The BlackBerry Z30 is a

high-end In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast t ...

touchscreen A touchscreen or touch screen is the assembly of both an input ('touch panel') and output ('display') device. The touch panel is normally layered on the top of an electronic visual display of an information processing system. The display is often ...

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...

developed by

BlackBerry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy of ...

. Announced on September 18, 2013, it succeeds the Z10 as the second totally touchscreen device to run the

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was o ...

operating system (and the first with version 10.2). The Z30 includes a 5-inch

720p 720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...

Super AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode, ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescent material, and active matrix ...

display (built on 86 μm pixel) with "quad-core graphics", speakers and microphones with "Natural Sound" technology, six processor cores (GPU is a Quad-Core Adreno 320, CPU is a dual-core

Snapdragon S4 This is a list of Qualcomm Snapdragon systems on chips (SoC) made by Qualcomm for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices. Before Snapdragon SoC made by Qualcomm before it was renamed to Sna ...

Pro processor, both 1.7

GHz The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the unit of frequency in the International System of Units (SI), equivalent to one event (or cycle) per second. The hertz is an SI derived unit whose expression in terms of SI base units is s−1, meaning that one he ...

) and a non-removable 2880 mAh battery. The BlackBerry Z30 also uses Paratek Antenna Technology. This refers to the number of proprietary advancements in antenna hardware and tuning technology that is aimed to improve performance especially in regions with low signal.

Features

Operating system and software

The BlackBerry Z30 uses the new

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobile", the operating systems used on ...

based on

QNX QNX ( or ) is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. QNX was one of the first commercially successful microkernel operating systems. The product was originally developed in the early 19 ...

. The

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

of BB 10 is based on the concept of

direct manipulation In computer science, human–computer interaction, and interaction design, direct manipulation is an approach to interfaces which involves continuous representation of objects of interest together with rapid, reversible, and incremental actions ...

, using

multi-touch gestures In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CERN, MIT, University of ...

. Interaction with the OS includes gestures such as swipe, tap, pinch, and reverse pinch, all of which have specific definitions within the context of the BB10 operating system and its multi-touch interface. The Z30 comes pre-loaded with: ''BlackBerry Browser (with

Flash Player Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...

)'', ''BlackBerry Hub'', ''Contacts'', ''BlackBerry Calendar'', ''BBM'', ''Text Messages'', ''BlackBerry World'', ''BlackBerry Remember'', ''Docs To Go (for PowerPoint, Word, Excel)'', ''Pictures'', ''Music'', ''Videos'', ''Story Maker'', ''Facebook'', ''Twitter'', ''LinkedIn'', ''Foursquare'', ''BlackBerry Maps'', ''Games'', ''YouTube'', ''Voice Control'', ''Weather'', ''Active Frames'', ''Clock'', ''Calculator'', ''Compass'', ''File Manager'', ''Box'', ''BlackBerry Connect for Dropbox'', ''Print To Go'', ''Smart Tags'', ''Settings'','' Android Runtime'', ''Adobe Reader'', ''Phone'', ''Camera/Video Camera/Time Shift'', ''Setup'', ''Help'', ''SIM Toolkit'', ''Search''. The phone has a mobile hotspot functionality, which supports up to 8 devices, sharing its internet connection. It accesses the

BlackBerry World BlackBerry World (previously known as BlackBerry App World) is an application distribution service, aka an 'app store', and application by BlackBerry Limited; for BlackBerry 10 devices, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and a majority of BlackBerry OS devi ...

, an online application distribution platform for the BlackBerry OS. The service allows users to browse and download applications, games, music, videos from the BlackBerry World store. The touchscreen keyboard provides an advanced typing experience. It learns the user's writing style and suggests words to help the user type faster, more accurately and with the least amount of effort. The BlackBerry Z30 camera contains the same Time Shift feature as the previous models which is described as: "Time Shift mode captures milliseconds before and after your photo—so you can scroll back on the dial to open one friend's eyes and then forward to catch your other friend smiling, before combining it all to create the perfect picture." The Z30 has Voice Control, that allows the user to operate the phone by spoken commands. Voice Control recognizes natural speech patterns, so that the user can talk naturally and always be understood. It can be used to send messages, compose emails, dictate documents, and search the phone just by speaking to the app.

Availability

The BlackBerry Z30 was first announced on September 18, 2013 in Indonesia. In Canada, the Z30 became available on October 18, 2013 through

Bell Mobility Bell Mobility Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator, wireless network operator and the division of Bell Canada which offers wireless services across Canada. It operates networks using LTE (telecommunication), LTE and Evolved HSPA, HSPA+ on i ...

Telus Mobility Telus Mobility (normally typeset as TELUS Mobility) is a Canadian wireless network operator and a division of Telus Communications which sells wireless services in Canada on its numerous networks. It operates 5G, LTE and HSPA+ on its mainstre ...

Rogers Wireless Rogers Wireless Inc. is a Canadian mobile network operator, wireless telephone company headquartered in Toronto, providing service nationally throughout Canada. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rogers Communications. The company had revenues of ...

(Online Only),

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Canadian crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it provides wireline and wireless communicati ...

and

MTS Mobility Bell MTS Inc. (formerly Manitoba Telecom Services) is a subsidiary of BCE Inc. that operates telecommunications services in Manitoba. Originally established as Manitoba Government Telephones after the Government of Manitoba purchased the Manitob ...

. In the US, the Z30 first became available on November 14, 2013 through

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...

References

{{Research In Motion Z30 Mobile phones introduced in 2013 Discontinued smartphones

Features

Operating system and software

Availability

See also

References