At a press conference in New Delhi today, BlackBerry launched the BlackBerry Z3. The budget smartphone is priced at Rs 15,990 but will be available for a special pre-order price of Rs 14,990.
It also features a version of BlackBerry Maps that offers 2D maps, local search, and 3D voice guided turn-by-turn directions for users in India. The BlackBerry keyboard also supports Hindi and Hinglish predictive input.
BlackBerry India MD Sunil Lalvani talked about the recent financial results which saw BlackBerry turning in a surprising profit. Lalwani also highlighted recent gains, including 33K BES 10 servers within a year of launch, cash up to $3.1 billion, 16 out of 20 G20 governments use BlackBerry and 7 out of 8 G8 governments.
‎Battery was the first thing highlighted followed by the build quality.
Android ‎apps compatibility was also openly touted.
The phone has a 5-inch touchscreen and features include a dual-core, 1.2GHz CPU from Qualcomm, 1.5GB of RAM, 8GB onboard storage, expandable memory up to 32GB as well as connectivity options like NFC, GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB 2.0.
The Z3 also manages to pack in a relatively large battery of 2500mAh capacity, which gives it really good battery life.
The BlackBerry Z3 will be available for pre-order with the Mobile Store, FlipKart and all BlackBerry Exclusive stores from July 2. Flipkart pre-booker will get a Rs.1000 voucher.
Customers will be able to pre-order from June 25 to July 2.
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