Physical keyboard lovers, BlackBerry hasn't forgotten about you.
The Canadian company's Q10 smartphone, the second phone running the new
BlackBerry 10 operating system, began rolling out to U.S. carriers this
week.
Featuring BlackBerry's much-loved Qwerty-keyboard, this is the smartphone
for which many users were holding out. And struggling BlackBerry, in the midst
of playing catch-up to the iPhone and Android devices, needs the phone to
perform and sell well.
Physical keyboard phones are becoming more rare as touchscreen-only mobile
devices take over. But BlackBerry, which built its reputation as an enterprise
workhorse, has promised to remain faithful to professionals and others who
prefer the speed, accuracy and tactile appeal of push buttons.
"We're convinced there is a significant segment of the market who prefers
to have a physical keyboard," BlackBerry Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben
said Wednesday in an interview with The Times in Beverly Hills. "We want to
continue to serve that segment."
The Times received a Q10 this week, and I've had a few days to play around
with the device. We'll have a full review later, but my initial impression is
that BlackBerry has built an impressive smartphone that keyboard loyalists will
love. The challenge for BlackBerry will be persuading other users to give it a
chance.
Unlike the sleek touchscreen-only Z10, released in March, the Q10 boasts
the familiar look and feel of a traditional BlackBerry. In a nod to the
popularity of touchscreens, the Q10 is actually a hybrid that combines a
physical keyboard with a 3.1-inch touchscreen.
What I first noticed out of the box was the Q10's display size. BlackBerry
added real estate to the touchscreen by getting rid of the large buttons above
the Qwerty keyboard. That means no more home or call buttons, making the user
experience much less intuitive — and it means you'll have to use the touchscreen
all the time, like it or not.
Without a home button, BlackBerry 10 phones rely primarily on swipes to
navigate around. Swipe left for applications and swipe right to access the
BlackBerry Hub, a convenient central location that combines emails, text
messages, phone calls and other conversations. There's no need to close out of
applications to access another one, which BlackBerry officials say saves users
time and differentiates BlackBerry 10 phones from rival devices.
The phone, which comes with 16 gigabytes of storage, has a number of apps
pre-loaded including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare and YouTube, but a
major complaint of BlackBerry 10 is that it has only a fraction of the apps
found on iOS and Android devices.
Phone call quality, which often goes unmentioned these days as smartphone
makers hype other features, was solid.
The 8-megapixel rear camera took acceptable shots. The phone comes with
several on-board photo editing features, including Time Shift, which enables
users to select the best image from a series of moments. But the photo quality
lags behind the Samsung Galaxy S 4 and the HTC One.
So far, my biggest gripe is that the touchscreen on the Q10 isn't as
sensitive as on other smartphones. In the setup phase, I had to touch several
times on the same spot before the phone responded; the same thing happened when
I tried to end a call.
It's a bit ironic, because my major problem with my BlackBerry Bold 9900 is
that the screen is too sensitive — the majority of times when I take a call on
it, the touchscreen incorrectly interprets the pressure from the side of my face
and starts dialing other numbers or putting my conversation on speaker. I'm glad
the Q10 seems to have corrected the problem, but I also don't want to have to
constantly touch my screen over and over to get it to do what I want.
T-Mobile released the phone Wednesday. Verizon Wireless, which has the
exclusive on the white version of the Q10, will have the phone online Thursday
and in stores Monday. AT&T began pre-orders for the phone Wednesday but
hasn't provided a release date. Sprint has been more vague, saying that it will
carry the phone sometime this summer.
The long-overdue BlackBerry 10 operating system has been called a
make-or-break product for BlackBerry. The company has already announced three
smartphones for the platform — the Z10, Q10 and the Q5, a more affordable Qwerty
device set to be released sometime this summer — and Boulben said the company
has plans to launch more BlackBerry 10 phones as it tries to recapture lost
market share.
Already, the company is seeing former customers come back, Boulben said.
About 55% of BlackBerry 10 users switched over from iPhones and Android devices,
he said.
"We are appealing to customers who want something different," he said.
"BlackBerry 10 allows us to completely renew our portfolio of devices."
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