Category: Blackberry

Build Quality and Design

No surprises here. The BlackBerry 9720 is the quintessential BlackBerry – candybar design, the iconic trackpad and the adored QWERTY keypad. It resembles almost every other BlackBerry smartphone ever made, especially the curve series.

The BlackBerry 9720 is really light and fits perfectly in to your palms. The back panel has a rubber finish and has a texture running throughout which gives the phone a nice grip, while making it safe from fingerprints. 

One of the highlights is the inclusion of a dedicated BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) key on the phone’s left side. In truth both this key and the convenience key on the right side are programmable, adding a little flexibility to the hardware layout of the 9720, despite the letters ‘BBM’ embossed into the side of the handset.

[pullquote_left]The BlackBerry 9720 is the quintessential BlackBerry.[/pullquote_left]

The front has the earpiece grill and the BlackBerry logo up top. Underneath that is the touch-screen with its array of buttons finishing up the front. 

Overall, the design would please all BlackBerry purists, but the build quality could have been better. Our review unit already had its back panel squeaking and loosened up.

Hardware

The BlackBerry 9720 has a 2.8-inch capacitive display which offers a resolution of 480×360 pixels and it’s responsive and bright. Though there’s only 512MB of internal storage — and a matching amount of RAM — the microSD card slot supports cards up to 32GB, and it’s unreasonable to expect more substantial storage for the price. It also has a video-capable 5-megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and an FM radio.

Display, Performance and Multimedia

The BlackBerry 9720 sports a 2.8-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 360×480 pixels, boasting of a pixel density of 214ppi. It is a rather attractive HVGA panel with a respectable 214ppi and a nice vibrant colour palette at its disposal. It’s size it its biggest weakness, a problem somewhat rectified on the pricier Q5.

Due to the screensize, this device is not for media consumption. What impressed us most was the inclusion of the FM radio. In the day and age where even smartphones exceeding the 50k price mark do not have a feature as basic as the FM radio, it is nice to see the BlackBerry 9720 have one.

The BlackBerry 9720 has an 806MHz Tavor MG1 processor and 512MB RAM. we feel it these are lacking at times as we often get the spinning clock and prompts that the device has to be restarted due to it not having enough memory. If you’re doing simple tasks and not using too many apps we think you can get by, but for most users this will be one of the biggest downsides of the device.

Running BBOS 7.1 you’re getting the latest pre-BB10 experience, which admittedly comes with a number of handy features for BB fans, such as Social Feeds, Multicast and BBM with BBM Voice functionality playing to the phone’s social strengths, however, it is still a dated OS, and reminds us of the reason BlackBerry came out with the BlackBerry 10 OS.

Keyboard

The 9720 is the first BlackBerry OS smartphone (not including the Porsche Design P’9981) to have a straight keyboard, as found on the Q10 and Q5. So, for anyone coming from another BlackBerry OS there may be a slight learning curve in getting used to  the keyboard.

Camera

The 5-megapixel snapper on the back produces usable shots in natural light, although macro photography is pretty much off the cards. Low light environments breed heavy noise, although the in built LED flash works wonders to fill out a shot. The lowly internals also limit video performance to 480p SD recording with very weak audio recording capabilities.

Auto-focus would have been nice but seeing as it looks like it’s part of the Curve line, it fits the bill. One thing that has been added to the camera app is the ability to share the picture you just took, making things a lot easier. 

Battery

The battery is a 1450mAh JS1 and we found it did last us a day. It is also a removable battery so you could swap it out if you had a spare too. Since this is targeted at emerging markets, battery life may suffice. You might burn through the battery life if you used BBM Groups a lot though but it would still go for more than half a working day.

Conclusion

The 9720 is a basic, traditional BlackBerry; it has strong messaging, email and phone capabilities as you’d expect – but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. If you take a 2-year old BlackBerry you’d find that it has the same specs as the BlackBerry 9720, and more or less the same features.

It’s not a bad device, but it will confuse consumers, which the company should be bombarding with the benefits of BBOS 10, not the older ecosystem that represents the many troubles the company has been trying to leave behind.

Build Quality and Design

Unlike the BlackBerry Q10 model, the casing of BlackBerry’s Q5 is made of polycarbonate. At first glance the BlackBerry Q5 could fit well into the Curve line thanks to the classic BlackBerry design and separated Curve-style keys, but once started up it’s obvious this is a new device for a new set of BlackBerry users. 

