BlackBerry Z3: Strictly for messaging junkies

BlackBerry had been going through a rough patch since the time its BlackBerry 10-based premium devices did not find as many takers as the company had anticipated. It wanted to position the platform as a premium one relegating the legacy OS 7 devices to the economy segment.

However, it had to change its strategy after inventory pile-ups and had to come up with a budget device after giving premium ones major price cuts. Z3 is the first BlackBerry 10 budget device, and has been manufactured by Foxconn. Though the beleagured company has cut corners on the hardware front, Z3 offers full BlackBerry 10 experience.

But can Z3 be the ailing tech giant's saviour? We try to find out in our review.

Build & Design

BlackBerry Z3 looks like a chunky rectangular glass slab with sharp corners and a rather conservative, utilitarian design. It is primarily made of plastic, but we don't have any qualms with the construction and the average build quality. There's no doubt that the phone feels solid and durable but at 164gram, it is quite heavy.

The front of the device is dominated by its 5-inch display with the BlackBerry logo placed at the bottom, and the earpiece grill on the top. Unlike other BlackBerry 10 phones, the Power, Mute and Volume rocker keys are placed on the left side.

The Power key is a bit cumbersome to reach, but the buttons offer decent tactile feedback. The microUSB port is located at the bottom edge, a first for a BlackBerry 10 device. The left edge houses a flap that hides the micro-sim and microSD card slots. The back features a textured plastic panel that enhances the grip of the phone. It features a 5MP camera, BlackBery logo and a speaker grill.

Overall, BlackBerry Z3 feels durable even though the company has not used premium materials.

Display

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch LCD display (540x960p). As per the company, the phone uses resolution upscaling to prevent pixellation and apps run on the same 720p resolution as that of BlackBerry Z30. However, text and graphics aren't as crisp and good looking as they appear on the BlackBerry Z10 and Z30. We even noticed some pixilation.

 

The display doesn't look as bright as the high-end BlackBerry 10 devices and this hampers sunlight legibility too. Viewing angles looked good. Overall, we feel that the phone should have come with a 720p display, especially at its current price point.

Camera

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5MP rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash, and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. It comes with the Time Shift camera feature to select the best photo amongst a series of group photo captures, and additional filters. Other than that, the app lacks granular controls for settings.

We found that pictures taken in daylight turned out to be above average but the ones shot in less light were quite grainy. The front camera too doesn't take good quality images, but will be handy for a quick selfie or video chat.

The phone's rear camera is capable of capturing 1080p HD video recording while the front-facing camera can shoot 720p video. Videos captured with the rear camera were decent.

Overall, the camera is not the strongest point of the device, a common issue with all BlackBberry devices.

Software

BlackBerry Z3 runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS. The OS features the Priority Hub that highlights important interactions in one place, additional toggles and settings, and the ability to install Android apps, out of the box.

Yes, you can download APK (Android app installation) files from the web or install a third party Android app store such as Amazon Appstore or 1Mobile Market to install Android apps.

The operating system relies on swipe gestures and doesn't come with online or hardware keys for navigation. You minimise or exit apps by swiping up from the bottom and access additional settings by swiping down from top. Similarly unlocking the screen is through a swipe up gesture. The phone offers a tutorial app in addition to making users aware of these gestures at the time of setting up the phone.

BlackBerry Z3's big screen complements the software and makes the experience fluid. Having said that, it does have a learning curve, especially if you're used to Android, Windows Phone or iOS devices that come with dedicated Home buttons.

The UI is essentially divided into the hub, active pane and app panel. The hub stores all sorts of messages and notifications; the active pane shows the last accessed apps (4 in number) in widgetized format, offering glanceable information; and the app list features icons for all installed apps.

We like the interface, especially the hub which makes managing multiple email and messaging accounts very easy. You can add all your social networking accounts including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to the hub.

Interestingly, there is no dedicated app for email. There's an app shortcut for Text messages that takes you to the hub. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp can run as stand-alone apps and even through the hub.

The BlackBerry 10 keyboard is one of the best soft keyboards we've used. It is a predictive keyboard that adapts to the user's typing style and offers intuitive suggestions as you type.

You can choose between 'In-letter' and 'In-Column' styles to get predictions on letters or on a column above the keyboard. It works well for Hinglish (Hindi in roman script) and Hindi. In fact it's very handy for Hindi as it saves you from searching for matras and halants.

Android apps, barring the ones that rely on Google services or Amazon services, run fine albeit with some lag. These run inside an app player that features a back button. You can hide the UI elements of the player, but then you may face difficulty in navigating through some apps.

Android apps that make use of the phone's hardware or accessories (Bluetooth headset, Camera) also don't function as smoothly as they would on an Android phone.

To be honest, BlackBerry Z3 is no substitute for an Android phone. As a BlackBerry user, you just don't miss out on your favourite apps (Instagram, Zite, Flipboard and the likes), but the experience is not as good.

Z3 will receive the BlackBerry 10.3 OS update in September-October following which Blackberry will start bundling Amazon Appstore to download Android apps.

Hardware & performance

BlackBerry Z3 is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. We did not face any issues while navigating through the home screens between the hub, active pane and app panel, and launching and switching between apps.

However, the active pane only supports 4 apps. This means users can only run 4 apps at a time in the background. BlackBerry Z10 and Z30 phones support 8 open apps. Perhaps, this reduction is to prevent the phone from slowing down.

We downloaded the Amazon Appstore and a couple of Android apps through it. Since the apps are running over a special runtime, performance is not at par with native BlackBerry 10 apps. Android apps, including Instagram, Shazam and TuneIn Radio take time to load and switching between them is also not very smooth.

The smartphone comes with 8GB storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. It has a 2500mAh battery, which the company claims offers up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days of standby time. In our use, the phone lasted us a full day (12-14 hours) with medium to high usage. You'll be able to get more out of the battery if your usage is on the lower side.

We were able to play most video (including full-HD ones) and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. The phone offers good call quality and signal reception. It was also able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.

The external speaker on the phone offers loud stereo sound output and the sound quality was good. Z3 comes with a decent set of earphones (non in-ear).

Of course, the sound gets muffled when the phone lies on its back, which is a problem with all such designs that place speakers at the back.

It also offers FM radio without recording capability. The FM radio feature is hidden in the Music app though.

Gaming

We were able to play casual Android games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 with some stutter. We did not face any issues while playing casual games like Angry Birds Go! Downloaded from BlackBerry World. However, graphics-heavy games like Asphalt 8 (also downloaded from BlackBerry World) did not run smoothly and we noticed frame drops and stutter, hampering the experience. The phone is clearly not designed for mobile gamers.

Verdict

At an asking price of Rs 15,990, we feel the BlackBerry Z3 is a competent device if you're a messaging junkie. It offers the best messaging experience with instant access to the messaging hub, the BlackBerry Messenger and a great touch keyboard.

The app deficit problem has also been addressed to some extent with out-of-the-box Android app compatibility. But its similarly priced (just Rs 1,000 more) elder sibling, Z10, is a better BlackBerry device with its 720p display and faster processor.

 

We strongly feel BlackBerry should reduce the price of the phone at least by Rs 3,000 if it wants to sell this phone like hot cakes and regain some mind share.

We'd not recommend you the Z3 if you majorly use your phone for viewing multimedia content or playing graphics-rich games. You'd be better off with a Moto G or a Xolo Q1100 which cost less and offer good performance.