Blackberry Q10 in-depth review

Looks to win back former Blackberry users with revamped keyboard

Product Blackberry Q10
Website Blackberry
Specifications 3.1in 720x720 Super AMOLED touchscreen, physical QWERTY keyboard, dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 4G and HSDPA connectivity, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 8MP autofocus rear-facing camera with LED flash and HD 1080p video, 2MP HD 720p front camera, Blackberry 10 mobile operating system, 119.6x66.8x10.4mm, 139g
Price £579.95 SIM-free

Blackberry has bet the farm on the success of the Blackberry Q10 smartphone.

The firm's first Blackberry 10 smartphone, the Blackberry Z10, didn't manage to get customers excited.

The Canadian handset manufacturer will be hoping that the Q10 succeeds where the Z10 arguably has not. With its improved QWERTY keyboard and Blackberry 10 mobile operating system, it looks to win over the horde of mobile phone users who used to wield a Blackberry Bold device. You know what - Blackberry might just have managed it, too.

Design
The Blackberry Q10 is one of the most attractive looking smartphones we've tested recently, offering a robust yet sophisticated feel, something that isn't widely available on the smartphone market today. Another thing that isn't widely available is a high specification handset with a full QWERTY keypad, which might explain why we have been so won over by the design of the Blackberry Q10.

Unlike the Blackberry Z10 that features a flimsy, cheap feeling plastic back cover, the Blackberry Q10 boasts a glass weave battery cover, which as well as looking premium has proven itself key to protecting the handset against the elements. For example, we accidentally spilt a cup of coffee over our desk covering the rear of the Blackberry Q10, but we simply wiped it off and encountered no issues as a result.

Long-time Blackberry users might be pleased to know that the design of the Blackberry Q10 isn't far from that of Blackberry's ageing Bold 9900 handset, and we were met with a few remarks from friends and colleagues that the phone looks nearly identical to Blackberry's last generation smartphones.

Keyboard The keyboard, according to Blackberry, is the killer feature of the Blackberry Q10. Well, it is at least for those who are after a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard.

The 35-button keypad isn't too dissimilar to the keyboard on the Blackberry Bold 9900, although the firm has removed the curved shape of the keys for a straighter, more 'ergonomical' approach.

Blackberry's new keyboard button shape works, aided by the larger gap between rows of keys. It's quite different compared to the onscreen keyboards we've all come to know and love, but we soon got to grip with the physical keys. Blackberry has included the predictive text feature found on its Blackberry Z10 smartphone too, which might be a godsend for those who are not too speedy at typing.

We found that the keyboard took a while to get used to, and after a few hours with the phone we still struggled to find symbols and numbers when tapping in passwords and email addresses. However, this is something most users will pick up quite quickly.

The main problem we think Blackberry might encounter is that physical QWERTY keys do feel somewhat dated, with the majority of smartphone users now fluent at tapping on a touchscreen for speedy messaging. However, for those who have been using one of the firm's older Blackberry devices, the improvements made on the Blackberry Q10 keyboard will be very welcome indeed.

Next: Screen, Performance.

Blackberry Q10 in-depth review

Looks to win back former Blackberry users with revamped keyboard

Screen
The screen on the Blackberry Q10 is square, not something that would usually tempt smartphone buyers. However, the 3.1in 720x720 HD Super AMOLED screen is the best display we've ever seen on a Blackberry handset, outdoing the screen on the Blackberry Z10 smartphone with its colour vibrancy and deep blacks.

Blackberry said that because of the Super AMOLED screen technology, it has darkened the background in many apps, including Blackberry Messenger and Calendar, to take advantage of this. This change is noticeable too, and the clarity and viewing angles easily match those of the HTC One.

Our only real gripe with the screen is the same that we had with Blackberry handsets of yore - it's simply too small for certain tasks.

While gaming and social networking proved better than we were expecting on the 3.1in display, tasks like web browsing proved to be a bit of a chore. Sure, there's an onboard Reader feature to make browsing articles a lot easier, but navigating many websites such as this one proved fiddly.

Long-time Blackberry users might be dismayed at the lack of an optical trackpad, and we'll admit that we kind of missed it too. Blackberry's new gestures work well, but we often found ourselves wishing that a trackpad was onboard for scrolling through emails and web pages.

Performance
On paper, the Blackberry Q10 is the most powerful Blackberry, along with the Blackberry Z10, to date, featuring a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM out of the box.

This focus on decent hardware specifications pays off for Blackberry, as the device is nice and nippy to use, and seems even more responsive than its Blackberry Z10 sibling.

Although it seemed like the device took a lifetime to switch on, we experienced no major issues while using it. Apps are quick to download and open, and Angry Birds Star Wars (which is free on Blackberry 10) loaded quickly and offered decent gameplay with no stuttering whatsoever.

That said, a more involved games such as the preloaded Need for Speed didn't offer such slick gameplay, and we noticed a bit of lag while in the app. Still, the Blackberry Q10 isn't a smartphone aimed at avid gamers, so most buyers shouldn't have too many complaints.

Next: Software.

