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BlackBerry Z3 review

Đỗ Đức Huy

So I get this phone about mid August and have use it as my daily driver ever since and this is my sum up of the device in general. First time doing any reviews though so bear it with me guys.

The phone is well built and exceptionally sturdy and could be passed for a mid range phone not a low end one like its advertise. BlackBerry never learns how to make cheap looking phones anyway. Design wise it is like every slate phone right now on the market with sharp corners and tapered sides. With the phone facing you you have  the volume rockers and on/off key on your left and the sim card/sd card on the right under a plastic cover. This is not that big of a deal if you don't mess with the cards a lot but please handle with care.

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The hub is freaking awesome. If you value communication at all you will love it. You do every bit of communication from it and it saves you a lot of time messing with apps. I was able to keep up with a Facebook chat with two friends and a email chain for three hours while I was on a bus and never missed a beat. This hub is freaking awesome. But keep in mind if you're the security conscious type you might want to have a password on your phone because accessing the hub is really easy and you don't want other peoples reading your stuff eh ? 

The camera sucks in low lights, serviceable in good lighting. Here are some random photos I take over the past three weeks for you viewing pleasure.

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The LED is dim compared to legacy devices but in line with other phones from the Android platform. This is a mega pet peeve for me coming from a BBOS phone with it bright LED notification.But the phone saving grace for me is it exFAT support. thanks to the patent cross licencing deal with MS in 2012 BlackBerry was able to implement this on every BB10 phones to date and being able to stuff files larger than 4Gb to my phone take the sting of being stuck with only 6gb of flash more tolerable 

 

 

The screen is 540 pixel wide but is displayed to 720p like its bigger brother the z30 for ease of developing apps and software compatibilities. Good enough if you come from the feature phone world or legacy BlackBerry but is you're from a flag ship world don't keep your hope up. Funny thing that some angle reveals the screens pixelation more than others with side ways the worse.  

 

 

The key board and its prediction is quite good but swiping up for word is not as fast as I thought I would. Maybe it's because I've come from a physical keyboard and be come used to typing things really fast.

 

 

The battery is not that good for me though. It last me a full 24hrs of usage and rest but I can drain 40% of it in just three and a half hours of messaging and Facebook. Not that blown away. But your mileage may vary and that kind of usage maybe exceptional for some of you. After letting it sit for a week or two I can get a day of Heavy usage from it (I waste my time on Imgur on it instead of on my PC so YMMV)

System Spec: H87 mobo from Zotac, I3 4130, 4GB ddr3 1600mhz Cas 11, WD green 2TB all in side of a Cooler Mater Elite 120

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also its insanely cheap

you could get one unlocked for 290$

 

also APK support for android apps are nice addition

If your grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it You are automatically drafted into the skeleton war.

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also its insanely cheap

you could get one unlocked for 290$

 

also APK support for android apps are nice addition

....knowing that I can get a very decent Lumia with that money I would never get this phone.

Specs: 

Spoiler

 

PC:CASE: FD Define r6 | CPU:Intel Core i7-8700k | MB: MSI z370 PC Pro RAM: 32GB Corsair vengance LPX 3000 GPU: Asus rx 6900xt Tuf STORAGE: nand 500GB Samsung 970Evo plus ; Game Storage: 2TB Samsung 860QVO Storage: 2 x WD Green 4TB | PSU: Corsair RM850x | CPUCooler: Noctua NH-D15   DISPLAY: LG 27GL850

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....knowing that I can get a very decent Lumia with that money I would never get this phone.

why in the hell would some one buy a windows phone !

 

Android > iOS > BB > WP

If your grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it You are automatically drafted into the skeleton war.

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also its insanely cheap

you could get one unlocked for 290$

 

also APK support for android apps are nice addition

290 $ 

my friend  got Z3 Here just arround 180-210 $

with the jakarta edition

Current Build + Setup

AMD Ryzen 7 5700X | GIGABYTE B550 Aorus Pro v2 | CORSAIR Dominator Platinum 16gb 3600Mhz | GIGABYTE RTX 3070 AORUS MASTER OC 8 GB | NZXT H510 Elite | 2TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM | ADATA XPG GAMMIX S7 512GB M.2-2280 NVME | Corsair RM850 80+ Gold Modular PSU | NZXT Kraken X63 | Harman Kardon Soundstick 4 | Koorui 27E1Q

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290 $ 

my friend  got Z3 Here just arround 180-210 $

with the jakarta edition

yeah since no one is really buying them u can get it at a great price

If your grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it You are automatically drafted into the skeleton war.

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The camera on that thing is legit!  Some pictures are more clear than others, but the ones that are in good focus are freaking beautiful for a camera phone.

"I genuinely dislike the promulgation of false information, especially to people who are asking for help selecting new parts."

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why in the hell would some one buy a windows phone !

 

Android > iOS > BB > WP

I dont see why someone wouldnt. With all the new updates it has received lately there really isnt anything or really very little that I miss. Plus it works flawlesly and fast and no unnecessary lagg. And dont get started on the apps war because there are enough of em and new ones are comming all the time. So...the way i d put your chart is  Android=IOS=BB=Windows. Because each one of those has at least 1 thing that's better than on the other OS, so it is really just about your personal preference.

