BlackBerry Z3 Touchscreen Budget Phone to Hit Indian Stores Soon, Likely to be Priced Under ₹11,000: Report

Canadian smartphone maker is reportedly prepping to launch an affordable touchscreen handset BlackBerry Z3 in India by this month end.

Media house, The Indian Express, citing sources has claimed that BlackBerry would launch the company's first touchscreen budget smartphone BlackBerry Z3 in the subcontinent in two weeks' time.

The new BlackBerry Z3 was originally unveiled last month in Jakarta (Indonesia) for a price amount of IDR 2,199,000 (around ₹11,500). It is learnt that the smartphone received an overwhelming response and to cash-in on the success, the company is apparently planning to launch it in the price sensitive Indian market for under ₹11,000.

BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5.0-inch qHD (960x540p) and ships with the newly updated OS (v10.2.2), 1.2GHz snapdragon dual-core processor, 1.5GB RAM and 8GB inbuilt storage (expandable up to 32GB). It also houses a 2500 mAh battery (non-removable) that can run the device for up to 15.5 hours of talk-time and close to 16 days under standby mode.

The budget smartphone also boasts of a 5.0-megapixel camera (with flash, 5 x digital zoom, image stabilization, and full HD video recording ability) and a 1.1-megapixel fixed-focus snapper on the front. It also boasts of an on-screen LED indicator, proprietary BlackBerry^® Balance™ technology, offering dedicated profiles to keep user's work and personal data separate and secure.

Lately, Indian market is witnessing a surge in budget smartphone launches which many attribute to the storm raised by the Moto E. Since its first release in mid-May, Motorola phone has got re-launched more than five times and on all occasions, the products were sold-out within hours. Many domestic vendors like Micromax, Lava, Xolo and others followed suit to release budget handsets with the latest Android KitKat OS.

And now, BlackBerry which used to mainly focus on the top-end market is set to try its luck in the highly competitive budget handset business. Many believe this business model is likely to help the beleaguered Canadian company to get back on its feet.

It has to be noted that the new smartphone Z3 is the first device to come out of the collaboration between BlackBerry and Chinese OEM (Original Equipment manufacturer) partner Foxconn, which is popularly known for its business partnership with American technology giant, Apple Inc. The company has plans to launch few more handsets later this year.

Key specifications of BlackBerry Z3:

[Image Credit: BlackBerry]