Disclaimer: I am grateful for being a Verizon Wireless Ambassador and the opportunity to review new Verizon products. Verizon provides me with new wireless devices and three months of service in exchange for my honest opinions about their products.

As part of the Verizon Wireless Ambassador program, Verizon sent me a Blackberry Z10 to test.  Of course, I was excited about the new lightweight device until I attempted to use it.  There are several issues with this phone.

Screenshot of Blackberry Z10

1. It has terrible sound quality.  Believe it or not, I actually use my mobile device as its original design.  On the Blackberry Z10, voices sounded muffled and I would frequently ask callers to repeat themselves.
2. The phone constantly crashed. Your mobile device is your lifeline.  It should never crash or need to reboot.  Oddly, this seems to be a common performance feature of Blackberry devices, as my Blackberry Pearl had the same issue.  For me, this demonstrates Blackberry devices to be unreliable and why I prefer Android devices, which have never crashed on me.
3. Limited applications available. As a blogger tethered to the social media world, my virtual friends and followers live in my phone.  Though I could tweet, Facebook and check-in via FourSquare, I could not pin, Instagram or check-in on Yelp, which is a really big deal for most bloggers.  There are a few games available so my Blackberry Z10 became a gaming device for my children.
4. Blackberry Maps is unreliable. On the subject of apps, I decided to use the device for navigation since I didn’t like using it as a phone or for social media purposes.  Blackberry maps would constantly experience errors and shut down mid-route.  This frustrated me!  Again, it speaks towards the unreliable nature of the device.
5. The camera is simply ok.  Since there weren’t many more ways to use the Blackberry Z10, I decided to use it my “race camera” and captured photos as I ran.  I would set it to action and I appreciated the simplicity of touching anywhere on the screen to take a photo, however, I would often take blank photos by accidentally depressing both volume buttons.  Through my accidental volume button snapshots, I quickly learned this is the same method to capture screenshots.  As for the photo quality, the images were simply ok, not great.  Honestly, there are better cell phones with much better cameras on the market, like the Incredible or the DNA.

To avoid ending on a completely negative note, Blackberry devices offer stellar email support and the Blackberry Z10 met this standard.  Also, the internet browser of the Blackberry Z10 is stable, fast and smooth.  Therefore, if I were a business user rather than a mere blogger, my opinion of the device might be different.

Obviously, I love my Droid devices, but being part of the VZWA program has spoiled me.  The Blackberry Z10 simply could not live up to the Incredible or DNA.  Those two devices left some pretty big cases to fill.