Blackberry Launches Evolve and Evolve X in India

Optiemus is BlackBerry’s Indian manufacturing partner and the two have joined forces to create the Evolve smartphone line, which they have opened with the Evolve and Evolve X models that have just been launched in India.

Unlike their predecessor, the KEY2, Evolve and Evolve X move away from the physical keyboard, presenting an all screen panel, backed by Gorilla Glass 5. Both devices have a 5.99-inch FHD (2160×1080) 18:9 display with the LTPS able to reach a maximum brightness of 500nits and oleophobic coating.

Blackberry says you will be able to unlock the device in just 0.3 seconds thanks to the fingerprint sensors at the back. Both devices also have a face unlock feature that apparently takes just 0.4 seconds to unlock as well.

The phones have a similar textured back that we have seen previously on the KEY2 and there is a new camera UI present. The Evolve has an added RGB+ monochrome sensor while the Evolve X has a telephoto shooter for the secondary lens.

Another new addition to the list is wireless charging, with both phones holding whooping 4,000mAh batteries. The company will be selling its own wireless charging accessory of course but if you still prefer to plug in, the Quick Charge 3.0 is on offer.

Both phones run Android 8.1 Oreo straight out of the box.

Both phones will ship with BlackBerry Power Centre – an app that uses deep learning to analyze user’s usage and thanks to that data, works out a way to optimize battery settings.

Credit: Blackberry Russian Community / YouTube 

So, what is the difference between the two models at the end of the day?

Probably the biggest is the chipset – the Evolve is powered up by Snapdragon 450, while its twin holds the more powerful Snapdragon 660, which happens to be one of the best mid-range chipsets out on the market at the moment.

Another difference stands in the dual cameras – the EVolve X has a telephoto lens for its secondary camera and the primary is a 12MP f/1.8 one. There is not a lot Optiemus reveled about the camera setup on Evolve though, all we know is that the secondary 13MP camera is a monochrome sensor.

The BlackBerry Evolve will be available with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage on a $365 price tag. On other other hand, the Evolve X with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage will cost $510. The Evolve will come around in late August while the Evolve X will appear on the market next month.

The phone are only available through Amazon India and, at the moment, Optiemus did not release any details about their availability outside India.