At Rs 43,490, how does BlackBerry Z10 compare to iPhone 5, S III and Nexus 4?

BlackBerry launched its Z 10 device in Mumbai for Rs 43,490 in India on Monday. But is it worth the hefty price tag when there are so many other options for smartphones in the market?

Here’s a quick look at how the new BB 10 stacks up against some of the other flagship devices in the market.

Screen size and resolution: The BlackBerry Z10 has a 4.2-inch screen (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 768 pixels. This comes to 356 pixels per inch(ppi). The screen resolution beats Apple’s iPhone 5 screen which is a 4-inch screen (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels and comes to 326 ppi.

The screen is also better than the Samsung Galaxy S III which is at 4.8 inches (diagonal) with a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels and 306 ppi. The Google Nexus 4 has a 4.7-inch screen with 1280768 resolution which gives it 320 ppi.

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However both Apple and Samsung are going to launch upgraded versions of their devices this year. As far as Apple is concerned the rumours are that they will increase the screen size and pump up the resolution as well.

For now, BBZ10 has the superior screen in terms of resolution.

[caption id=“attachment_609747” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The BlackBerry Z10 in this photo. AP[/caption]

Processing speed: The BlackBerry Z10 has a dual-core CPU clocked to 1.5GHz with 2GB RAM. Flagship devices like Samsung’s Galaxy S III have a 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A9 processor with 2GB RAM in some markets and 1 GB RAM for other international markets. Samsung is rumoured to launch the S IV with an eight-core processor this year.

The Apple iPhone 5 has a dual-core A6 CPU processor which is believed to be clocked at 1.3 Ghz and comes with 1GB RAM, while Google’s Nexus 4 has a Qualcomm quad-core processor which is clocked at 1.5Ghz along with 2GB RAM.

The BB Z10 processor is thus higher than iPhone 5 but still way lower than the Galaxy S III and the Nexus 4.

Memory space: BlackBerry Z10 comes with 16 GB memory and a microSD slot with 32 GB as the maximum space limit.

The iPhone 5 of course comes with fixed memory space; 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB versions. The Samsung Galaxy S III is available in 16 and 32 GB versions with a 64 GB microSDX slot option. The Nexus 4 is perhaps the lowest in terms of memory space as it is available in only 8GB and 16GB versions with no Micro-sd card slot.

BlackBerry Z10 is thus offering pretty decent memory space but clearly not as much as iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S III.

Camera specs: The BlackBerry Z10 has an eight megapixel rear camera and a two megapixel front camera. BlackBerry’s camera also comes with Time Shift option to edit photo and choose the best option from a batch. The rear camera allows 1080p video shooting (this is HD) while the front has an option for 720p video recording.

The Samsung Galaxy S III camera is eight-megapixel for rear and 1.9-megapixel on front with HD video recording option for the rear camera. The iPhone 5 again has an eight- megapixel rear camera and a 1.2-megapixel on front with high-definition video recording for the back camera.

The Nexus 4 has an 8-megapixel camera as well with HD video-recording option and a 1.3 megapixel front camera.

In terms of Camera the BlackBerry Z10 might have a slight edge if one were to just look at pixels but reviewers have complained that the camera doesn’t have too many in-edit options such as no HDR, no ISO settings, no grid etc.

Again rumours indicate that both Apple and Samsung will launch new smartphones with a 12 megapixel camera which could make the BB Z10 seem outdated too soon.

Battery Life: The battery life of the BlackBerry Z10 is upto 10 hours on 3G. It has up to 60 hours of audio playback and 11 hours of video playback and 13 days standby talk time.

The iPhone 5 has eight hours talk time on 3G, eight hours Internet on LTE and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. It has 10 hours of video playback.

The Samsung Galaxy S III has 11 hours of talk time on 3G and 21 hours of talk time on 2G. The Google Nexus 4 has 15 hours talk time.

For a lot of reviewers, the fact that the BB Z10 battery did not last long was disappointing and this might alter the experience for a lot of hard-core BB fans. However BlackBerry is also selling an external charger bundle that users can buy separately for the phone, which would allow them conveniently recharge their phone’s battery. More on that here.

Connections: The BlackBerry Z10 has 4G LTE, NFC and Bluetooth 4.0 support. Both the Samsung Galaxy S III and iPhone also support 4G LTE. However the iPhone 5 does not have an NFC option like the BB Z10 and the Galaxy S III.

Nexus 4 supports NFC, and Bluetooth 4.0, and has an unlocked pentaband DC-HSPA+ (High Speed Packet Access which comes to 42Mbps) but does not support 4G LTE.

In short BlackBerry has tried to provide users with an many connectivity options as possible.

**Price:**The BlackBerry Z10 is almost Rs 10,000 more than Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S III which is available in India for as low as Rs 34,000. The iPhone 5 is on the higher end costing Rs 45,500 for the 16GB version. The Nexus 4 has not yet launched in India and is facing serious supply issues all across the world.

Operating System: The BlackBerry Z10 comes with the new BB 10 operating system. For more critics while the features are refreshing the lack of apps is a big turn-off.

The Galaxy S III runs Android 4.0 ( Ice-Cream Sandwich) though Samsung has begun rolling out the Jelly Bean update in the US and other countries. The Google Nexus 4, of course has the pure Google experience and runs the 4.2 version of Jelly Bean.

iPhone 5 runs the iOS 6 version. The advantage that these phones have in terms of the OS is that unlike BB 10 they have a well established app eco-system. For BlackBerry Z10 this remains the biggest hurdle to over come.