Faltering smartphone firm BlackBerry has announced the successor to its flagship Z10 handset, as the firm continues to try and claw back market share.
The BlackBerry Z30 packs a 5in (1,280 x 720) Super AMOLED display, making it the firm's largest smartphone to date. The Z30 is powered by Qualcomm's 1.7 GHz processor S4 Pro processor with quad-core graphics and 2GB of RAM.
Other core hardware features include 16GB of internal storage, which can be increased using the microSD card slot, and an 8-megapixel rear camera.
BlackBerry claims its Paratek Antenna will tune reception to provide better connectivity in low signal areas, and faster data transfers. The first will also debut BlackBerry Natural Sound, technology it suggests will make BBM Voice and BBM Video chats sound more realistic.
The Canadian manufacturer has also upgraded the operating system with the Z30 shipping with version 10.2 of the BB OS. Fresh features include BB Priority Hub, which gives precedent to emails, texts, BBMs and social networking notifications from people you talk to frequently.
Users are now able to preview messages from the lockscreen and any application on the device. Similarly, BBM messages can be directly replied to from any app.
Despite these improvements, questions remain over whether BlackBerry can continue to remain a major player in the smartphone market. Many business users have jumped to iOS or Android, and with Apple introducing fingerprint authentication in the iPhone 5S, this is expected to make it even more popular within enterprise environments.
The BlackBerry Z30 smartphone is set to launch in the UK and Middle East during the week beginning 23 September. Pricing is yet to be announced, but the high-end nature of the device means it is expected to retail at around the 400 mark.
BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Q10 and BlackBerry Q5 users can expect the BB10.2 update to be rolled out from mid-October.