It’s immediately obvious that this isn’t a premium device, with a sizeable bezel above and below the screen, and then a chunk of plastic below the keyboard too. This is utilitarian design sends the message that this smartphone is a workhorse, not a peacock.

The casing is sealed, so you can’t get at the battery, but there’s a flap at the side for swapping your SIM and microSD cards. The volume buttons on the side flank a button that activates voice control. There’s also a power/sleep button and 3.5mm headphone jack on top and a microUSB power/sync port on the side.

Overall, the build quality is solid, but the design feels dated.

Hardware

What you get on the BlackBerry Q5 is the same, oddly proportioned 3.1-inch, 720p IPS LCD display you find on the BlackBerry Q10, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, microSD slot, 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, 4G and a 2180mAh battery.

Of course below that rather square screen you’ll also find a 35-key physical QWERTY keyboard, which sports isolated keys instead of the side by side layout on the BlackBerry Q10.

Display and Multimedia

As opposed to the SuperAMOLED screen of the Q10, the BlackBerry Q5 has an LCD screen which is what we’ve been accustomed to in the past. 

Because the screen is square, you can’t turn the phone on its side to improve your browsing or video-watching experience either, as you can with most other smartphones.

The resolution of the BlackBerry Q5 screen is 720 by 720 pixels (329ppi), which is why everything on it, from graphics and photos to small text in web pages, looks sharp and detailed. The colour representation is neutral, which is actually a good thing as all hues are as saturated as they should be. 

All the standard features for consuming music, video and photos are included on the BlackBerry Q5, so you won’t be left completely in the lurch here. The music player app may not feature any of the bells and whistles you’ll find on some other smartphones, it’s a functional and intuitive offering.

The BlackBerry Q5 does come with a dedicated video app, which thankfully means you don’t have to scrabble around in the gallery to find your clips – and its basic, unfussy design makes it easy to find what you want.

Once again where BlackBerry 10 seems to excel is in the web surfing department, and while the BlackBerry Q5 may not be quite as fast as the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10, it still puts in a decent performance that it can be proud of.

Camera

The Canadian manufacturer makes cutbacks in the primary camera and installs a 5 MP lens. Although it also features an f/2.4 aperture as well as autofocus and LED flash like the Q10, the picture quality is not satisfying. The pictures exhibit intense image noise, look milky and lack focus and brilliant colors even in well-lit rooms. All in all, the camera modules cannot compete with the contenders.

The front-facing camera rings in at just 2MP – just barely enough for decent Skype or BBM Video and maybe a selfie or two. The short of it – don’t expect too much from the cameras on the BlackBerry Q5. 

Calling And Networks

In terms of call quality, the BlackBerry Q5 has a decent volume, meaning you shouldn’t have trouble hearing the person at the other end of the line, even if you’re in noisy surroundings.

The clarity of voice did become a little distorted as the earpiece volume was turned up, although we were still able to understand what was being said.

We found the BlackBerry Q5 was able to hold onto signal pretty well, with no dropped calls experienced during our review period.

Battery Life

The 2180mAh battery in the Q5 is one of the largest to date in a BlackBerry and it’s big enough that most days we don’t need to worry about swapping a battery anyway (not that we can). We found that it kept going even on our busiest days.

Conclusion

If you’re a diehard Qwerty fan looking for a mid-range device, the BlackBerry Q5 may hold some interest. The screen is sharp and sensitive, even if it’s an unusual shape. The keyboard is excellent for messaging and the BlackBerry 10 OS is fast, slick and easy to get the hang of.

However, build quality isn’t inspiring and while BlackBerry 10 is smooth with good features, a shortage of apps remains a downfall. The BlackBerry Q5 obviously won’t be competing with more modern devices, but for BlackBerry users on a budget or those looking to get started with BlackBerry 10, the Q5 is a good option.

Build Quality And Design

At a time when every major manufacturer has shifted its focus towards touchscreen phones, Blackberry remains adamant on providing the QWERTY experience to their customers that they were once famous for. Hence, the Blackberry Q10.

