Aug 02, 2018

Blackberry Evolve and Evolve X debut in India

Blackberry today released the Evolve and Evolve X phones in the Indian market. Interestingly, India is the first and only market for the new Blackberry phones as of now. To recall, the company recently launched the Blackberry Key2 in the country, which had already been launched in global markets. But the Key2 falls under the premium segment, while the Evolve and Evolve X are priced slightly lower at Rs 24,990 and 34,990 respectively.

The Evolve and Evolve X bring in a DTEK 50/60 like all glass design, but with thinner bezels and more screen to body ratio. Between the two, there are a few touches that set them apart. For instance, the costlier Evolve X has a series 7 aluminium frame and supports Dolby Atmos, it has a telephoto lens on the secondary camera sensor, while the Evolve gets a RGB+Monochrome setting. Both phones get Gorilla Glass 5 protection on front and a textured and rubberised back panel. There is support for wireless charging only on the Evolve X, which comes with a wireless charger.

Unlike Blackberry’s conventional phones, the Evolve series is focused on multimedia consumption. Hence they get a high capacity 4000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support to power them up. To make them suitable for video viewing, both the phones have a 5.99-inch full HD+ display with 1080x2160p resolution and 18:8 aspect ratio.

Dwarfed by the competition?

The Evolve and Evolve X are priced on the higher side if compared to the competition in with similar set of specifications.

The Evolve X is powered by a Snapdragon 660 chipset (the same on Key2) with 6GB of Ram and 64GB of internal storage. It runs Android 8.1 Oreo. It features a dual camera setup having a 12MP primary sensor and a 13MP depth sensing telephoto lens.

The Snapdragon 660 has fared well on the Nokia 7 plus and the Vivo X21, but both are priced well below the Evolve X. In fact, the upcoming Mi A2 is also said to be coming with the same chipset at a much lower price.

Similarly, the Evolve has the entry-level Snapdragon 450 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The given chipset is found on entry-level phones that cost even less than Rs 10,000, but of course, it has much more to offer when it comes to the overall package.

The Blackberry Evolve has a dual rear camera setup with two 13-megapixel sensors and both phones have 16MP front snapper for selfies and video calls.

Both the smartphones have a rear-mounted fingerprint sensors, and are also the first smartphones from the Blackberry brand to have Face Unlock capabilities with a claimed unlock time of 0.4 seconds.

What’s unique?

The two smartphones come with the Blackberry Power Centre app that relies on deep learning to learn and understand your usage and optimise battery settings accordingly. It also allows you to set RAM allocation for each app, and create custom battery profiles.

They have a new BlackBerry Hub too, which brings together all social networking and communication apps into a single hub to get all your social activities at one place.

Blackberry retains its focus on security, where it includes features like Password Keeper app, Privacy Shade and root protection is also available with OS hardening.

Price and availability

The Evolve is priced at Rs 24,990, and the Evolve X will cost buyers Rs 34,990. Both the phones will be available exclusively from Amazon India.

The Evolve X will be available from the end of August, while the Evolve will start selling in India from mid-September.