14 DAY TRIAL // Shortly after introducing the BlackBerry Z3 in India, the Canadian company confirmed that it would bring the budget-friendly smartphone in the Middle East as well.
Those anxious to get their hands on the Z3 will be able to pre-order the smartphone assuming that they live in the UAE. According to BlackBerry, its newest smartphone is now available for pre-order in the UAE through BlackBerry Store in the Dubai Mall.
Unfortunately, there are no details on the phone’s pricing options for the Middle East, but BlackBerry has confirmed that the Z3 will go on sale in the UAE and Saudi Arabia from July. BlackBerry Z3 will also be available later this summer in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
In case you didn’t know, the Z3 should hit shelves in India on July 2, while customers in Malaysia will be able to purchase it from July 7.
But there’s more to it, as BlackBerry Z3 comes with a special offer for those who purchase it. BlackBerry offers a selection of free premium applications with AED200 ($55 / €40) via BlackBerry World.
Customers who purchase the Z3 will only have to log in to their BlackBerry World account in order to download the free premium apps offered by the Canadian company.
The Z3 is the cheapest 10 OS smartphone launched by BlackBerry, which is why the company plans to sell it in emerging markets first. The handset will also be available in those markets that were once among the most powerful BlackBerry strongholds.
This is also one of the reasons that BlackBerry Z3 was initially launched in Indonesia where the Canadian handset maker still has a fairly decent amount of fans.
The Middle East has always been an important market for BlackBerry, as the company has launched some of its most expensive smartphones in this region.
Anyway, those who are having second thoughts on whether to grab the Z3 or not may want to know a few things about the phone that would likely help them decide.
First of all, the Z3 will ship with Blackberry 10.2.1 operating system out of the box. The smartphone is preloaded with popular BlackBerry apps and services, including BBM, BlackBerry 10 browser, Time Shift and Story Maker.
Hardware-wise, BlackBerry Z3 is equipped with a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, an Adreno 305 graphics processing unit and 1.5GB of RAM.
The smartphone packs only 8GB of internal memory, but comes with microSD card slot for memory expansion (up to 32GB). On the back, the Z3 features a 5-megapixel main camera with autofocus, LED flash and full HD (1080p) video recording, while in the front, there’s a secondary 1.1-megapixel camera.
BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch capacitive touchscreen display that supports qHD (540 x 960 pixels) resolution. The mid-range handset also offers HSPA+, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, microUSB and GPS with A-GPS support.