Less is more

Blackberry Q10

Frankly, I don't get the hype about the Blackberry Z10.  As smartphones go, it is a perfectly adequate mobile device with all the necessary features except a physical keyboard.  If you put your new Z10 down on the meeting table beside the Apple iPhone 5, the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One, would you be able to tell it apart from the field at a glance?

If you want your smartphone to stand out from the pack, consider the Blackberry Q10.  Running the updated Blackberry 10.1 OS, the Q10 flaunts a physical QWERTY keyboard.  For the true Blackberry loyalists, this is the Blackberry you have been waiting for!

I can tell you are excited, and you should be.  But temper your excitement just a bit.  The Q10 is a capable smartphone.  It will do everything you NEED it to do, and it will do so, well.  It will not blow your mind.  Don't feel bad though, chances are it won't blow your pocket either.

The Q10 sports a square (yet another distinctive feature) 3.1" super AMOLED display with a 720 x 720 pixel resolution.  It has got a micro SIM card slot, micro SD slot and a micro HDMI port.  I may be wrong, but I didn't see a micro HDMI port on either the iPhone 5 or the Galaxy S4.  (And cables are much more reliable that wireless technologies like AirPlay and AllShare).

You'll find front and rare facing HD cameras and a decent 1.5 GHz processor.  Like it's big brother, the Q10 has all the Blackberry OS 10 popular features like my personal favourites, Time Shift, Balance and BBM Screen Share, along with the heavily touted features like Hub, BBM Video Share and Tag. Q even has some additional features like typing straight to an email from any screen.

But let's get back to what sets the Q10 apart, its remarkable Blackberry keyboard.  In the few moments I was able to hold the handset, thanks to Troy Cocking at LIME, the large, tactile, keys caressed my finger tips.  It was so easy to type using this physical keyboard.  If you thought the keyboard on the Bold 9900 was the best keyboard on a smartphone ever, you will love the tweaks on the Q10 keyboard.

Of course, the best keyboard and good specs mean nothing if the phone freezes up like Siberia every time you try to complete a task.  I didn't have enough time to put the phone through the paces myself, but I do note that I haven't heard any complaints from the early demos.  Troy assures me that this new BB OS 10 is just the right type of cool.

If you are so inclined, here is the best reason to get the Blackberry Q10: it stands out and it gets the job done for likely half the price of the candybar copycats.