There’s no denying the fact that BlackBerry(the company formerly known as Research In Motion) has serious problems. Five years ago, everyone from students to housewives to businessmen was willing to pay a lot of money to own a BlackBerry. Three years ago, Android and the iPhone began to make QWERTY phones feel seriously clunky and old-fashioned. Two years ago, we were hoping that the new BlackBerry 10 platform and devices based on it would reinvigorate the company, but ridiculous pricing and questionable decisions at every level destroyed any chance of that happening.
Ever since the launch of the Z10 a year and a half ago, we’ve been waiting for lower-priced models that might offer better value for money and wouldn’t be completely overshadowed by Android. As it stands, there are very few BlackBerry loyalists left, and the majority of those who have moved on to Android or iOS are not going to give the company another chance without a lot of very good reasons. Let’s find out if the new BlackBerry Z3 delivers.
Look and feel
BlackBerry really does know how to build beautiful phones. The Z3 is ridiculously good looking and its construction quality is impeccable. As of now, it’s only available in black but we wouldn’t be surprised to see a white edition in the future. The front is all smooth glass, and there really isn’t much bezel space around the screen itself. The rear is made of a texturised soft-touch plastic with the classic BB logo in the centre. For better or worse, the battery is non-removable.
The camera and flash are in the top-left corner of the rear, much like they are on the older Z10. A plastic flap on the phone’s right edge covers the SIM and microSD card slots, while the power button is placed towards the top of the left edge with the volume controls and voice command shortcut button below it. The Micro-USB port is on the bottom and 3.5mm headset port is on the top. The Z3 doesn’t have a mini-HDMI port, which sets it apart from its higher-end siblings.
The Z3 feels good in the hand even if it is just a bit too heavy. It’s slim, slick, and very well put-together. In fact it could put several high-end phones to shame in this regard.Features, specifications and software
There’s good news and bad news - while the Z3 is brand new and undoubtedly good-looking, it’s built with mostly utilitarian components. The processor is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 with integrated Adreno 305 graphics, but there’s a generous 1.5GB of RAM to keep things humming along. The screen is a bit of a letdown at 540x960 pixels despite its large size. There’s Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 along with A-GPS, FM radio, an accelerometer and a proximity sensor. There’s only 8GB of internal storage space, but microSD cards of up to 32GB are supported(and 64GB cards might work unofficially).
The main attraction is of course the BlackBerry 10 OS. The Z3 comes with version 10.2.1 which is considerably improved over the version that originally shipped with the Z10. The phone might be physically similar to pretty much every other touchscreen smartphone out there, but the BlackBerry OS takes quite a bit of time and effort to get used to, even for users of older non-touch BlackBerrys.
For starters, there are no buttons of any sort to help you move through the OS; you have to remember to use gestures instead. This is problematic because things aren’t always laid out as you might expect them to be, making navigation unpredictable at times. For example, there’s no universal "back" or "home" gesture, and getting in or out of the Hub(described later on) isn’t the same as launching and quitting apps. Moreover, you have to move your thumb quite a lot over the large screen which takes longer and requires more effort than a simple button press would have.Camera
The Z3 is a budget phone and it shouldn’t be surprising that its camera isn’t anything to get excited about. Still, shots are decent enough when the lighting is good, and you can post them to social networks without any problem. At full size, it’s obvious that the camera struggles with details and that there’s a lot of compression going on. We noticed that the camera had trouble focusing in low light, but the flash is surprisingly powerful. Video is again not spectacular, and the front camera is entirely forgettable.Performance
Day-to-day usage was marked by occasional jitters, and there were sometimes momentary pauses on black screens while transitioning from one task to another. Despite looking and feeling like a high-end phone, the Z3 definitely does not deliver a premium experience. The gestures also frankly add a delay to getting things done, especially since they don’t always work. Gestures might give BB 10 devices a clean look, but there’s nothing as quick and simple as hitting a Home button.
Not all our Android benchmarks are available for the BlackBerry 10 platform. The browser-based tests, SunSpider and Mozilla Kraken, indicated performance on par with that of entry-level smartphones such as the Nokia Lumia 630. Quadrant scores were equally disappointing, although it should be noted that we ran the Android APK in the absence of a native BB 10 version.