Back in January of this year, RIM rebranded itself as BlackBerry and announced the first two phones for its BlackBerry 10 platform, the Z10 and the Q10. Unfortunately for the Canadian company, its new smartphones were too late to catch on with consumers who had moved on to iPhone and Android devices. BlackBerry is now suffering from poor sales and announced last month that it is exploring “strategic alternatives,” which could include the sale of the company.
In the midst of this uncertainty, BlackBerry today announced its newest smartphone, the Z30. The device is larger than both the Z10 and the Q10, sporting a 5-inch display. BlackBerry is also highlighting the device’s 2880mAh battery, which is the largest the company has ever put into one of its smartphones. The Z30 also includes stereo speakers that BlackBerry claims will help out with video chat audio quality.
BlackBerry is still touting its BlackBerry 10 smartphones as more productive alternatives to other smartphone brands. The Z30 will come running the 10.2 version of the BlackBerry 10 OS. The company’s “Priority Hub” message stream is still present in the updated OS, as is its message preview features.
The Z30 will be available in the UK and the Middle East starting next week. It will roll out to other markets around the world throughout the holiday season, and the BlackBerry 10.2 OS update will be pushed to Z10 and Q10 devices sometime in mid-October.