BlackBerry Z3 is finally here, priced at Rs 15,990

Mumbai: Finally after a big hush-hush unveiling with the media a few days back, the BlackBerry Z3 has been officially announced for the Indian sub-continent. The Blackberry Z3 is priced at Rs 15,990 and will be available on two online shopping sites—Flipkart and The Mobile Store. However, the Z3 is up for a pre-order of Rs 14,990 for a limited period only up till 2nd July, 2014. 

The BlackBerry Z3 is a full-touch smartphone, which runs on the BlackBerry 10.2.1 operating system. The display is a 5 incher qHD LCD with a resolution of 540x960 pixels. It is powered using a Qualcomm MSM8230 Snapdragon 400 chipset featuring a dual-core 1.2GHz Krait 200 processor, Adreno 305 graphics processor and 1.5GB of RAM. The internal storage is 8GB which can be further expanded to 32GB using a microSD card. The rear features a 5MP shooter while the front camera has a 1.1MP sensor. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.0, micro USB, NFC and GPS. The handset is fuelled using a Li-Ion 2500mAh battery.

The new BlackBerry Z3 smartphone comes with the latest BlackBerry 10 OS, version 10.2.1, that will make the things you do every day faster and easier. Key features include:

BlackBerry Maps: For the first time ever, BlackBerry launches BlackBerry Maps for its users in India. This app provides 2D maps, local search and powerful 3D voice guided turn-by-turn directions— just like an advanced GPS navigation system.

BlackBerry Priority Hub – The ever present BlackBerry Hub lets you access all your work and personal email, BBM™, text messages, social media updates and notifications in one place, with the ability to “peek” into the BlackBerry Hub from anywhere, so you’re always only one swipe away from what matters to you. The Hub can be customized to identify priority messages and to filter the message list by various criteria that you can then activate with a simple pinch gesture.

BBM – BBM on the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone includes all the latest features of the popular mobile social network. You get BBM voice and video chatting with Screen Share and support for BlackBerry Natural Sound, letting you hear nuances and variations in tone in a BBM Voice chat, and making the conversation sound like you’re in the same room. BBM Channels features a variety of Indian channels as well as a BBM sticker packs for its customers

BlackBerry Keyboard – The BlackBerry Keyboard learns what words you use and how you use them, and then offers them up to you so you can type faster and more accurately. It gives you the best Hindi typing experience on a touchscreen

Time Shift & Story Maker – The BlackBerry Z3 smartphone’s astonishing Time Shift camera feature lets you capture a group shot where everyone is smiling with their eyes wide open. You can also use Story Maker to bring a collection of photos and videos together, along with music and effects, to produce an HD movie that you can instantly share on YouTube.

BlackBerry 10 Browser – The BlackBerry 10 browser sets the industry benchmark for HTML5 performance on smartphones, and is incredibly fast, with fluid and responsive scrolling and zooming. The browser includes many advanced features, supports multiple tabs, lets you browse sites privately, includes a reader mode, and integrates with the platform for easily sharing content. You can even save web pages for later viewing.

Instant Previews & Reply Now – Be more timely and responsive with Instant Previews that bring BBM, SMS and email message to you no matter what you are doing on your BlackBerry Z3 smartphone. You can even reply to your BBM or SMS messages in any app, or swipe to the BlackBerry Hub to respond. If you get a phone call that you can’t answer right way, you can instantly silence the call and send a Reply Now response through BBM, SMS or email to let the caller know you’re busy.

Fast, Easy Sharing – The BlackBerry Z3 smartphone learns how you share and who you share with, helping you reduce the number of steps and amount of time it takes to get your files, photos, or documents to where they need to go. Touching “share” in any app provides suggestions on who and how to share your files based on who you’ve shared with in the past, and the feature only gets smarter the more you use it.

FM Radio – The new BlackBerry Z3 includes a built-in FM radio. You can listen to local FM stations, which does not require any network connection.