BlackBerry recently released its Q10 smartphone, one of the company’s new BlackBerry 10 devices. The BlackBerry Q10 is currently the only BlackBerry 10 device to feature a physical QWERTY keyboard. In addition, it supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, NFC, GPS, microHDMI, and microUSB 2.0.


( Photo of the BlackBerry Q10 smartphone )

QWERTY keyboard

The Q10 features a physical QWERTY keyboard. The company has not messed around with the keys much. As a matter of fact, the keyboard is similar to previous BlackBerry smartphone models. The curved edges of the device feel comfortable while in the hand and overall, it’s easy to type with.

One can type fast or slow with the device’s physical keyboard – it might take some time to learn for the BlackBerry newbies. Typing with one hand is also possible since the phone is not on the heavy side. Finding the right key is also not an issue since it resembles the keyboard of a regular computer.

Display

The BlackBerry Q10 sports a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen display with 720 x 720 resolution and a pixel density of 328 ppi. That’s smaller than the BlackBerry Z10’s 4.2-inch display, while it uses a different panel to the Z10’s LCD.

The Q10’s Super AMOLED display should deliver bright and sharp content to the phone’s screen, however, some users might consider it to be a bit too small at 3.1-inches when comparing it to competitors such as Samsung’s 5-inch display on the Galaxy S4 or HTC’s 4.7-inch display on its HTC One smartphone. Still, for those who upgrade from a BlackBerry Torch or a previous gen BlackBerry device, it will not be a problem. It is fine to surf the web on anything larger than a 3-inch touchscreen display.

Under the Hood – Performance

Under the hood, the BlackBerry Q10 features a TI OMAP 4470 chipset with dual-core 1.5 GHz processor (Cortex-A9), PowerVR SGX544 graphics processing unit, and 2 GB of RAM. BlackBerry has outdone itself with the hardware upgrades in its BlackBerry 10 device line-up.

The phone has four sensors :

  • Accelerometer
  • Compass
  • Gyro
  • Proximity

The phone’s dual-core processor and 2 GB of RAM is enough for heavy multitasking. It is pretty quick when connected to a mobile and/or Wi-Fi network, with no lag at all while navigating through the operating system. Loading applications is fast and games are actually nice.

Gaming on the BlackBerry Q10 :

Staff at CrackBerry shows you what it is like to play games on the BlackBerry Q10 smartphone. It’s similar to the Z10, however, the screen is smaller.

Video credit : CrackBerry.

Storage Space

The BlackBerry Q10 smartphone is only available in a 16 GB internal storage capacity model. Do not be disappointed – the phone supports microSD cards, therefore, users will be able to expand this storage space up to 64 GB. In addition, there are cloud storage services available for mobile devices.

Camera Quality

The BlackBerry Q10 smartphone is equipped with both an 8 megapixel shooter with autofocus and LED flash, and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. The user can take advantage of Skype calls or BlackBerry Messenger video chat with the phone’s 2 megapixel webcam.

Camera features :

  • Geo-tagging
  • Image stabilization
  • Face detection

The photo quality of the Q10’s 8 megapixel rear-facing camera is actually pretty good, however, colors are a little dull when a photo is not taken in good lighting. Zooming in will make the noise visible.

As for video quality, the phone’s rear-facing camera can record 1080p video, while its front-facing webcam can capture 720p video. In good outdoor lighting, video recording is actually nice.

Battery Life

The Q10 comes with a removeable Li-Ion 2, 100 mAh capacity battery – that’s a higher capacity battery than the one included in the company’s Z10 smartphone. According to BlackBerry, the Q10 should last for up to 13.5 hours over a 3G network for talk time, up to 60 hours of music playback, or up to 14.8 days on standby.

After several tests which included working the phone’s camera, loading multiple applications and games, surfing the Internet, playing music, and taking advantage of some of the device’s features, the Q10’s battery life should make it through the day.