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BlackBerry is in trouble, and the company knows it. However, with talks of a sale looming over the Canadian firm, the smartphone maker has chosen to switch its focus to focusing more on the enterprise side of things, as well as a segment BlackBerry executives I spoke to called "prosumers".
The word certainly isn't new, it's used mostly for a certain category of cameras, but BlackBerry defines it as devices meant for professionals who want BlackBerry services in a business environment with a "bring your own device" policy.
That's where the new 5-inch BlackBerry Z30 comes in. It sports a similar design to the Z10, but with a silver bottom. It also runs the latest version of BB10 OS, 10.2 with updated features to make the user experience even better.
Design
The Z30, like the Z10, is very well-made handset. The first thing that strikes you when you pick up the handset is the weight. At 170g, the Z30 isn't the lightest in the market, but it has a solid heft and when combined with the glass-weave rear cover makes for a good grip.
Sporting a 5-inch Super AMOLED display with a 1,280x720-pixel resolution, the Z30 may seem to be a little behind the curve, but I couldn't really tell the difference compared with a 1080p screen. Text appeared sharp, and the AMOLED display helped in making videos pop.
The Z30 comes with two stereo speakers, a feature we've previously seen on the HTC One, and both speakers are located at the rear (instead of the front, like the One). BlackBerry's says that this is to facilitate using the surface it's resting on as an amplifier. I found audio played to be loud with good clarity.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)
To squeeze in the large 2,880mAh battery, BlackBerry has chosen to make it non-removable. However, the phone promises to have up to 25 hours of "mixed use", which means you really only need to charge it at the end of the day (if it holds up to this claim).
Features
The new Z30 features an updated BB10 OS, and comes with a bunch of tweaks. These tweaks are designed to make the OS even easier to use, and include a new notification window for messages that you can tap to reply instantly without leaving your current app.
An improvement I particularly liked, found on the calendar app, was how you could now email those in your meeting how late you would be by various degrees. There's a slider that lets you set how late you will be to even telling them you will not be there. Handy, for sure.
The BlackBerry Hub, accessed by swiping to the left, also gets are improvements in the form of the new Priority Hub. It is able to learn what the important messages from your email and social networks and then groups them up for easy access. Items that are prioritized have a little red mark on the right side.
BBM also gets enhanced with BlackBerry Natural Sound, it makes voice and video chats sound more realistic by sampling a larger frequency range via the four microphones on the Z30. While I got to hear a sample clip, I didn't actually hear an actual demo as the Wi-Fi didn't seem to have enough bandwidth for Natural Sound to activate. I'll reserve judgement on this until I get a handset for review.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)
Performance
The Z30 is powered by a 1.7GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor. It's certainly not the latest and greatest (i.e. the Snapdragon 800) in the market, but the handset was smooth and animations were fluid when I was trying it out.
Connectivity wise, the Z30 comes packing everything you'll find in a modern smartphone, with LTE, dual band Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0 as well as GPS. The micro-USB and micro-HDMI ports sit on the lef, and the smartphone comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage and a microSD card slot.
(Credit: Aloysius Low/CNET)
Outlook
Retailing at S$828 on October 10 in Singapore without an operator contract, the BlackBerry Z30 seems like an impressive handset, though you may be right in thinking that the specs feel very last generation. However, hardware specifications don't really tell the full story, as the Z30 seems to be a great smartphone in its own right. In Asia, the Z30 is also available in Hong Kong and Malaysia.
Source : CNET Asia
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