Blackberry Q10 in-depth review

Looks to win back former Blackberry users with revamped keyboard

Software
The Blackberry Q10 runs the Blackberry 10 operating system, which remains largely similar to the version found on the Blackberry Z10 smartphone, albeit on a smaller screen.

Multitasking is at the heart of the Blackberry Q10 as it aims to win over business customers. The main homescreen displays recently used apps, while swiping to the right will lead to Blackberry Hub, essentially an aggregated inbox that displays emails, texts and social networking notifications.

Although we found that the Blackberry Hub could often get a bit cluttered, it is a vast improvement compared to Blackberry handsets of old.

Thanks to the physical keyboard on the Q10, Blackberry has added a feature called Instant Actions, which proved to be one of our favourite software features during our hands-on time with the phone.

It allows you to start typing the word "email", for example, within any app to be taken straight to the email composition screen. This also works for actions such as texting and BBM.

Despite the keyboard and smaller screen size, the gesture based actions found on the Blackberry Z10 remain in place. Swiping up from the bottom of the display takes you back to the main home screen, for example. We found this feature very useful, leading us to think that Blackberry might be the first smartphone maker to nail a fully gesture controlled handset without the need for a physical home button.

It might have won us over when it comes to gestures, but we're not so fond of the app selection available on the Blackberry Q10. Blackberry said that not all of the apps found on the Blackberry Z10 will be available on the Blackberry Q10 from launch due to the handset's smaller screen, and this makes for a pretty deserted Blackberry world, pale in comparison to even Microsoft's Windows Store.

To make up for this, Blackberry has loaded the handset with a lot of preloaded apps - some good, some not so good. While Box, Twitter and Docs to Go were welcome additions, we could have done without the built-in Foursquare, Absolute Radio and Swashbuckler apps, which seems to add nothing but clutter to our endless stream of home screens.

Of course, the Blackberry Q10 also boasts a huge focus on business. We asked an IT manager to set up an Exchange email account on the device, and the process took mere minutes and was apparently pretty easy to do. However, due to the lack of a BES10 environment in our office, we were unable to set up Blackberry Balance.

We think this is a problem many businesses might encounter. Blackberry 10 is a new operating system, and it's unlikely that all IT departments will have the correct tools in place to be able to take advantage of BES 10, which might swing businesses to pick iOS, Android or Windows Phone devices instead.

Check out our full Blackberry 10 review.

Next; Camera, Battery and storage.

Blackberry Q10 in-depth review

Looks to win back former Blackberry users with revamped keyboard

Camera
The Blackberry Q10 features the same 8MP rear-facing camera found on its Blackberry Z10 sibling, and its performance matched too.

Images taken in natural light proved full of colour, and on a par with snaps taken on the iPhone 5 or HTC One. Taking photos was easy too, once we realised that the handset's volume controls doubled as dedicated shutter keys.

Taken using the Blackberry Q10

Like most smartphones, images taken in low light weren't quite so impressive, and the LED flash did little to help, making photos overexposed and lacking in detail.

One area where Blackberry is lacking, however, is its camera interface, which proved sparse when compared to those of iOS and Android. However, Blackberry has included HDR mode in a bid to match its rivals, and its Timeshift feature that essentially lets you rewind images proved to be a nice addition, albeit underused.

Battery and storage
Blackberry said that it thought the keyboard was the Blackberry Q10's killer feature, but we disagree. Instead, we think the battery life of the handset might be the handset's real selling point.

On paper, the Blackberry Q10 features a 2,100mAh battery, which the firm claims will offer up to 10 hours of continuous talk time. During our testing, we found that the Blackberry Q10 easily breezes through a full day. At the time of writing, we've been using the handset for almost two full days on a single charge and still have around 20 percent of the battery life intact. We think we should point out here that during this time we have been using the handset quite heavily.

We're going to continue testing the battery on the Blackberry Q10, and will update our review with any further findings.

Thankfully, the Q10 has storage to match. The handset boasts 16GB of internal storage that can be expanded with an additional 32GB, which we assume is plenty of room for any potential Blackberry Q10 buyer.

Blackberry Q10 in-depth review

Looks to win back former Blackberry users with revamped keyboard

In Short
The Blackberry Q10 is a great smartphone, and admittedly it's the only device out there for buyers looking for a top-end smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard.

Those thinking about switching from a top-end Android device or an iPhone might not be easily won over by the small screen size and lack of apps, however, and we hesitate to recommend the device to those who are simply contemplating giving it a go.

Thankfully for Blackberry, that's not the market it is going after. The firm is looking to win back the hearts of owners of its Blackberry Bold devices of old, and those who are still wielding an ageing Blackberry device, for whom the improvements found on the Blackberry Q10 definitely make the upgrade worthwhile.

Businesses, on the other hand, might want to wait for Blackberry 10 to develop further before pushing the Blackberry Q10 into hands of employees. µ

The Good
Great design, good screen and keyboard, excellent battery life, fast processor.

The Bad
Screen is too small for certain tasks.

The Ugly
Blackberry 10 is lacking in apps, not all businesses set up for BES10.

Bartender's Score
8/10