Specs: 

Spoiler

 

PC:CASE: FD Define r6 | CPU:Intel Core i7-8700k | MB: MSI z370 PC Pro RAM: 32GB Corsair vengance LPX 3000 GPU: Asus rx 6900xt Tuf STORAGE: nand 500GB Samsung 970Evo plus ; Game Storage: 2TB Samsung 860QVO Storage: 2 x WD Green 4TB | PSU: Corsair RM850x | CPUCooler: Noctua NH-D15   DISPLAY: LG 27GL850

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I dont see why someone wouldnt. With all the new updates it has received lately there really isnt anything or really very little that I miss. Plus it works flawlesly and fast and no unnecessary lagg. And dont get started on the apps war because there are enough of em and new ones are comming all the time. So...the way i d put your chart is  Android=IOS=BB=Windows. Because each one of those has at least 1 thing that's better than on the other OS, so it is really just about your personal preference.

so u dont agree with linus's last review on WP8 ?

 

BB has one of the best communication apps

iOS is simple and just works

Android has freedom

 

and WP  is .... i dont know it seems bad in everyway

If your grave doesn't say "rest in peace" on it You are automatically drafted into the skeleton war.

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I got mine for 4.5 million Dong which translate to 220$ ish. for that price range the only phone that get my recommendation is the Asus Zenfone5. No other phone come close to it. But I hate the mess that is Android and the lack of support for better file system like NTFS or exFAT pushed me over. The fact that this phone kept up with a flood of messages as I stated above is the final nail in the coffin for the Zenfone. Try sending out 300 messages in two hours on any phone other than a BlackBerry and you know why they're still in business. This thing never missed a beat and looking at the spec ? Dual core A7 at 1.2ghz, 1.5gb of ram and 8gb of flash. Tell me one Android phone or any other phone that can manage to do that much for such a low spec. You just can't

System Spec: H87 mobo from Zotac, I3 4130, 4GB ddr3 1600mhz Cas 11, WD green 2TB all in side of a Cooler Mater Elite 120

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what do you mean by you could see pixels from an angle.and NTSC is useless its not like this phone has 128gb internal memory and the micro sd is just slow

Sent from my Nexus 7 (2013).

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what do you mean by you could see pixels from an angle.and NTSC is useless its not like this phone has 128gb internal memory and the micro sd is just slow

I meant if you tilt the phone, the pixelation become more pronounced . And NTFS is freaking useful if you want to use your phone  sd card as a USB at all. Less stuff to carry around and less stuff to loose

System Spec: H87 mobo from Zotac, I3 4130, 4GB ddr3 1600mhz Cas 11, WD green 2TB all in side of a Cooler Mater Elite 120

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I got mine for 4.5 million Dong which translate to 220$ ish. for that price range the only phone that get my recommendation is the Asus Zenfone5. No other phone come close to it. But I hate the mess that is Android and the lack of support for better file system like NTFS or exFAT pushed me over. The fact that this phone kept up with a flood of messages as I stated above is the final nail in the coffin for the Zenfone. Try sending out 300 messages in two hours on any phone other than a BlackBerry and you know why they're still in business. This thing never missed a beat and looking at the spec ? Dual core A7 at 1.2ghz, 1.5gb of ram and 8gb of flash. Tell me one Android phone or any other phone that can manage to do that much for such a low spec. You just can't

Moto G?

i7-8700K @ 5.0 GHz 1.37v, EVGA GTX 1080 FTW Hybrid, Asus z370-A Prime

G.Skill Trident Z RGB 2x8GB 3200MHz CL16, Samsung 960 Evo 256GB, Samsung 850Pro 1TB, WD 3TB HDD

NZXT H440 White, Corsair H100i GTX v2, EVGA 750G2

Corsair AF140 x1, Corsair SP120 x2, Noctua Industrial 3000 RPM x3

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Yeah but the Moto G is not available where I live and they only have a 720p recording mode. But the screen is better in term of resolution. I still stand by my statement that the Zenfone5 in it's 16gb, 2gb ram config is the best bang for the buck mid range phone right now on the market 

System Spec: H87 mobo from Zotac, I3 4130, 4GB ddr3 1600mhz Cas 11, WD green 2TB all in side of a Cooler Mater Elite 120

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Does it run android apps good? My z10 does but with the lower clocked cpu I'm not too sure.

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Does it run android apps good? My z10 does but with the lower clocked cpu I'm not too sure.

It runs okay but the Z3 HAVE lower clock compared top the Z10 (1.2ghz to 1.5) and less ram (1.5gb to 2.0) but it still runs the apps I need fines. Google maps, Endomondo and even some Android games runs like a champ here. BUT YMMV

System Spec: H87 mobo from Zotac, I3 4130, 4GB ddr3 1600mhz Cas 11, WD green 2TB all in side of a Cooler Mater Elite 120

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