News
Marin Perez
17:42, Jun 20 2013
We review the BlackBerry Q10 for AT&T and see if the physical keyboard lives up the BlackBerry name
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Typical Price:
$199.99
Pros:
Fantastic keyboard, fresh operating system, keyboard is really good (worth mentioning twice)
Cons:
App ecosystem is lacking, small screen not for everyone, camera is weak
Verdict:
The BlackBerry Q10 will satisfy those wanting a modern device with a real keyboard but that may be a small audience.
We review the BlackBerry Q10 on AT&T and see if the second BlackBerry 10 handset is worth your time and money. The BlackBerry Q10 is the first BlackBerry 10 handset with a full, physical keyboard but does it live up to the lofty expectations of CrackBerry fans?
Hardware
I'm going to let you know a secret readers, I still think the design of the original BlackBerry Bold is one of the best I've ever seen. Maybe it was the time or where I was in my life but I really thought it excuded power, strength and class. Yes, the BlackBerry Bold was the "not fudging around" handset.
Times change though, so I was curious to see how I would feel about the BlackBerry Q10 and its full, physical keyboard. The good news: fans of the old BlackBerry handsets and "real" keyboard will really enjoy the BlackBerry Q10. The bad news is that I'm not sure that's a huge audience any more, as many die-hard BlackBerry fans may have already transitioned on to a virtual keyboard and the extra real estate a full touchscreen device grants you.
We'll get back to that in a bit because I don't want to be too negative out of the gate. The BlackBerry Q10 has an immaculate keyboard which will make typing messages on the go an absolute breeze. The spacing, travel back, placement and the little "frets" between the keys are as close to perfect as it gets. My only beef is that I wouldn't have actually minded the keyboard to be a bit larger.
Still, the BlackBerry Q10 is keyboard heaven for you BlackBerry fans who are well-trained at pounding out e-mails with two thumbs. Those keyboard shortcuts which you've obseesed about? Yeah, those are on the BlackBerry Q10 and these work really well. If you absolutely hate the idea of ever having to type on glass, the BlackBerry Q10 is likely the device for you.
The problem with having a full keyboard is that the tradeoff is having a smaller display. The BlackBerry Q10 made me pine for the much roomier screen of the BlackBerry Z10 because I'm just used to - and prefer - having a larger, better screen.
The 3.1-inch screen on the BlackBerry Q10 is fine. At 720 x 720, it's solid but it's not great, especially compared to the cream of the crop like the Samsung Galaxy S4 or HTC One. It's just not large enough for my tastes.
I found myself having to hold the BlackBerry Q10 much closer to my grill to accurately make out what's going on. I know what you're going to say but I had Lasik last year, so my vision's on point. I just really prefer a handset with a larger screen. Going through heavy web pages, scrolling through social networking feeds and attempting to play a game just seemed so confined on this tiny screen. Even attempting Angry Birds Star Wars is just kind of a silly exercise when compared to the experience on something with a larger screen.
The compactness of the device makes holding and touching the screen with one hand fine and the gesture-based nature of BlackBerry 10 means that you won't miss the little track ball that used to be a staple of previous BlackBerry handsets. But again, if you want that physical keyboard, I'm sure you'll gladly take this tradeoff.
The overall design of the BlackBerry Q10 should be instantly familiar to BlackBerry fans, as it seems to mix pats of the company's previous lineup. You get a Bold-like keyboard and a Curve-like footprint. The matte plastic finish on the back feels nice and the rounded corners give it a natural, comfortable fit in your hands.
The BlackBerry Q10 looks unmistakenly like a BlackBerry.
Inside, you're looking at a dual-core Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.5GHz and it's a zippy experience overall - I have yet to experience any significant slowdown or lag. You get an ample 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage which can be expanded via the microSD slot, Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth, GPS and access to the blazing-fast AT&T 4G LTE. It's a powerful handset but not quite top-of-the-line.
Software
When I reviewed the BlackBerry Z10, I felt like BlackBerry 10 was an interesting and fresh take on mobile computing but was ultimately still too immature to really be considered better than iOS, Android or even Windows Phone. Has that changed with the BlackBerry Q10?
No but the BlackBerry 10 software does show that it is flexible enough to adapt really well to a device with a full, physical keyboard. Also, if you're upgrading from a previous BlackBerry (or your work is letting you), the new BlackBerry 10 software will be a godsend.
The BlackBerry 10 software is built around a series of gestures. These will let you exit an app, scroll through home pages, check into your BlackBerry Hub, and a whole lot more. It takes a little time to get used to and understand but it's quite manageable and easy enough to pick up. The compact size of the BlackBerry Q10 and the smaller screen also mean that these gestures are simple to pull off very quickly with one hand.
There is not one single line of code from the previous BlackBerry operating system in BlackBerry 10 and that's a good thing. The BlackBerry Q10 feels like a moder device with a touch-friendly interface. As much as I'll complain about it below, it's still much, much, much better than any other BlackBerry with a full keyboard.
