Blackberry Q10 - An Ultimate Messaging Machine For Socializing, Sharing And Working (Part 3)

Performance and battery life

Given that the Q10 provides the same dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor and 2GB of RAM as the Z10, you would expect it to have the same performance. Indeed it is. However, the operating system feels slightly more responsive and apps were slightly quicker to load. We think it is due to improvements within the BlackBerry OS 10.1 and hopes that Z10 will see a similar, if slight, boost when it is available. The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark seems to support it, with the average score of 1456ms. It is improved compared with 1775ms of the Z10, but still a far cry from the sub-1,000ms scores dropped by other top-tier smartphones.

The 2,100mAh battery pack here is slender enough that carrying a second around won't take up too much space in your satchel.

Indeed, the overall improvement is quite small and the Q10 work and feels very much like its predecessor. While the operating system is faster and the browser is better, 3D gaming is not the strong point of this phone. The "Need for Speed" game that came pre-loaded on our review unit often stuttered and struggled, and if the pack-in game isn't working well, that's not a good sign. For with those normal mobile games, then Q10 will do well.

We saw that the Q10 also will do well through a day use. On our standard battery rundown test, which entails a video looping endlessly while the phone is connected to LTE and with the display on and set to a fixed brightness, the phone has achieve total 9 hour 35 minutes. It is longer than 1 hour 20 minutes compared to the Z10, makes it more or less on par with the LTE Samsung Galaxy S III. More importantly, we easily got through a full day of typically heavy use without reaching for the charger. The 2,100mAh battery pack here is slender enough that carrying a second around won't take up too much space in your satchel.

Finally, startup time still quite slow such as on the Z10. The phone took 1 minutes and 20 seconds to cold boot and a full 22 seconds just to completely shut down. It will be a disappointment for battery-swappers.

Conclusion

Mainly, BlackBerry Q10 is exactly what awaited us: a Z10 with a smaller screen and a physical keyboard. Not many differences between the two phones when it comes to performance or aesthetic while the improvement in battery life is nice, both still fall into the "average" category in that regard.  Not surprisingly, which of the two is right for you boils down to a single question: how badly do you hate typing on glass?

Mainly, BlackBerry Q10 is exactly what awaited us: a Z10 with a smaller screen and a physical keyboard.

Again, our test shows that text entry to be faster on the Z10 than the Q10 in most situations, but speed is not always satisfying. If everything else were equal, we prefer a physical keyboard to peck at than a piece of glass to smudge, but here we will choose the Z10 because of its larger screen.

On the broader questions, whether $249 Q10 can help BlackBerry back and compete with the rest? Of course there are people who will not buy the phone without a keyboard, and Q10 is the best phone on the market with the keyboard. However, based on the competition and the demand has become so weak, we're not sure cornering that market will move the needle very far in BlackBerry's favor.

Q10 is the best phone on the market with the keyboard.

Info

·         Price: $249

Pros

·         Excellent physical keyboard

·         The stable build quality

·         Good screen

Cons

·         Tiny screen

·         Trivial camera

·         The limited apps selection

Verdict

·         The BlackBerry Q10 offers a wonderful QWERTY-feeling that fans are waiting, but those who are looking way of consuming content will want attaching bunch with larger screen on the Z10.

