Blackberry Q5 mobile review

 

Blackberry has launched its most important smartphone for the year-Blackberry Q5.  The company has specifically maintained its much appreciated QWERTY keyboard intact in this new model. For Blackberry, this keypad is the only one thing that its rivals don’t possess.  Q5 has a portrait QWERTY handset with a 3.1 inch colorful display, available in a variety of color options.

Build:

Q5 bears little resemblance to its predecessor Q10. If one looks at the layout and button placement in this new handset, it doesn’t look primarily like a Blackberry at all.  This upgraded mid-range Curve model feels hefty compared to other Curve models. The company has done away with the removable battery and glass-weave backing. It has been made with a matte plastic chassis.     On the left side, one can access micro-SIM and microSD flap along with a microUSB port. A 3.5mm headphone jack lies next to the display/power button on the top.  A volume rocker, which works as a voice control and camera shutter switch, is placed on the right side. The phone has 120 X 66 X 10.8 mm dimensions and weighs around 120 grams.

Keyboard:   

The single most attractive feature of this phone is its keyboard. The company has differentiated the design of this keyboard from all its other higher-priced models.  However, the membrane beneath the unit is weak. It is certainly an enhanced version of 9320 keyboard but it fails to captivate the user beyond a certain limit.

Display:

Q5 has a 3.1 inch IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 720 X 720 and pixel density of 329 ppi. Thanks to the pixel density, the quality of the screen is superior.  It also has a strong back lighting which makes text and image clearly legible even in broad day sunlight.  There are strong viewing angles and a better color temperature in the phone. Watching movies will be an enjoyable experience on Q5. 

Camera:

Q5 has a 5 megapixel primary camera equipped with features like f/2.4 lens, 1080p video recording and time shift. With Time Shift feature, there is an ease in correcting the errors in any kind of group photography.  The camera app is potent enough when compared to Windows Phone and iOS 6.  Hordes of creative photo filters, styles to add creativity in the images and a decent set of editing tools are also available in Q5. Users will have to be careful while taking HDR images with this camera as slightest of movement while capturing, would result in ghost images. 

Software and Performance:

The handset runs on BB 10.1 version which was used in its predecessor Q10 too. Q5 runs on a dual-core 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 supported by 2GB of RAM. 

Conclusion:

Blackberry Q5 is not a bad handset but doesn’t come with impressive hardware. The phone doesn’t offer any other attractive feature than the keyboard.

This review is written by experts at Reliance Digital.