BlackBerry had a fair share of troubles recently and continues to tackle the obstacles. While luck isn't favouring the Canadian smartphone brand, which was once a signature for business phones, its licensee brand Optiemus Infracom is not ready to give up on BlackBerry smartphones. In that spirit, the company launched two new phones, Evolve and Evolve X in India and let's take a look at how they prevail.
BlackBerry Key2 wasn't ideally a competition-worthy addition to the ailing company's portfolio, but the new Evolve series could have some potential. BlackBerry Evolve and Evolve X target the mid-range premium category in India. The Evolve smartphone is priced at Rs 24,999 and will be available by the end of August, while the Evolve X costs Rs 34,990 and set to go on sale in mid-September.
BlackBerry's new phones will be available in stores and on Amazon.in for those who want to shop online. The Evolve X is flying too close to the sun as its price tag is close to handsets like Asus Zenfone 5Z, Huawei Nova 3 and the critically-acclaimed OnePlus 6.
Let's take a look at what the phones have to offer for their price.
BlackBerry Evolve X
BlackBerry Evolve X features a 5.99-inch Full HD+ FullView display with 18:9 aspect ratio, Gorilla Glass 5, dual rear cameras featuring 12MP (f/1.8) and 13MP (f/2.6) sensors with 6P Lens and dual LED flash, and a 16MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, Tetra Pixel technology, real-time bokeh and LED flash.
The Evolve X is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset paired with 6GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD cards. Under the hood, the phone packs a 4,000mAh battery with wireless charger inside the box.
Security is at the core of both Evolve phones. There's a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, Face Unlock feature, BlackBerry Password Keeper and BlackBerry Privacy Shade and Root protection. Additionally, there's BlackBerry Power Centre that optimises your phone's battery based on your usage pattern, integrated Dolby Audio and BlackBerry Hub – a one-stop-shop for all your social media networking.
In terms of connectivity, there's support for 4G VoLTE, USB Type-C with OTG and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
BlackBerry Evolve
BlackBerry Evolve is a lot like the Evolve X with a few toned-down specifications. For instance, the Evolve is powered by a Snapdragon 450 chipset with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, dual rear cameras with 13MP sensors and dual LED flash.
The display, battery and front camera, connectivity options and security on the Evolve are same as the Evolve X, except there's no wireless charging support. With these features, BlackBerry Evolve is competing against handsets like Nokia 7 Plus, upcoming Xiaomi Mi A2, Huawei P20 Lite and many others.
It's worth mentioning that both phones are conceptualised, designed, and manufactured in India.
