We review the BlackBerry Z3!

BlackBerry, a company that was on the verge of being sold piecemeal to its competitors, is now fighting back. Their CEO, John S. Chen has turned the company around, and while it’s a mere shadow of its former self, its at least managed to stave off bankruptcy, as least for now. Unlike before, the company is relying a few key devices to entice customers (both old and new) and today we’ll be reviewing one such device – the Z3. BlackBerry Z3 specs

• 1.2Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor
• Adreno 305 GPU
• 1.5GB of RAM
• 5-inch capacitive touchscreen, 504 x 960 resolution
• 8GB of storage, expandable via microSD
• 5-megapixel rear camera
• 1.1-megapixel front camera
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, APGS
• 3G, HSPA
• BlackBerry 10.2.1 OS
• 2500mAh battery

Serious looking, solidly built phone

People familiar with how BlackBerry builds phones would agree that the Z3 doesn’t diverge from the company’s design mantra. It’s a serious looking, black smartphone that’s also pretty solidly built. The back of the phone has dimples all over and uses a rubber-like material that makes it extremely easy to hold on to. The front is dominated by thick black bezels. The volume rocker and the power keys, located on the left side of the device are joined by a dedicated button for BlackBerry’s voice recognition software. Both the camera and the flash are located on the top left of the back of the Z3, while the slots for both the microSD and SIM cards are located on the right of the device, covered by a small flap. We were weirded out by the placement of the key for the voice recognition software, as we often accidentally hit it when we were lowering the volume of the phone while not looking. We’re not entirely sure why BlackBerry thought that a physical key for it was needed (we almost never use Siri, Google Voice, Cortana or any other voice recognition software). The Z3, while hefty, felt really good in the hands. Much like BlackBerry’s other smartphones, the Z3 was made for gettings things done, not for showing off. The 5-inch qHD display pales in comparison to the HD offerings of similar smartphones in its price category. The display also lacks screen protection, which will force you to swaddle the phone like a tiny infant until you manage to get a proper screen protector lest you accidentally scratch it while using it. On the positive side, the Z3’s display is capable of standing up to direct sunlight without too much loss of visibility, though you will have to manually change the brightness as the phone does not have a light sensor and auto-brightness.

BlackBerry OS 10.2 gets things done, but has its flaws

Like most of BlackBerry’s offerings, the Z3 comes with the company’s OS 10.2. We actually used a BlackBerry Z10 for quite a bit back in 2013, and it seems that most of the things that we liked about the OS is still there, with a few improvements. While the app choice pales in comparison to Android and iOS (even the most basic app Instagram is MIA), BlackBerry has made it at least easier to sideload your favorite apps on the Z3. You just need to download the Amazon app store, and from there most of the apps that you know and love can be downloaded and used on the Z3. You can also just download and install the APKs straight from the browser if you so chose. BlackBerry’s operating system takes some getting used to, though what’s nice is that you can operate the phone one handed if you choose. Instead of navigation keys, you use gestures and swipes to move from one screen to the other. Swiping up then left or right allows you to get out of whatever app you’re in at the moment. The BlackBerry Hub contains all of the notifications that comes in your phone, and you can sort through them through their respective tabs. One downside is that it takes quite a few steps and swipes to actually get into the notification that you want, especially when inside the hub itself. If you’re in an app (Facebook for example), swiping down to access things like your WiFi, Bluetooth, brightness, etc. isn’t possible, no matter how hard you try, forcing you to get out of whatever app you have first. If there’s something we really like about BlackBerry 10.2, it’s the keyboard. We usually give the boot to most of the keyboards that come with Android smartphones especially when we’re using them for long periods of time, replaced by our perennial favorite Swiftkey, but the one on the Z3 is an exception (and it’s not because we couldn’t find a replacement for it, because we couldn’t). The keyboard allows you to type quickly, and its unique prediction pattern – it puts words on the letters of what it thinks your writing, and swiping up from those letters puts the word automatically on your message. Pressing spacebar while writing also automatically corrects misspelled words, which makes typing on the phone a breeze.

Decent hardware on tap but games and apps to use it on are lacking

The Z3 sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 processor, paired with an odd 1.5GB of RAM. Transitions are quick, and navigation isn’t hampered with the less than ideal hardware. The problems begin when you try to use the Z3 for gaming. Gameloft’s rather demanding title Dungeon Hunter 4 lagged quite a bit when we tried it with the BlackBerry Z3. Sadly, this is the sad state of affairs for most graphically intense games, especially when they come from outside the BlackBerry World market – you’re essentially forcing the phone to download apps that aren’t certified for BlackBerry 10.2. While BlackBerry OS 10.2 is able to run Android apps, at the end of the day it’s not Android, and you will suffer compatibility issues sooner or later.

Relatively okay camera that suffers in low light

We weren’t expecting much from the BlackBerry Z3’s 5-megapixel rear camera, but suprisingly the camera did well in brightly-lit environs, producing rather clear, crisp photos. We did notice that the AF of the camera is both slow and inaccurate at times (that doll display photo took a few takes to get right). But once the sun sets, the camera struggles in low light, producing photos with a lot of noise.

Excellent battery life that will last you all day

One thing we really liked about the BlackBerry Z3 was its tremendous battery life. While its 2500mAh battery isn’t ground breaking, it managed to give us well over a day’s worth of really heavy use. We were in SG for the Oppo launch a week ago, and the Z3 did not let us down during our coverage. We were connected to the hotel WiFi and a hotspot during the entirety of the event (our day began at 8:00 AM and finished at well past 12 midnight) and the phone managed to last throughout the day like a champ, even though were using it all day checking emails, tweeting photos, etc.

Verdict: a phone made for work, and not much else

In the end, it’s difficult to recommend the BlackBerry Z3 to people, especially if they’ve already started using Android or iOS. It’s an excellent work phone, but that’s about it. It has excellent features aimed at productivity and its security is almost unmatched (though Samsung’s working on that with their Knox platform) – things that most consumers really don’t care about. It’s all about priorities with this phone – if you need something to help you get more things done, this phone is it. For anything beyond that, you may want to pass. The BlackBerry Z3 retails for Php 10,990.