Blackberry Z3 with 5-inch display, BB 10.2.1 OS – Specifications & Pricing Details

Blackberry had announced the Blackberry Z3 smartphone at the Mobile World Congress 2014 event in Barcelona, and now, the availability of the device is announced for the Indonesian market, and as always, this new Blackberry smartphone looks brilliant by design, and it would be running the Blackberry 10 OS. The Blackberry Z3 would be available from the carriers Indosat and XL in Indonesia, and it’s a 5-inch device which would have the qHD resolution but the main focus for the company with this device is to provide the users a full advantage of the Blackberry 10 OS under a 5-inch screen, and that too for a budget pricing.

While there is quite a large screen on the front, the specifications under the hood include a 1.2 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) processor, along with the Adreno 305 GPU, and the multitasking support by 1.5GHz RAM. The exact OS version is Blackberry 10.2.1 and what gets included in the interface is as follows:

• Blackberry Hub – this is the core part which includes all the personal and professional stuff, i.e. Emails, BBM, text messages, updates from social media and notifications. Swiping once would open up the Blackberry hub and it’s customizable with the user able to set the priority to particular apps and notifications.
• BBM – The Blackberry Messenger is one of the most popular messenger services for Blackberry users, and which was made available for the Android users too. This messenger would be available in the Blackberry Z3 with all the latest features including the BBM voice chat, video chatting with screen share, and the support for Blackberry Natural Sound.
• Blackberry 10 browser – The browser which works smoothly on the Blackberry 10 platform, is what would be the default browser for the Blackberry Z3. It comes with all the features such as responsive scrolling, zooming and support for multiple tabs, private browsing, reader mode and content sharing.

The other neat features that would be seen in the Blackberry Z3, include the Blackberry Keyboard with multi-language support, Time Shift Camera feature to capture a group shot, fast and easy sharing of the files and the Built in FM radio which doesn’t need any Internet connection for listening to the nearest radio stations.

On the rear side of the Z3, there is a 5-megapixel Autofocus camera with the LED flash, and it can record 1080p Full HD videos. There is a front-facing 1.1-megapixel camera too for the video calling, but it can record 720p HD videos.

The internal storage in the Z3 is 8GB, while a slot on the side of the device would accommodate the MicroSD card for the storage expansion to a maximum of 32GB. The phone is 9.26mm thick and it weighs 164gm, and the device has got a 2500 mAh battery, which is said to be giving 15.5 hours talk time, and a continuous video playback for about 10 hours as said by the company.

The connectivity options available in the Blackberry Z3 include 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE with aptX codec and GPS. There’s also a Micro HDMI for connecting the smartphone to the larger screens such as TVs for the video content projection.

According to Blackberry, the security options provided in the Z3 include Password protection, screen lock, and sleep mode. There is a BlackBerry® Balance™ technology offering dedicated profiles to keep work and personal data separate and secure.

The pre-order of this device is available in Indonesia, for a price of IDR 2,199,000. A special “Jakarta” edition is being sold for a limited period, as this is the first Blackberry device being exclusively sold in Indonesia, and there is no update about the global availability, and we are unsure whether Blackberry will be pushing this to the other markets.

Update (13th May 2014) – The Blackberry Z3 is now officially launched in Indonesia, and the pricing is set at  IDR 2,199,000, while the availability is from May 15th 2014.

Update (29th April 2014) – Three carriers in Indonesia have reported that they sold out the new Blackberry Z3, and it took just seven hours for the Jakarta edition to sell out at Elevenia. Besides Elevenia, it’s Jeruknipis and Globalteleshop who sold-out the pre-order inventory of the Z3.