in 2013 as the line of performance difference in phones blur. Experience and design will take over in 2014 more than ever. This further supports my point that specs don't and will not sell phones.

Blackberry 10
The Z10 suffered and is still suffering a bit from lack of carrier pushed updates. The random reboots and other kinks certainly did not help with the overall experience of BB10. 10.2 will fix these problems and add much desired features. The app situation will be much better upon the release of the A10, and with the updated support of Android apps, the BB10 experience will be MUCH better and much more fluid. Reviewers won't have as much reason to nit pick as they did in the past and all the more reason to praise it. As long as the A10 is priced reasonably, I think that the A10 will fare much better than the Z10 and Q10 did assuming Blackberry markets the hell out of it

Thoughts?

I don't think that the new blackberry will be up against all those phones at the end of the year I'm pretty their will be more powerful phones to come out around that time that will really be competition for it later this year...so some of that maybe irrelevant later this year...Idk for certain but hey that's the way its usually is

Posted via CB10

[StutterStep]

It will sell alright, if it isn't priced at $600+ that is.

Android phones have 8 cores of you want to add up the quad core S4/600/800 cpu and the adreno 320 quad core gpu

[amazinglygraceless]

This analysis really proves nothing as you are preaching to the converted. Ask your average consumer to detail the specs of their or any other phone and they will stare back at you with a "fix me Jesus" look on their face.

Specs are not what sell phones and the only people who care about them is tech geeks like us.