The BlackBerry Q10 Is A QWERTY Keyboard Smartphone Comeback Worth Waiting For

Specifications ·         Dimensions: 119.6 x 66.8 x 10.35 mm ·         Weight 139g / 4.90 oz (2g / 0.07oz battery) ·         Navigation: QWERTY keypad and all-touch screen with intuitive gesture based navigation ·         Keyboard: physical BlackBerry® Keyboard, featuring contextual auto-correction, next-word prediction, and a personalized learning engine that gets to know the way you type. ·         Dedicated keys: Volume Up/Down, Mute, Lock (for Power On/Off) ·         Resolution: 720 x 720 resolution, at 330 PPI, 24-bit color depth, Super AMOLED ·         Screen size: 3.1" diagonal, 1:1 aspect ratio ·         Operating system: BlackBerry 10 OS ·         Desktop software: BlackBerry Link software for your computer to enable synchronization of data and media ·         Processor: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ S4 processor with 1.5 GHz dual-core CPUs ·         Memory: 2GB RAM, 16GB Flash ·         Expandable memory: removable microSD memory card – slot under battery door (Up to 32 GB) ·         USB Ports: USB 2.0 high speed port – allows charging and data synchronization of the device with a USB cable ·         HDMI Port: Micro HDMI for connection to your HDTV or projector ·         Battery: 2100mAH removable battery ·         Battery Life: up to 13.5 hours talk time (3G), up to 14.8 days standby time (3G) (*Note: Battery life claims are for Model SQN100-5) ·         Rear camera: 8 megapixel auto-focus camera, back side Illumination for better low-light performance, 5-element F2.2 lens, dedicated ISP (image signal processor) with 64MB frame buffer, flash, continuous and touch to focus, image stabilization, enhanced Super Resolution Digital Zoom (5x), 1080p HD video recording, 4 DOF (Degrees of freedom) video stabilization, hybrid absorptive IR filter, time Shift mode for pinpointing and adjusting individual elements of your picture ·         Front camera: 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera, image and video stabilization, 3x digital zoom, 720p HD video recording ·         Image formats: BMP, WBMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, SGI, TGA ·         Audio & video formats: 3GP, 3GP2, M4A, M4V, MOV, MP4, MKV, MPEG-4, AVI, ASF, WMV, WMA, MP3, MKA, AAC, AMR, F4V, WAV, MP2PS, MP2TS, AWB, OGG, FLAC ·         Audio & video encoding/decoding: H.264, MPEG-4, H.263, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC, MP3, PCM, Xvid, AMR-NB, WMA 9/10, WMA10 professional, WMA-LL, VC-1, VP6, SPARK, PCM, MPEG-2, MJPEG (mov), AC-3, AMR-WB, QCELP, FLAC, VORBIS ·         Pre-loaded apps: Music, Videos, Pictures, Camera, Picture Editor, BlackBerry® Story Maker, BlackBerry® Hub, Universal Search, Email & Social messaging, BlackBerry® Calendar, Contacts, BlackBerry® Browser, Text Messaging, Messages, Clock, Calculator, Documents To Go™, Print to Go, File Manager, Adobe® Reader, BlackBerry® Remember (memos/tasks combo), Phone, BBM, BlackBerry® World™, Facebook®1, Twitter®1, LinkedIn®1, Foursquare®, Games, YouTube®, Weather, BlackBerry® Maps, Smart Tags (NFC), Setup, Help, BBM™ Video ·         Security: Password protection, screen lock, and sleep mode, BlackBerry® Balance™ technology offering dedicated profiles to keep work and personal data separate and secure ·         Alert and notifications: tone, vibrate, on-screen or LED indicator (Notification options are user configurable) ·         Voice Input/Output: integrated speaker and microphone, hands-free headset capable, Bluetooth® headset capable, integrated hands-free speakerphone ·         Network Bands: 4G, Quad band LTE 2, 5, 4, 17 (700/850/1700/1900 MHz), Quad band HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6 (850/1900/1700/2100 MHz) @ 42mbps, Quad band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) ·         Wi-Fi®: 802.11 a/b/g/n, 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz, 4G Mobile Hotspot ·         Bluetooth®: Bluetooth, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE) ·         GPS: Assisted, Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS, preloaded with BlackBerry Maps application, GLONASS support ·         NFC: BlackBerry® Tag with NFC technology enables communication between BlackBerry smartphones and other NFC-enabled devices with a tap ·         Advanced Sensors: accelerometer, magnetometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, ambient light sensor ·         Accessibility: Adjustable screen brightness, scalable fonts, teletypewriter (TTY) Support