Blckberry Z3 launched in India at Rs 15990

Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry has launched its latest smartphone, the Z3, in India. Priced at Rs.15,990, the phone targets the low-end segment of the market targeting devices like the Moto G, Nokia Lumia 630 and Micromax's new Canvas Win series. BlackBerry had sent out invites for the impeding launch of the device in the last week.

BlackBerry Z3 has qHD (quarter-HD) display at a resolution of 960x540 pixels. The display isn't bad considering that it is a budget phone, however, it is a finger-print magnet. Colour representation and contrast while watching videos was fairly good. There's a feature that lets you control the brightness. Users can choose to make the display off-white to avoid the glare that present in high-contrast displays.

The Z3 comes pre-loaded with BB10 OS. Performing simple tasks like sending a mail, listening to music and watching videos was smooth as butter. We expect the 1.2GHz dual core processor to come under stress. Audio quality on the speaker with a bit on the louder side but it lacks clarity. Other specs include 1.5GB RAM, 8GB internal memory expandable upto 32GB, 5-megapixel rear camera and 1.1-megapixel camera on the front and a 2500mAh battery. The rear camera performed decently under dim-lit environment we handled the device in. From initial looks the pictures had a bit of noise and weren't as sharp. We couldn't test the camera outdoors. On the OS-front, features more or less remain the same.

That the Z3 is manufactured by a new company is pretty evident from the positioning of the button and ports. The power and volume rocker buttons have been switched to the left edge of the phone while the SIM and micro-SD cards slots have been moved the right edge. The microUSB charging port is on placed on the bottom edge of the Z3. The placement of buttons and ports is different from BlackBerry's earlier devices most of which had power button on the top and charging ports on the side.