The BlackBerry Q10 was built from the ground up with touch in mind and that shines though even on a device where keys still play a prominent role. I don't really see a need to launch the keyboard shortcuts for most things because tapping an on-screen button is just as fast for me - your mileage may vary.
The BlackBerry Hub is a unified place for your e-mails, Tweets, Foursquare check-ins, BBMs, Facebook mentions and more. You simply do a quick on-screen gesture to get into this and get to all your messages. It's meant to be a one-stop shop for all your important things - doubling down on BlackBerry's reputation as being messaging-friendly - but I'm not sure it's as useful as they pitch it. For things like Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook, I actually don't mind having those segmented into their own apps so that I can just focus on important e-mails. You can tweak BlackBerry Hub, of course.
Some things which are undoubtedly cool include BlackBerry Balance, which lets you swap between work and personal mode with a quick tap. Sure, we've seen profiles before but what separates this is that if your company decides to wipe your device, it won't have access to that personal data.
BBM has also entered the modern age with a fresh design and the ability to do screen-sharing during video chats. While all my BBM contacts have gone to other platforms, I'm excited to see what will happen when BBM lands on iPhone and Android later this summer. It has the potential to really beat the stuffing out of WhatsApp, Kakao, Kik and others.
The BlackBerry Q10 also comes with all the things you'd expect from a modern smartphone including maps, video editors and a pretty good browser. It also has an app store called BlackBerry World and this is where things start to go down hill.
The quantity and quality of apps for the BlackBerry Q10 are still not up to snuff. It has made great strides since I reviewed the BlackBerry Z10, as well-known apps like WhatsApp, Kindle, Angry Birds, Skype and CNN can be had but it's still missing a lot. There's no sign of Pandora, Yelp, Netflix, Instagram or any Google products.
Even when you can find the app you want, many aren't really optimized for the 3.1-inch screen and how that impacts the app experience. The aforementioned Angry Birds Star Wars is still cute but it's not much fun to play on this thing.
You can sideload Android apps onto the BlackBerry Q10 but that's not a perfect solution either because many apps will act or look funky. Simply put, the BlackBerry Q10 is missing a lot of key apps properly designed for the form factor, and these would greatly add to the experience.
The video and music selections in the BlackBerry World are fine but not as robust as what you can get on other platforms. I normally would say you can rely on third-party apps for that but with no Spotify, Pandora, Netflix or Amazon Prime, it's a bit dicier.
Ultimately, the BlackBerry Q10 software is still lacking many things which you can find on an iPhone, Android or Windows Phone.
Camera, Reception, Battery Life
The BlackBerry Q10 has an 8-megapixel camera with a flash and it's a solid device for capturing some photos on the go. The pictures are nowhere near the quality of something like the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 or the iPhone 5 but it's not terrible.
The shutter speed is super fast and it's very easy to send out pictures to social networks, e-mail contacts and more. Pictures didn't have quite the clarity and detail as some other high-end cameraphones, though.
You get an F2.2 lens, 1080p HD recording, auto-focus capabilities and some neat software features like Time Shift. This lets you take multiple photos at once and you can choose combine the faces from different shots to create one good image. It makes for great demos but I don't really see myself using it that often. Video recording is also pretty smooth and solid.
The BlackBerry Q10 has a solid if unspectacular camera and I expect the camera software to get better with time.
The BlackBerry Q10 makes for a great phone, as voice quality sounds superb on both ends. I also found that the speaker at the bottom of the device was pretty loud but it could make music and voices a bit distorted if you raised the volume too high.
AT&T was recently named the fastest 4G LTE network around and that really comes through with the BlackBerry Q10. Downloading apps, browsing the web and streaming music happens in an instance and reception in and around the San Francisco Bay Area was fantastic.
This isn't your daddy's BlackBerry and that also means battery life. While older versions could go for days, the BlackBerry Q10 tops out at about one full work day. That's not bad at all and about on par with what we expect from a modern device.
The Final Take
The QWERTY keyboard is going the way of the dodo bird, so if you're dead-set on getting a smartphone with a physical keyboard, the BlackBerry Q10 is perfect for you. The BlackBerry Q10 has the best real keyboard you're going to find and traditional BlackBerry fans are going to go nuts for the modern and cool BlackBerry 10 software. The AT&T network is really fast where you have 4G LTE and it is quite a nice handset to hold.
For the rest of you out there, it's tough for me to recommend the BlackBerry Q10, especially when it costs $200 with a new, two-year contract. The app ecosystem is still dramatically lacking, I think you'd be better off with a larger screen, and I'm not in love with the camera.
The BlackBerry Q10 is a device that you probably already know if you're going to buy or not. I wouldn't but if you do, be sure to let us know what you think in the comments.
Specifications
Length
4.7 inches
Weight
4.9 ounces
Thickness
0.40 inches
Width
2.62 inches
Screen Size
3.1 inches
Network
4G LTE
Operating System
BlackBerry 10
Built-in Memory
16GB
Video Resolution
8 megapixels
Flash
yes
BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry Q10