The company formerly known as RIM is definitely trying to make 2013 the year of Blackberry’s return to people’s hearts. After revamping their OS and launching a consumer friendly device, now its time for return of something ‘bold’. The double entendre is meant for the Bold series of devices and the boldness of a QWERTY keyboard device in a land of all touchscreen devices. Which leads me to the Q10, Blackberry’s new vision of their Bold line. I sought out to answer the question: does the Q10 have a place among the competition? Let’s dig in a bit deeper to find it.
BlackBerry switched up its tactics for the Q10 and used a different screen technology. This is sporting a 3.1inch Super AMOLED display w/ 720x 720 resolution + 330 ppi as opposed to the Z10’s LCD IPS display. You get warm colors with slightly visible pixels. When viewing YouTube videos and images you will have no real complaints as a daily driver. Although the screen isn’t as crisp and vibrant as its brethren, it works well for smaller size.
The engine inside of the Q10 is a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor + 2GB of RAM. Which easily places the alongside of its competitors form other platforms. Super-faster and super-responsive in every way. And unlike other devices, I didn’t even come across the occasional hiccup anywhere. Glad the the new 10.1 OS didn’t effect its overall performance too much.
The Q10 feels faster than the Z10 performance-wise.
Keeping the Q10 powered up is a 2100 mAh battery. Armed with a bigger battery than the on the Z10 on a smaller screen you get great battery life. Minimal usage got close to two days while on the heavier side got me over 11 hours. Always nice to have a battery the can keep up with consumers’ needs.
For the first time ever, BlackBerry made sure to equip its portrait QWERTY with some modern optics. The Q10 houses a 8MP rear-facing camera w/ LED flash and 2MP front-facing shooter for all of your mobile photography needs. The results are similar to the shooter on the Z10 where you good-to-decent shots in normal environments/lighting. The same goes for video quality as well.
You have the lovely auto-focus feature instead of the dreaded entended depth of filed last seen in the Bold 9900. This helps out a lot in taking candid pics on the fly. Thanks to the new software update, you get the added HDR mode that takes photos in high dynamic range lightning-fast. Still with the Time Shift & Story Maker feature to make your photos/videos even better.
BlackBerry STILL makes the best physical keyboard on earth, that hasn’t changed at all.
BlackBerry makes the BEST physical keyboard on earth. That statement is still true but a bit outdated as the devices w/ physical keyboard are becoming extinct. Especially when the iPhone’s auto-correct on its keyboard software damn-near reigns supreme, Android’s Google Keyboard gives you similar results w/ a Swype-like gesture feature, and Microsoft’s Windows Phone keyboard is sharply accurate. The need for a physical keyboard isn’t as necessary. But if you are part of the collective that still appreciates the clicky-clack feeling, nothing has changed, this is still the best.
Software (Instant Actions)
We covered the ins-and-outs of the BlackBerry 10 OS on the
Z10 review but BlackBerry made sure to put a new spin on things with this one. The Q10 makes use of the QWERTY keyboard to power the OS w/ a new feature called Instant Actions. As an alternative to swiping & using the touchscreen, you can simply just type what you to do from the homescreen. For example: to send a tweet, you simply type “tweet” followed by whatever you were going to post in your status. To make a phone call, just type “call” followed by the contact’s name or number. Outside of that, The same gesture-based system of BB10 still remains. It can be a bit cramped at first swiping up w/ the smaller display but you will adapt.
BlackBerry gave the Q10 an exclusive feature with the new software w/ Instant Actions.
Along with Instant Actions, BB updated its OS to v10.1 and offering a bit more goodies for their users. So you get new treats like HDR mode + better red-eye reduction in the camera, the ability to customize notifications from specific users, and improved cursor control for text editing to name the big changes. BlackBerry is already hard at work on v10.2 to bring you even more.
This may turn out to be the company’s unexpected hit over the Z10.
I truly believe the BlackBerry Q10 CAN exist among the sea of all-touchscreen smartphones. There is a market for consumers looking to get a new device without having to compromise getting used to an touchscreen input for texting/email. Now the true test is with both the Q10 & Z10 out for public consumption, it will be interesting to see which BlackBerry gets the better reception. I am personally more partial to the Z10, I have no qualms with the Q10. With the being the legacy BlackBerry device, this should have actually hit the market first. I do see why they didn’t. They wanted a device more fitting of the current mobile climate and the Z10 was it. I can see the Q10 being the bigger success here in the US but time will tell on that analysis.
For BlackBerry loyalists, this is a no-brainer to upgrade to. For everyone else, you may have to ask yourself: do I still need a physical keyboard to get things done on-the-go? Especially when there are a number of great devices in the market that can be just as or more effective.
