The BlackBerry z30 is now official. This is BlackBerry’s fourth BlackBerry 10-powered device and now following the Z10, Q10 and Q5.
First, let’s talk about the specs. The Z30 is being hailed as ‘BlackBerry’s biggest, fastest and most advanced smartphone.’ This larger BlackBerry is a step up from the other all-touch Z10 and comes with a 5-inch Super AMOLED display (1280×720), 1.7 GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP camera with a 2MP front-facing camera, NFC, LTE, plus a 2880 mAh battery that apparently gives up ’25 hours of mixed use’.
The Z30 runs BlackBerry 10 version 10.2, which ‘includes hundreds of refinements’ that includes improvements to the BlackBerry Hub with ‘Priority Hub’ – this learns your habits and curates ‘what conversations and what people are important to you’ from your email, messages, social feeds. Plus, 10.2 brings the ability to BBM in any app and preview any message from the lock screen.
As for Canadian availability, you can expect the Z30 to be arrive on Bell, Telus, MTS, ‘with other carriers and retail partners to be announced in coming weeks.’ No word on official pricing, but you can expect it to be around the $600 – $650 outright price.
Also, BlackBerry states that “Subject to carrier approvals, BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2 is expected to be available for the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5 smartphones beginning mid-October.”
Finally – note the Flipboard app in the screenshot… looks like the app will launch when the Z30 is officially released.
