Review: BlackBerry Q5
In my hands this week is the BlackBerry Q5 provided to me by Telus which is a device that was originally aimed at what the company called “emerging markets” (something that I criticized here), but Blackberry ultimately made the decision to bring it here to Canada. The idea was clearly to give the company something that’s below the Z10 and Q10 in terms of price which would get it more marketshare.
My first impression of it goes something like this. The black Q5 that I was provided, which was factory sealed when I got it, attracts fingerprints like crazy. Both the screen and the case were covered in fingerprints within five minutes of opening the box and handling it. This was a step down from the Q10 or Z10 as their respective cases didn’t attract fingerprints. This made the Q5 look dirty and made a couple of people question if I had had greasy food before handling it (for the record, I had not). The screen was the same size as the Q10 and from what I remember, the screen looks to be close in terms of quality when compared to the Q10. That’s a good thing. As for the keyboard, it actually felt better than what I recall the Q10 keyboard felt like. That made it easier to type.
In terms of looks, with the exception of the screen which is glossy, the Q5 is a matte black (though you can get it in other colors) that doesn’t really stand out. Several people I showed it to used words like “boring” and “dull” to describe it. Given all the fact that there are phones in the same price range or less that look anything but “boring” and “dull”, that could be a problem. Here’s my take on that. It’s a phone that’s designed to be basic, thus there’s going to be no “bling” factor. On the flip side of this argument, BlackBerry is more than happy to sell you the Z10 and Q10 if you want “bling” in your BlackBerry. The phone feels solid, but something that jumped out to me is that the SIM card and the SD card go into a slot on the left hand side of the phone and that slot is covered by a plastic cover that’s held in place with two rubber joints. This is just my opinion, but I cannot conceive how this cover will hold up over the two years that a customer be paying for it if they got it on a 2 year term. I’m guessing that the use case is that you are not opening this cover up too often which seems reasonable to me. Then there’s the battery which isn’t meant to be removable. At least not easily and likely not without damaging the phone. So if your battery dies, you’re likely going to have to take it to someone who knows how to get inside the Q5 to have it replaced. It also means that the most common way that BlackBerry users address various issues which is to remove the battery to do a reboot isn’t on the table. Though I will note that the BlackBerry 10 OS has a way to reboot from the OS. All you have to do is press and hold the power button at the top. It will give you the option to restart. Finally, in terms of size and weight, it’s easy to hold in your hand, though if your hands get sweaty it will be slippery. It’s thin, and it fits in your pocket easily. Honestly, I like this form factor. It makes it easy to carry on your person.
Now let me hit the all important specs:
- 3.1-inch LCD display
- 2 gigabytes of RAM
- 8 gigabytes of memory (expandable to 32 with an SD card)
- BB10 OS
- 1.2-gigahertz dual-core processor.
- two-megapixel front-facing camera and five-megapixel rear camera
- WiFi and LTE connectivity
The Q5 feels snappy and it performed as well as the Z10 and Q10 did even though the processor in the Q5 is slower than the one in the Z10 or Q10. The OS and software that comes with the Q5 is pretty much the same as the Z10 and Q10. If you want more details as to what comes with BlackBerry 10 devices from an OS and software perspective, your best bet is to read my Z10 review. But in short, the software is the strongest point of the Q5 as it’s no different than the two phones that came before it. I’ve previously said that the BlackBerry 10 OS is easy to learn and use. You’ll have no issue adapting to it. Kudos to Blackberry for not changing that in the Q5. The other discussion to have is connectivity. It has WiFi in the form of 802.11 B/G/N and LTE as well as NFC. In terms of LTE speed, I averaged just under 40 Mbps downstream and just over 5 Mbps upstream using speedtest.net on the Telus network. In terms of battery life, I got two days on a charge, and I was using it as my main phone for that time. Chalk that up to the slightly slower processor (1.2 GHz vs the 1.5 GHz processor the Q10 comes with).
Now there’s the camera. The Q5 ‘s rear camera is 5 megapixels. Plus it will do 1080p video. What does that look like? I took a trip down to Pearson Airport in Toronto to find out. Some of you have asked why I like to go to Pearson Airport to test the cameras of the phones I review. Simple. Planes flying in and landing and taking off will show the shortcomings of the camera in a phone in a hurry. The day I took these pictures was no exception and I also had to contend with the setting sun as well. First the stills. Click to see them at full resolution:
The results are decent and I really can’t complain. But to be honest, those who are serious about using their BlackBerry for photos should be looking at the Q10 or Z10 as that camera is much better. Now on to the video. Set the video to 1080p and full screen:
One thing that impressed me was the audio. You could hear the conversation that was going on as well as the plane landing. That was impressive. What wasn’t impressive was the fact that the phone was constantly trying to autofocus. I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off and that affected the quality of the video. I never noticed that with the Z10 or Q10 when I shot video with those phones.
So, would I recommend the Q5? If you can’t shell out the bucks for a Q10 and you don’t mind the “plain Jane” looks, I’d recommend it. The Q5 fits in a sweet spot that BlackBerry previously didn’t have any sort of presence in. That exposes it to way more potential customers and it is a good value for the audience that it’s targeted at. At Telus it’s $49 on a two year plan. Or you can get it for $425 outright. That’s cheaper than an iPhone 4S or 5, not to mention cheaper than the HTC One or Samsung Galaxy S4. On paper, it has a shot at gaining BlackBerry some traction. As always, the real question will be if anyone will actually give this phone a look rather than head straight for the Android and iOS phones. I say that if they don’t, they’re missing out.
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