Motorola Moto G vs. HTC Desire 516 vs. BlackBerry Z3: Specifications Comparison

Last week, top tier-1 MNC brands – HTC and BlackBerry launched smartphones – Desire 516 and Z3 into the Indian market.

Both the firms known for their expensive devices and in their bid to make inroads to the burgeoning mid-range sector of the subcontinent (third biggest market in the world), are expecting Desire 516 and BlackBerry Z3 to get traction.

However, they will be against the feature-rich Moto G, which has stirred up a storm in the mid-range segment in India, giving domestic brands a run for their money. The competitively priced Motorola phone has raised the bar in the industry by offering feature-rich specifications like Gorilla Glass 3 shield, water-resistant coating, latest Android OS and Snapdragon chipset.

Prospective consumers who are planning to buy a MNC branded phones can look the handsets - Moto G, HTC Desire 516 and BlackBerry Z3.

The main advantage of MNC branded phones over local devices is that the user can be assured of good after-sale services, except Motorola which is limited to tier-one cities, but going forward the company is expected to establish more service centres in tier-2 cities after getting acquired by Lenovo soon.

Here is brief description of stand-out features of Motorola Moto G, HTC Desire 516 and BlackBerry Z3:

Display:

Motorola Moto G flaunts a 4.5-inch HD (1280 x 720p) screen with pixel density of 329 ppi (pixels per inch).

[Note: It also boasts of nano-coating on the phone enabling users to take/answer calls even in rain. However, users are warned not to take the phone for a dip in the pool]

HTC Desire 516 and the new BlackBerry Z3 flaunt same screen size and resolutions - 5.0-inch qHD (960 x 540p) display having pixel density of 220 ppi.

Processor, RAM, Storage Capacity:

All three smartphones - Moto G, Desire 516 and Z3 run on the Snapdragon chipsets manufactured by the industry leader, Qualcomm but differ in CPU types.

Motorola device ships with the Snapdragon 400 series 1.2GHz quad-core processor (Adreno 305 GPU), whereas HTC phone houses a Snapdragon 200 series 1.2GHz quad-core CPU.

BlackBerry smartphone comes with a less efficient Snapdragon 400 series dual-core processor, but the company has compensated this issue by incorporating sumptuous 1.5GB RAM (highest capacity in this smartphone range), which is very essential in smooth functioning of the device. Other two competitors come with 1GB RAM.

In terms of storage, BlackBerry Z3 and HTC Desire 516 ship with 8GB and 4GB storage space respectively, with options of expanding up to 32GB.

On the other hand, Moto G comes in two variants - 8GB and 16GB, but the only downside is that it does not feature microSD card slot.

Mobile Operating System Software:

In this aspect, Moto G holds the upper hand over the other two rival smartphones as it runs on the latest Android v4.4.2 KitKat OS. One advantage of having the latest software is that, it will provide more security features, performance enhancing tweaks and user-interface optimizations.

Whereas, HTC Desire 516 ships with the out-dated v4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS. 

On the other hand, BlackBerry Z3 runs on the new BB v10.2.1; though this a new version, owners will have to settle with limited apps and games compared to Android users, who have access to almost a million applications.

On the bright side, BlackBerry owners can find solace in knowing that the new BB OS is more secured than Google ecosystem, which is littered with malwares and spywares. Android users have to be very careful while installing apps developed by un-known developers. [Now, Android developers have made huge progress in containing the spywares by incorporating filters in Google Play Store and warn users of malicious activities done by an app in their phone.]

BB OS also comes with the proprietary BlackBerry^® Balance™ technology which offers dedicated profiles to keep work and personal data separate and secure.

Camera:

Motorola phone boasts of 5.0-megapixel camera with LED flash on the rear-side and a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front side.

HTC and BlackBerry smartphones too pack a 5.0-megapixel main camera, but ship with different snappers on the front, the former flaunts a 2.1-megapixel camera, while the latter has 1.1-megapixel camera.

[Also read: 'Motorola Moto G vs. HTC Desire 310 vs. Lenovo A526 vs. Sony Xperia E1 Dual: Specification Comparison']

Key Specifications of Motorola Moto G, HTC Desire 516 & BlackBerry Z3: