The BlackBerry Z30 was officially announced today at a special event which took place in Kuala Lampur Malaysia. It makes sense that the company's newest flagship was finally uncovered, considering all the rumors and leaks over the past few months. However we assumed that BlackBerry may use the event as an opportunity to launch BBM for Android and iOS. BBM for Android, which has been apart of various leaks is rumored to arrive as early as this Friday.In any case we have a new flagship device in our hands, so lets take a closer look at what the device has to offer.
Hardware
The BlackBerry Z30 which was codenamed Aristo, features a 5 inch AMOLED display with a 720 by 1280 pixel resolution which offers 295 ppi pixel density. You have 16GB of internal storage for your apps, media and files which can be expanded by an additional 64GB through microSD storage. The device has been blessed with an 8 megapixel rear camera which is capable of 1080p video capture. The camera which is made up of five elements with a f/2.2 aperture features autofocus, 5x digital zoom and an LED flash. The new setup promises better low light photography, which is becoming a base requirement for modern cameraphones.
The handset is powered by a 1.7GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, which feels aged compared to modern smartphones, but should be able to get you through the BlackBerry OS. The company has added 2GB of RAM on their device, which feels generous enough.
The Z30 comes with a 2880mAh battery, which the company claims is capable of 50% more battery life than its current competitors because of its software optimizations. This is still to be proven in the real world, so we should probably wait for some reviews before we take that as a fact.
In terms of connectivity and extras, the Z30 is fully loaded with GPS, 4G LTE connectivity,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE (low energy), NFC, and a nice perk in the form of a microHDMI port.
BlackBerry 10.2
The BlackBerry Z30 comes with BlackBerry 10.2, the latest version of the company's mobile operating system. Among the new features that BB 10.2 brings to the table are the BlackBerry Priority Hub – your one stop place for all your personal communications and notifications across a plethora of services. The now refined BBM brings systemwide chat notifications, and will let users preview and respond to incoming communication without having to fire the app itself.
Release and Availability
The BlackBerry Z30 will be released in Hong Kong and Malaysia starting on October 5th and will be priced at approximately $620. As for the rest of the world, the Z30 will be available from select carriers and retailers, beginning with those in the UK and the Middle East (where BB is still popular), and reportedly other undisclosed regions before the holiday season.
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