1. henry007's Avatar
    Hardware: Upon unboxing, the first thing you see is the device with 4-corner edges, solid build quality and a very interesting casing. The textured back is the best on any BlackBerry on the market coz it has the most aesthetically pleasing friction to prevent accidental drops. The hard keys have been moved to the left leaving the right side of the device seemingly bare as there's a sim and sd slot on there that's covered by a tight protective cover/flap that doesn't creak or move when you apply pressure thus adding to the overall build quality of this device. I have only had it for a week and I get asked if it's an xperia Z or some Sony device. How one could mistake plastic for glass is unknown but the z3 unibody minimalist design is a steal for its price.

    Screen and Display: Turning the device on you may not notice it's a 540X960 screen resolution until you put it side by side a 720p phone. As you would expect the 720p is slightly sharper but not by much. It also has a yellowish tint to the display but adjusting white balance which is a feature on the phone would fix that. The glass used on the screen is a finger print magnet, luckily it doesn't scratch do I dropped it on the screen by mistake but I mean, it's a finger print troll and could affect viewing experience in day light. I advise you get/order a screen protector to come with or suffer from the ugly sight of extreme smudges. Other than these small gripes, screen isn't bad to look at. I find sometimes, lengthy reading on some phones' display at night gives me a headache but the z3 is so easy on the eyes, like staring at a book, no strain what so ever even after several hours of continuous "night" chitchatting, something that causes headaches and strain the eyes on most SAMOLED displays.
    BB10 OS and Android Runtime: the z3 runs on BB10 OS smoothly and without lag. Runs 4 apps simultaneously compared to the other os10 devices which run 8 apps. That's the only real life difference, RAM limitations didn't reflect in the day to day usage and apps haven't closed on me yet. Android runtime needs work but some android apps like instagram, tube mate,photo grid, mxplayer opera mini and some android games like candy crush work without any hitch but some other android apps lag occasionally or don't work at all like ubersocial and
    Google play store. Might interest you to know we'd be seeing an upgrade in the android runtime to 4.3 jellybean this September to further bridge the games and apps gap. The OS is otherwise fluid and very seamless, if you've used any bb10 device, you already know what I mean, everything just flows, if not, it's never too late to find out.

    Camera: it's a 5-mp shooter, nothing impressive here. Takes great pics for Facebook,IG and other social media. Black and white documents show up nicely. It's an auto focus lens and that's about it. Color rendition, noise cancellation and other options need work and apparently we would be seeing a few of that with the new OS 10.3 soon to be released.

    Keyboard: BB10 OS has the best on-screen keyboard on planet earth. Everyone should know this. Unfortunately not Everyone does but take it from someone that has used a lot of touch keyboards (ios, android, swype swift wp7/8 etc).
    Much can be said about the z3's keyboard, it's classic, it's black, it reads our minds lol, learns from our texts and emails, the pattern with which we communicate and then form sentence in a few swipes using only one finger with built in word prediction which is more intelligent than any android/ios keyboard so far.
    By the way, this entire review was done with my trusty z3 keyboard.

    Battery Life: what's a smart phone without battery life?! Z3 packs a 2500mAh battery which is more than enough for your daily use which is about 12 hours of combined use with 2hrs standby before you hit 10% granted you're not playing heavy games for too long. I'm a heavy user so battery life is subjective to my daily use which is continuous browsing the web,chatting, instagram , twitter, emailing, light gaming (20mins of candy crush etc) , 30mins of music over headset,15 mins of calls daily and about 10 emails sent and received. Battery showed great improvement too after the first few days of use. The z3 takes about 2hrs 30mins to charge from 10-100%. I have to say that this is the battery life the z10 so desperately needed to be a true beast as at when launched but I guess that omission makes it easier for new users to decide what phone to get btw the z10 and the z3. For comparison sake,Gsmarena.com puts z3 at 15 hrs of call time while z10 only 10, z10 gives you 46hrs of music playback while z3 gives you 84hrs which is almost double.

    In conclusion, the z3 is a very affordable smartphone that excels at the simple stuff other smart phones might take for granted (even high end ones) thanks to the buttery smooth OS 10. Z3 isint going to win any spec or innovation awards but it is the surest way to get a 5inch bb10 device without shelling out sub $400

    Posted via BlackBerry Z3
    Last edited by henry007; 08-29-14 at 04:37 AM.
    08-28-14 06:40 PM
  2. bigbadben10's Avatar
    Excellent review OP.

    Posted with my gorgeous Z30
    08-29-14 12:33 AM
  3. pttptppt's Avatar
    Excellent review but we're not getting 4.4 kitkat, we're getting 4.3

    Posted via CB10
    08-29-14 12:36 AM
  4. Jrox74's Avatar
    Thank you Henry007 for the review as I've been waiting to hear some news and personal views on the Z3. Very informative & straight to the point. Thanks for taking the time to put this out there for all of us that have been curious about the Z3 from a users standpoint. Rocking 24-7 with my Z10 & 16GB PlayBook.
    08-29-14 01:10 AM
  5. henry007's Avatar
    Excellent review but we're not getting 4.4 kitkat, we're getting 4.3

    Posted via CB10
    Corrected, thanks!

    Posted via BlackBerry Z3
    08-29-14 04:39 AM
  6. HereticHermit's Avatar
    henry, good to see you rocking that z3 after many questions you have had on forum about new device. with all the shortcoming this entry device may have, in the end its all about bb10 experience all the way and yes 5 inch screen estate and a battery that keep going on and on Z3 is no underdog in own right. cheers!
    henry007 likes this.
    09-01-14 03:28 PM
  7. ckcBBZ3rocker's Avatar
    I couldn't agree more. Nice review.
    Been rocking my #BlackBerryZ3 for almost a month now. And I couldn't be any happier. #BlackberryPhilippines #BlackberryForever

    Posted via CB10 using my BlackBerry Z3
    henry007 likes this.
    09-09-14 11:01 AM
  8. henry007's Avatar
    [UPDATE AFTER 2 MONTHS] no glitches, no lags, no breaks. Minor scratch from dropping the device. Same amazing AMAZING Battery life. My BlackBerry z3 and I would go a long way. I'm never giving this baby up, she gon grow old and die with me. Still running factory OS Z3STJ100-1/10.2.1.3247 . I'm very very very skeptical about installing leaks whether Sacheesi or autoloader(didnt work out so great on my previously owned z10) but I'd be sure to try that when I have a new daily driver....Passport hopeful

    Posted via BlackBerry Z3
    10-26-14 12:14 PM

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