In terms of its design, the Blackberry Q10 will remind you instantly of any other QWERTY Blackberry ever made. It ditches the trackball/trackpad of the older BlackBerry devices in favor of a touchscreen display that works pretty well, though we still really miss the hardware buttons.

The Blackberry Q10 is a compact phone, sporting a small display with a keyboard underneath. With a soft, rubbery rear case and a plastic band along the sides, the Blackberry Q10 shares obvious design cues with BlackBerry’s other new device, the full touchscreen Z10.

Surrounding the square screen is a thin bezel on the bottom and sides, while above the screen is where you’ll find a BlackBerry logo, front-facing camera and its speaker. Below the screen is the star of the show, the QWERTY keyboard.

The back panel of the black Blackberry Q10 has a carbon weave texture which Blackberry claims is unique to each device. 

Overall, it looks and feels elegant, refined and professional. 

Keyboard

Moving on to the keyboard, one thing to note is that the once curved keyboard has now been straightened out and the metallic frets separating the rows of characters are now slightly raised for improved tactile feedback – in other words you should be able to feel where your thumbs are on the board more easily. The break in the keys is a nice clean look however and the overall size of the keyboard is similar to previous devices. 

Specifications And Hardware

The Blackberry Q10 is equipped with the famous Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC, operating at 1.5 GHz, and the integrated Qualcomm Adreno 225 graphics card with 400 MHz core frequency and 2 GB of RAM. It has a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, albeit with a square 720 x 720 resolution rather than a widescreen aspect like a typical touchscreen phone. 16 GB flash memory and LTE round up the specifications of the Blackberry Q10. You can reach the entire specs list at the top.

Display, Performance And Multimedia

The 720 x 720 pixel, 3.1-inch square screen doesn’t feel too small at first glance, especially since the narrow bezel allows the screen to command maximum attention when it’s on. It’s also pixel dense, a key factor in readability. BlackBerry 10 defaults to a text size of 8 and small fonts need to be crisp to be legible.

The Super AMOLED touchscreen isn’t as bright as we’d like, yet is good enough for sunlight visibility. Colors pop and blacks are deep, as we’d expect with AMOLED. Viewing angles are generally good, though off-center a blue tinge creeps in that’s really noticeable on light backgrounds.

Just as with the Z10, the BlackBerry Q10 is powerful enough to run BlackBerry 10 smoothly with no lag or performance hiccups. If anything, the Q10 feels faster, potentially because the smaller screen requires less oomph or the update to version 10.1 sped things up all around.

The square screen means that videos on the BlackBerry Q10 are letter-boxed, which is disappointing. Playback though is quite smooth.

The speaker that sits on the bottom edge of the Q10 is well-placed; you’re unlikely to muffle with your hands. Overall audio quality is decent for a smartphone and loud enough to be heard over some background noise.

Camera 

The BlackBerry Q10 has the same 8-megapixel camera as the BlackBerry Z10. While it has some neat features that allows you to choose the best photo, the actual quality of the pictures left a lot to be desired. It’s just not on the same level with pictures we shoot with other smartphones from this price segment.

There’s more noise in mixed light shots and little crispness or detail in outdoor pictures. We’re glad that the BlackBerry 10.1 update brought HDR to the feature set since there aren’t many at hand. It balances shadow and bright light better than Auto but requires a very steady hand. There’s no shutter icon in the camera app; to snap a picture you have to tap the display or press the space bar.

Battery Life

Battery wise, the Q10 is great. It requires less power to run than its Z10 cousin, but includes a larger 2100 mAH battery. With this size battery, the Q10 easily lasts all day and with regular usage, it can round out the day with around 15-20% of battery life left.

Calling And Network

During calls, voices came through the earpiece and speaker clearly and we only encountered a bit of static in a low bar area. Our voice came through loud and clear on the other end as well in quiet and semi-noisy situations. The phone though is able to latch on to cellular networks even in weak signal areas.

Conclusion

There are a million touchscreen smartphones in the world. There aren’t many phones with good physical keyboards (and the competition mainly consists of other BlackBerry devices). The BlackBerry Q10 too serves those people who still feel the need for a physical keyboard and for those who are still BlackBerry purists. 

The actual BB10 operating system is great and its implementation is clean. For people who prioritize this above everything else, including good apps, the BlackBerry Q10 is a decent buy, but the pricing of the device is too high for most.