BlackBerry Z3 in India soon, could be priced around Rs 11,000

The BlackBerry Z3, the first full touchscreen budget phone from the Canadian smartphone maker, could be hitting Indian stores in a couple of weeks, it is learnt. The phone will start selling in Indonesia from tomorrow. Indonesia and India are pretty much the last volume market of the company.

The Z3, a 5-inch touchscreen phone running the new BlackBerry 10 Operating System version 10.2.1, is the first to produced in partnership with Taiwan’s Foxconn,  the world’s largest electronics contracter manufacturer. So the Z3, originally manufactured for the Indonesian market, will have a very attractive price. Based on the price in Indonesia, we estimate the phone to be priced around Rs 11,000.

It is likely that BlackBerry will try and woo those upgrading to an affordable phablet with its new offering. However, the paucity of apps and the competition from Android devices, could deter new buyers.

The Z3 could also be BlackBerry’s last tryst with a full touchscreen device. The company has already announced its intention to bring back QWERTY in future devices.

Specs

OS: BlackBerry 10.2.1 OS

PROCESSOR: Dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400

DIMENSIONS: 140×72.8×9.26mm

WEIGHT: 164 grams

DISPLAY: 5-inch qHD (960×540 pixels) 220ppi

RAM: 1.5GB

STORAGE: 8GB expandable up to 32GB using a microSD card

CAMERA: 5MP rear/ 1.1MP front

BATTERY: 2,500mAh

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BlackBerry unveils new Bold and Pearl smartphones

Toronto, April 27 (IANS) BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) Monday launched another smartphone - called BlackBerry Bold 9650 - to add another device to its premier Bold brand.

The company also unveiled the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, its smallest smartphone yet.

'The new BlackBerry Bold 9650 is an extraordinary smartphone that we think customers will love,'' said RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis. 'Whether at work or at play, the new BlackBerry Bold 9650 offers a truly impressive communications, multimedia and connectivity experience,'' he said at the launch of the latest smartphones.

About the new BlackBerry Pearl 3G, he said, 'The BlackBerry Pearl 3G is unlike any other smartphone in the world and we expect a broad range of new and existing customers will be drawn to its powerful features and compact design.''

Beside a keyboard, optical trackpad and built-in Wi-Fi, the new smartphone also allows users to talk on the phone while browsing the web or sending and receiving email.

Loaded with 512 MB Flash memory and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 32 GB microSDHC cards, the BlackBerry Bold 9650 smartphone supports 3G networks.

Built in stylish design with glossy black finish and chrome highlights, the new device features large high-resolution display which allows pictures, videos and web pages with great contrast and detail, the RIM statement said.

Apart from a 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom, image stabilization, autofocus and video recording, the new BlackBerry Bold also features advanced media player for videos, pictures and music, a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack and support for Bluetooth.

The new BlackBerry Pearl 3G measures less than two inches wide and weighs only 93g. It also features an optical trackpad for smooth navigation, a 3.2 MP camera with flash for quality pictures, and support for up to 32 GB of personal content.

Both the new devices will support mobile applications built by third parties for RIM and carry built-in GPS with support for geo-tagging, BlackBerry Maps and other mapping applications.

'The BlackBerry Bold 9650 fuses form and function in a striking design and, in addition to providing premium phone and multimedia features, it of course delivers the industry's leading mobile solution for email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and social networking,'' the company said in its statement.

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Blackberry 8520 for 16k

Airtel brings to India RIM’s Blackberry Curve 8520. Continuing in the footsteps of the Curve series the Curve 8520 is a rather affordable and feature packed device just like big brother Curve 8900. The Blackberry Curve 8520 is the first of the Blackberrys to adopt a trackpad instead of its famous trackball navigation. In addition to that, the Curve 8520 sports dedicated multimedia playback button situated at the top of the device along with its standard mute button placement. The Curve series from Blackberry always leaned towards the multimedia spectrum of mobile handsets. With the Curve 8520 sporting those playback buttons RIM wishes to change its image of being solely a business handset. On the down side RIM has tied up with Airtel for the Blackberry Curve 8520 and hence it’s not available with other networks; this will surely drop the success of the handset.

The Curve 8520 Features:

- 2.4 inch 65k colour screen

- Full QWERTY Keypad

- Playback Buttons

- 3.5mm jack

- Divx Support

- 512 MHz CPU

- Social Networking Support

- Wi-Fi

- 256 MB Internal Memory

- 2MP Camera with Video Recording

- 106 grams

- 4.5 Hours Talktime

- Rubberized Body

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 will be available nationally from Airtel’s authorised outlets through from Aug. 7 and is priced at Rs.15,990. So finally the BlackBerry, is affordable!

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