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| BlackBerry's Q5 is a budget smartphone for people on a fairly big budget |
Indeed, anyone familiar
with BlackBerry’s usual work will probably be impressed with the Q5 initially –
build quality is clearly much improved, at least in the test units sent to
journalists, and the device, even though it’s all plastic, is a decent size
that still isn’t too big. It doesn’t feel as premium as the more expensive Q10,
with its Kevlar-like back, but this is a slightly cheaper device, starting at
around £25 per month. With the screen shrunk to 3.1” to make room for the
physical keyboard, it won’t drain the battery in the same way that proves a
problem for full touchscreen devices.
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| Blackberry Q5 in different colors |
The problems, however,
are more in strategy than in execution: if you believe there’s an army of
cost-conscious BlackBerry users who are wedded to the platform and waiting for
the new OS, then the Q5 is the device that will save the company. If you
believer, alternatively, that most BB users are either business people who have
already moved on or for who cost isn’t the overrirding issue, then the Q5 seems
to rather miss the point. The more premium Q10, it seems, has sold moderately
well, but failed to stem the decline.
The Q5 does, at least,
feature all the excellent points of the BB10 OS – combined inboxes for
LinkedIn, Twitter, email, Facebook and more, plus the ‘Peek and Flow’ idea that
makes everything easy to find and the ‘Balance’ system that lets users switch
easily between work and personal modes. But if these are your priorities, the
Q10, for only slightly more money when it’s being discounted, seems to be a
better bet. And the Q5 doesn’t feature the removable batter that so many
BlackBerry fans adore. You’ll need to keep this one charged up, and I wouldn’t
advise risking that for more than 10 hours.
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| Launching of blackberry Q5 |
So the Q5 suffers from
all the compromises inherent in a mid-range device – a 5MP camera that is
adequate rather than brilliant and a 1.2GHz processor, for instance, and also
from the problems BlackBerry is currently suffering. So there are limited apps,
and the BBM messaging system will soon be available elsewhere, where previously
it was unique to BlackBerry.
If you’re determined to
buy a BlackBerry, with a keyboard, but don’t want to break the bank for a Q10,
buy a Q5. But if you’re simply after a phone for a reasonable price, hunt
around and you can easily find a Samsung Galaxy S3 or an iPhone 4S for prices
that aren’t too dissimilar.
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