Blackberry Q10

The Blackberry Q10, is it a desirable device with the wide selection of devices available on the market today?

Blackberry Q10

Blackberry Q10

I’ve recently received the Blackberry Q10 from the Carphone Warehouse for review and a little bit of a comparison against my current phone (HTC One.) The last Blackberry I had was the Bold 9900 and although I’ve fluttered through an iPhone, Windows Phone and Android device since then, I always sort of missed my blackberry, even though my lasting memory of the device was the games were dire…

Mini Review

Summary: a beautifully designed phone with a great QWERTY keyboard. A good OS with strong features however has some teething problems due to the slightly smaller screen when compared to other Blackberry 10 devices.

Best of: keyboard, super AMOLED display, camera

Worst of: Blackberry World still suffers from a lack of decent apps and the screen is a little too small for faultless operation of the navigation gestures Blackberry 10 is based around

Buy Now From: £29 a month on Pay Monthly, £22 a month if you’re upgrading and Sim Free for £499.95 from The Carphone Warehouse

Setup

The get up and go is great, it’s quick and easy to just jump in. It’s a set of extremely simple instructions that explains the functions of the operating system and it allows you to set up your Wi-Fi connection,email etc.

Compared to my HTC?

Very similar to the get up and go of the HTC One, so I would rate them equal in this respect.

UI/Design

Blackberry Q10 UI

Blackberry Q10 UI

The screens are similar to that on Android & iOS, just screens of the installed applications and its much the same as other operating systems in the way that you can create folders, and download as many apps as your storage allows and the screens will add automatically for you.

The core of Blackberry 10 is focused around gesture-based interaction that usually involves swiping up from the bottom, from the left, or down from the top e.g. to close an application you simply swipe up from the bottom of the screen which then displays all the active windows then you click the X next to the one you want to close. This is great in theory however due to the limited screen size sometimes the Blackberry is unsure as to whether I’m using the swipe up gesture to display all the windows I have open, or trying to open an app at the bottom of the screen. If the screen was literally just an inch bigger I think this wouldn’t be an issue, but as you get used to the screen size, the chances of it happening I assume will decrease.

Compared to my HTC?

Although it doesn’t fit in my pocket as comfortably as the Blackberry, the HTC has sheer screen real estate which makes navigation a breeze and for that reason I have to say the HTC comes out on top!

Social/Keyboard

The Blackberry Hub is fantastic for staying connected a true universal inbox that collates messages from email, BBM, social networks, chat, incoming calls, texts and more. It makes things a lot quicker and easier if you are constantly engaged over various methods of communication, you can also just select a section such as a specific email account and it will only show mail from that account on the right hand side. This just makes things less complicated in the long run.

The keyboard is fantastic, and is the one thing I miss from having a purely touchscreen devices. I found tweeting/’facebooking’ and texting a breeze no matter what situation I found myself in, I didn’t feel obligated to wash my hands before typing on it after messy food (yuck I know!) or struggle to text in the rain, I always envisioned that an advert would showcase this with two guys trying to call a taxi in heavy rain one with the blackberry and with a fully touch screen device and comparing the experiences, that or a situation eating messy food e.g. ribs covered in bbq sauce. Just something a lot more fun and to showcase how ‘get up and go’ the device is socially, as that’s how the device stands out for me.

Compared to my HTC?

Here for me the Blackberry completely destroys the HTC, the social apps may not be as advanced but the Blackberry Hub hub and the ‘grab and go’ ability of having a QWERTY keyboard tops the standard offering of the HTC.

Camera

Blackberry Q10 Camera

Blackberry Q10 Camera

I am impressed with the image quality that the camera produced, it struggles in low light as most do but in high lighting it performs very well. The camera has a quick shutter speed which is great for quick snapping when the moment calls for it!

Compared to my HTC?

HTC One Camera

HTC One Camera

The HTC One’s shutter speed is a lot slower than the Blackberry’s which I found to be very irritating when trying to catch a moment on camera. It also has a lower megapixel camera (not everything I know!) But the Blackberry has to take this one!

Audio/Multimedia

The device comes with Blackberry ‘premium’ earphones which to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much from having instantly thrown up Blackberry headphones in the past, however the playback is very respectable (I wasn’t expecting it to match up with the HTC One ‘Beats’ audio) and you can expand the storage with a microSD card which is attractive when a lot of phones you are stuck with the internal memory (my HTC included.) The phone’s loudspeaker is loud and clear both playing audio and in calls however what lets it down is the small screen which made watching videos more of a chore than a delight.

Compared to my HTC?

Here for me the HTC takes it, although the Blackberry’s offering is very good, the Beats audio, stereo speaker and the bigger screen for video pip it above the Blackberry’s offering.

Games/Apps

Blackberry have greatly improved the stores navigation including sections such as Top Paid, Top Free etc. which makes decent apps easier to find, however the store still lacks in it’s flagship apps and lacks the wide variety that is available on android and apple devices. Blackberry have also added music and video to their store, which suggests blackberry are trying to compete with competitors to become a more well rounded brand however I feel they do need to offer something like a monthly subscription for unlimited music to get their service to take off, as again at the moment it’s not as indepth as other providers.

I would say the store offers enough to keep the casual user satisfied, having downloaded a few apps/games I can see that the offering has been improved hugely since older blackberry devices and as the platform becomes better established the amount of games and apps for it will surely increase.

It’s key to note that the Blackberry isn’t designed for ‘gamers’, the specs of the phone mean it can handle most middle range games fine, however some of the more graphically intense games it may struggle on.

Compared to my HTC?

Here a definite win for the HTC as Android has a huge selection of games and apps compared to Blackberry World. The HTC can also handle more advanced games as it has better hardware, although unless you particularly play games on your phone often, you’re unlikely to notice too much.

Conclusion

After using the device for several times one thing that really stands out to me compared to my HTC One on similar usage is the battery life, it’s refreshing not having to charge your phone every day. It is a fantastic phone and the QWERTY keyboard is a dream to type on – if you haven’t tried one yet and you’re an avid texter/email/social media user I urge you to. (No touch screen keyboard is able to come close.) If Blackberry 10 can continue to attract further development and get app/games developers on board the platform has a bright future.

The Blackberry is available for no upfront cost from £29 a month on Pay Monthly, £22 a month if you’re upgrading and Sim Free for £499.95 from The Carphone Warehouse