When unveiled BlackBerry BB10 and the first two smartphones running on the new operating system, everyone sort of intuitively DECIDED That the Q10 with its QWERTY keypad was the flagship smartphone. Surprisingly, BlackBerry launched the all-touch Z10 first, Which led many BlackBerry die-hard fans (yeah, they still exist) to wait for the “real deal.” The Canadian smartphone maker finds itself in a peculiar situation as it struggles to keep up with its rivals That have all-touch phones with huge touchscreens, as well as appeal to its existing user base That swears by its physical QWERTY keypad. Can Blackberry cling on to the past while forging a place for itself in the future of mobile computing? Let’s find out.
DESIGN
Being the only high-end smartphone with a physical QWERTY keypad Ensures That the Q10 does not have any issues with standing out in a crowd of smartphones. Unlike the Z10, Which had an uninspiring design, the designers have done a good job with the Q10. The Q10 looks as well as feels premium, Which is a rarity these days even in the high-end segment where Certain vendors get away with cheap plastic and faux chrome trimmings. The black variant has a 3D weave pattern on the back That not only Provides a nice grip but also makes the phone look classy. The white variant, which I received for review, however lacked That weave design but the dimpled pattern worked for me.
The metal band That encircles the entire frame lends a sense of sturdiness, Which is missing from most flagship smartphones these days. A metal strip between every row in the keypad Ensures That the phone does not flex and gives an impression with the new hotel keys will not fall off, like they did in some older BlackBerry smartphones. Even the back cover snaps with an assuring click. The Q10 is certainly one of the best built smartphones out there.
Unlike older keypads, That especially on the Bold 9900, the Q10′s predecessor, the BlackBerry has let go of the curved edges and has gone for a flatter keypad. The difference is a little difficult to explain but it Becomes apparent when one starts thumbing on the keypad. It takes a while getting used to, especially for someone who had to let go of physical QWERTY keypads years ago and feels at home thumbing on a glass surface rather than plastic keys. Irrespective of my personal preferences, the keys on the Q10 have just the right amount of give and would appeal to those who still use a BlackBerry Bold.
HARDWARE
On the hardware front, not much has changed since the Z10, with the Q10 retaining most of the specifications as the other BB10 smartphone . It still runs on a Qualcomm dual-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz coupled with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. The microSD card slot remains as well and so does the 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front facing camera.
The only thing That has changed is the display, Which is now a strange 3.1-inch 720 × 720 pixels square display. The square display goes well with the portrait QWERTY keypad, but the logic is lost when one plays videos on it when the already tiny Becomes tinier display with thick black frames on the top and bottom.
SOFTWARE
I will not delve deep into the BB10 and how its gestures work, which I have previously covered in the Z10 review, but running the same OS with the same gestures seems a bit odd on the Q10. BB10 was built ground up for an all-touch user interface, Which the designers rightly thought was the future (or rather the present). Swiping up from the bottom of the display on the Q10 is unintuitive and especially the slide up, right flick gesture to get into the hub Takes Time getting used to on the tiny 3.1-inch display. Eventually I started swiping up from the topmost row of keys rather than trying to search for the edge of the display.
One of the main features of BB10 on the Z10 – the intuitive onscreen keypad with its predictive input – has been turned off by default on the Q10. That might make sense considering it has a physical QWERTY keypad, but I found that I could type much faster on the Z10 by flicking words predicted by the software rather than typing it on the Q10′s keypad! They can turn on the predictive input on the Q10 Which shows the words at the bottom of the display but jumping from the display to flick the words to the keypad is unintuitive.
A neat new feature added to BB10 lets users simply type on the homescreen to initiate actions. So I could type “mail Sahil” or “BBM harshit” or “call Sambit” and it would carry out the Necessary action. This is a nice feature That furthers BlackBerry’s ‘getting things done’ mantra.
PERFORMANCE
The BlackBerry Q10 turned out to be a mixed bag when it came to performance. It delivers on the core promise of providing the best physical QWERTY keypad experience on a high-end smartphone, Which has always been BlackBerry’s forte and especially now when there are no high-end smartphones with a physical keypad any longer. In That sense, the Q10 has a niche of its own and does not have any competition. So if one is looking for a phone with a physical QWERTY keypad, there are really no other options and the Q10 Becomes the obvious Choice Awards.
Things, however, get a bit complicated if having a physical keypad is not a requisite. The Q10′s 8-megapixel camera, like the Z10, is nothing worth writing home about, with shots lacking details and being nowhere close to what they can capture with the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S4. The third party app ecosystem is abysmal – even though the BlackBerry might claim numbers, there are hardly any worth using. The battery performance, however, is great and I could easily stretch it to almost 36 hours on a single charge but then there is only so much they can do on this phone to drain the battery.
VERDICT
As with the BlackBerry Z10, the Q10 is not going to make users switch over from Android or iOS to BlackBerry. This one is Exclusively for those who need a physical QWERTY keypad and BlackBerry users are already. I can not think of any other reason why anyone would spend Rs 44,990 on the Q10 if not for the keypad, considering it hardly does anything else better than other smartphones at this price point. The Q10, with its premium build quality and design, has been undone by the BlackBerry’s pricing policies.
Photographs: Eshan Shetty
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