The Canadian smartphones maker BlackBerry has launched today its latest mid-range smartphone Z3 in India at Rs. 15,990. This smartphone will go on sale from 2nd July and one can pre-book this smartphone from today on flipkart.com or Mobile Stores. As an introductory offer, flipkart is offering shopping voucher worth Rs. 1000/- if the Z3 is booked on their e-commerce site till 2nd July and Mobile Store will give off of Rs. 1,000/- if the phone is booked with them. In this way, one can have Z2 at Rs. 14,990/- from Mobile Store
This smartphone is the first device to be produced from the Canadian firm’s partnership with Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn, which incidentally also manufacture gadgets for Apple. BlackBerry has entered into five years strategic partnership with Foxconn.The Z3 is also the first smartphone introduced by BlackBerry after the appointment of its new chief executive John Chen.
The BlackBerry Z3 has impressive build and design and its soft textured back looks elegant.The Z3 features a 5-inch qHD display with 540×960 resolution, and runs on BlackBerry OS 10.2.1. The plus point of the Z3 is that BB OS also support android apps as well. However, it is another matter that for loading and using Android apps, the users will have to face initially hiccups as the user interface is entirely different from an Android device.
It is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) processor and an Adreno 305 GPU. This smartphone comes with 1.5GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage, which can be expanded upto 32GB via microSD card. This smartphone is equipped with a 5MP rear camera with 1080p video recording and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. The Z3 is packed with a 2,500mAh non-removable battery, which is claimed to provide up to 15.5 hours talk time and upto16.2 days standby time.
BlackBerry has also announced the launch of BlackBerry Maps for its users in India, and this app is available on its Z3. This app provides 2D maps, local search and powerful 3D voice guided turn-by-turn directions— just like an advanced GPS navigation system. The BlackBerry Z3 smartphone comes preloaded with useful BlackBerry services such as BlackBerry Hub, Time Shift, Story Maker camera features, BB10 browser.
The Z3 also has keyboard, which enables you to type in English and Hindi on its touchscreen. Moreover, this keyboard quickly understands what words you use and how you use them, and then offers them to you so you can type faster and more accurately.
The Z3 also comes pre-loaded with BlackBerry’s popular BBM messaging service and for connectivity, this smartphone supports GSM,GRPS/EDGE, Wi-Fi,Bluetooth and GPS. The Z3 includes a built-in FM radio, which enable you to listen to local FM stations without any network connection.
At the launch event, Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director for India at BlackBerry, clarified that although BlackBerry had tough time last year yet its financial position is in good shape. BlackBerry has $ 3.1 billion in cash and has earned $ 23 million in the first quarter. Besides its handsets, BlackBerry is also quite successful in selling its other services. BlackBerry has been able to sell 3300 BES-10 servers in one year since its launch. According to the company, there are 85 million users of BBM and because of its security features, out of G20 Governments, 16 are with BlackBerry and the top 10 companies are also using BB.
All said and done, the Z3 has good hardware and software features, its look is impressive, and can also run Android apps. It is priced a little bit higher than our expectation. It should have been priced around Rs. 12,000 then it certainly could have been the game changer for BlackBerry in India.
