Author’s Note: I screwed up and had to fix this story. There is indeed some carrier branding on the BlackBerry Z10 units. Revised below.

Hate bloatware and carrier branding? You’re going to love the BlackBerry Z10. At the BlackBerry U.S. launch party last night, I got some time with Verizon-branded Z10s, which, like their AT&T and T-Mobile counterparts are blessedly low on carrier branding.

The Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile Z10s which I have seen so far have no carrier branding on the front, only a small carrier logo near the bottom of the back of the device. The carrier name shows up in small text in the status bar on the lock screen, but it goes away when you dismiss the lock screen, leaving only a “4G” icon that is, admittedly, slightly different for each carrier. You can also check your carrier name by sliding down the settings pane from the top of the screen.

I’m hopeful about bloatware, too. The Verizon Z10s had a bunch of apps preloaded, but only My Verizon Mobile screams “carrier.” I’m hoping that the rest of the apps, which included Paper Camera, Angry Birds Star Wars, Bloomberg Mobile, and TuneIn Radio, were added by an enthusiastic BlackBerry staff eager to show off BlackBerry World’s available apps rather than by Verizon marketing staff foisting them on all users.

I’m sitting here with a T-Mobile Z10 and the only non-BlackBerry app preloaded is T-Mobile My Account, which adds to the thrilling possibility that Verizon won’t dump a bunch of unwanted apps on us.

Now, don’t take this idea of carrier freedom too far. You won’t be able to use a Verizon Z10 on any other U.S. high-speed network. That’s because the phone’s radio excludes everyone else’s LTE bands(Opens in a new window), as well as the U.S. bands for AT&T and T-Mobile 3G. The AT&T and T-Mobile devices, on the other hand, are the same physical unit and should be able to switch carriers if unlocked.

I couldn’t test Verizon’s LTE network on the Z10, because I was in a basement. We’ll have a full review of the handset within the next few weeks, though. Verizon’s BlackBerry Z10 goes on sale on March 28 for $199.99 with contract. If you’re impatient, the AT&T model is now on sale (and we have a full review), and T-Mobile’s device is going on sale on March 26.