First Impressions: BlackBerry Q5

The Q10 was quitea good phone but absurdly priced, and BlackBerry (BB) seems to be sticking to this for now. While it might not find many takers inIndia, BlackBerry knows the general publicwould not be able to resist a "cheaper" version of the Q10. A couple of monthsago, BB pulledthewraps off its budget-oriented smartphone, dubbed the Q5, targeted at emerging markets such as ours. Luckily, we’ve had the opportunity to play around with thedevice and here’s our initialimpressionsof the phone, beforewe bring you the full review.
Design – Typical BlackBerry
The Q5 takes a more flatapproach to design as compared to the Q10 and is a bit reminiscent of the HTC ChaCha. BlackBerry has ditchedtheexotic materials used inthe Q10 and has had to settle with simple plastic forthe chassis inorder to keep the pricedown. In doingso, the phone has shed quitea bit of weight and feelsa lot lighter to hold. Unlike the Q10, theQ5 has a completely sealed back, but it’s not unibody. The matte finishfeelsreally nice and doesn’t attract fingerprintseasily; however, we wished BB had done something more with theback, as it looksa bit bland.
There’s a flap on theside that hidesthe microSD and microSIM slots. The buttons are placed in theirusual positionsand they have a good tactile feel. The QWERTY keypad has also undergonea slight change and while it’s still comfortable to use,we prefer thekeyboard of theQ10 over this. The island style keys are well spaced out but are also a little smaller thanthe ones on theQ10.
The displayis thesame size as theQ10, but BB has swapped theSuper AMOLED screen foran IPS panel. While this gives you slightly betterviewing angles, the colours aren’t that punchy as compared to AMOLED.
While theexperience is pretty similar to that of theQ10, BB has had to cutdown some of the key specificationsin order to make it more affordable. Internalstorage has been cut down to 8GB and the SoConboard is a slower Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230). Even with 2GB of RAM, we noticedslight jerks and lags whenswiping between apps, but nothingtoo drastic. The Q5 also drops theHDMI-out portand the camera has been slashed to a 5MP from an 8MP. It can still do 1080p video, but the qualityof indoor shots isn’t as good as the Q10.
The bottomline
Just like theQ10, the BlackBerry Q5 feelslike another well built and good performingsmartphone, but thelaunch priceof Rs 24,990 doesn't put a very big smileon our faces. Given the overall look and feel, we thinka price anywhere between Rs 15,000 to 20,000 would be ideal for theQ5. Let's hope BB revises the market price soon,or elseit will earn a permananent place on the shelf along with theQ10 and Z10.