BlackBerry Q5. It’s a big day for mobile
today, as just hours after Nokia announced the Lumia 925,
BlackBerry
has given us a new device too, and it’s the
BlackBerry Q5. It looks very
similar to the
BlackBerry R10 leaked over the past few months, and while details were scarce to start with,
reports are starting to come through confirming its specification.
The
BlackBerry Q5 is set to be a low-cost version of the
BlackBerry
Q10, however its specs aren’t drastically different from its big
brother. The QWERTY keyboard is in place, but the design isn’t as classy
as the Q10’s, but it is equipped with the same 3.1-inch touchscreen
sporting a 720 x 720 pixel resolution.
On the rear of the shapely rear panel (which is reminiscent of the
iPhone 3G/3GS) is a 5-megapixel camera, which also comes with the Time
Shift and Story Maker software, while above the screen is a 2-megapixel
video call lens. It’s powered by a 1.2GHz processor with 2GB of RAM, and
has 8GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot should you need
more. The
BlackBerry Q5 is marginally thicker than the
BlackBerry Q10, at 10.8mm,
but it weighs slightly less, at 120 grams. Other features include a
2180mAh battery, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and if Clove Technology’s spec page
is correct, NFC connectivity. As is obvious from the picture, the
BlackBerry Q5 will come in three colors, black, white and red, and it’ll
arrive running version 10.1 of the BlackBerry operating system.
Although BlackBerry has kept fairly quiet about the Q5’s features, it
has been more forthcoming about where it’ll be sold. It has confirmed
parts of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America will
all get the
BlackBerry Q5 from July onwards; however, it’s not clear if
the phone will be coming to North America. According to CNet UK, the BlackBerry Q5 will be released in the UK, as confirmed to them by retailer Phones4U.
Despite being part of BlackBerry's "Q" range of handsets, the Q5
bears little resemblance to the Q10 it's meant to sit beside. While the
layout and button placement are the same, this really doesn't feel like a
BlackBerry handset at all. On paper, the phone has nearly identical
dimensions to its bigger brother, being only 0.8mm narrower and 0.45mm
thicker. But in reality that difference is palpable. Despite being
designed as an upgrade to the mid-range Curve models in the company's
product range, the Q5 feels rounded, hefty compared to the Curve 9320.
Diehards will be surprised to see that the company has ditched the
removable battery and glass-weave backing, opting instead for a matte
plastic chassis. Users will now have to access the micro-SIM and microSD
card slots via a flap that runs down the left-hand side, next to the
micro-USB port. Up top, you've got a 3.5mm headphone jack nestled next
to the display / power button. On the right is the three-way volume /
mute rocker, which also doubles as the voice control and camera shutter
switches. Meanwhile, the speaker runs along the bottom lip.
Hardware BlackBerry Q5
|
|
|
| Dimensions |
120mm x 66mm x 10.8mm (4.72 x 2.59 x 0.42 in) |
| Weight |
4.2 oz. (120 grams) |
| Screen size |
3.1 inches |
| Resolution |
720 x 720 (329 ppi) |
| Screen type |
IPS LCD |
| Battery |
2,180mAh |
| Internal storage |
8GB |
| External storage |
microSD (up to 64GB) |
| Rear camera |
5 MP AF f/2.4 |
| Forward camera |
2 MP |
| Video capture |
1080p (rear) 720p (forward) |
| NFC |
Yes |
| Radios |
GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900)
HSPA+ (DC 42 Mbps) 1, 2, 4, 5/6 (850 / 1900 / 1700 / 2100)
LTE (100 / 50 Mbps) band 2, 4, 5, 17 (700 / 850 / 1700 / 1900) |
| Bluetooth |
4.0 (LE) |
| SoC |
Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 |
| CPU |
1.2GHz dual-core |
| RAM |
2GB |
| WiFi |
802.11b/g/n |
| Wireless charging |
No |
| Operating system |
BlackBerry 10.1 |
The BlackBerry logo sits between the 3.1-inch, 720 x 720 display and the
island-style keyboard, saved from jostling for space with the speaker,
2-megapixel front-facing camera and LED light at the top of the unit.
The square display means that consuming video content is a choice
between heavy letter boxing or blowing the picture up and
panning-and-scanning (with your finger) like the VHS tapes of yore. Flip
the phone over and you'll see a plain back dominated by the "seven
flying D's" symbol, set between the camera / LED flash and the removable
FCC sticker. Internals-wise, the Q5 is packing 8GB of storage, of which
4.3GB is usable out of the box, so we'd suggest grabbing a microSD card
(up to 64GB) if you're planning to use this as your primary media
player.
Software BlackBerry Q5
We won't cover the same ground here as in our
BlackBerry z10
review, but we can talk about what this OS is like to use on a daily
basis. The handset is running version 10.1, same as was found on the Q10,
which provided a number of minor tweaks including downloading email
attachments, pin-to-pin messaging in BBM, pasting numbers into the
dialer and HDR photography. Once you've gotten used to the gesture-based
navigation system (up to return to the home screen, down for settings,
left for your emails), getting around the device is pretty easy. In
addition, thanks to its bigger bezel, it's actually easier to make the
swipes compared to its comparatively cluttered bigger brother.
BlackBerry has also seen fit to add native Twitter, Facebook,
Foursquare and LinkedIn apps to the home screen, as well as Box.net,
Dropbox and Adobe Reader support for power users. On the downside,
there's no native YouTube app; just a shortcut to the browser. The only
other big differentiation point between BB10 and other operating systems
is the hub -- the company's one-stop shop for your email, Twitter and
everything else. If we're honest, we didn't enjoy using the hub,
primarily because we prefer having our social feeds and our emails not
intertwined as one, but we're sure plenty of business users will
disagree with us.
