BlackBerry 10, the cornerstone of the turnaround strategy of the company known until Wednesday as Research in Motion, has landed. And along with it are two brand new BlackBerry devices, a touch-screen model, the Z10, and a hybrid keyboard and touch version, the Q10.
The Z10 is expected to go on sale in South Africa within weeks — Telkom’s 8ta has said it will begin offering the device on 1 March — and the Q10, which is a clear successor to the BlackBerry Bold, will go on sale in April.
Neither device will offer BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), the flat-rate Internet packages that have helped make the brand popular in South Africa and other emerging markets. But they do pack in some serious hardware, which could help BlackBerry regain lost ground to high-end Android devices as well as Apple’s iPhone, especially in developed markets.
Let’s take a look at the Z10 first.
It packs in a dual-core 1,5GHz processor and a generous 2GB of RAM. It has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera that can shoot 1080p video, a 2-megapixel front-facing camera, and a four-point multi-touch LCD display.
The screen is 4,2 inches in size — slightly larger than the current-generation iPhone — sporting a resolution of 1 280×768 pixels for a pixel density of 356ppi. It has a 1 800mAh removable battery and hot-swappable microSD slot. There’s GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, an accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope and ambient light sensor.
3G and 4G models will be available. The 3G version of the Z10 will be available from all of South Africa’s mobile operators, while the 4G version will come only to some of them.
Now to the Q10. Like the Z10, BlackBerry’s new Qwerty phone also has a dual-core 1,5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. There’s also an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel one for Skype and vanity shots.
The screen is a little smaller to allow for the keyboard – it has a 3,1-inch 720×720-pixel Amoled display for a pixel density of 328ppi.
It features an edge-to-edge glass screen and, like the Z10, is available in both 3G and 4G versions.
BlackBerry has yet to announce pricing for either product in South Africa. — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media
