NEW YORK — The brand new Q10 smartphone is your Back to the Future BlackBerry. It's got the kind of physical Qwerty keyboard that BlackBerry loyalists were so enamored with on prior generation handsets. It's also a touch-screen device preloaded with BlackBerry 10, the new, more modern mobile operating system. The phone arrives first in the United Kingdom this month, with the U.S. launch slated by the end of May,. AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon Wireless all plan to sell it; my test unit is from AT&T. BlackBerry says it is priced to cost around $249 in the U.S. with a contract.
Putting aside for a moment this hybrid's standing against myriad rivals in the congested smartphone space — and the throwback physical keyboard is indeed the phone's major selling point, at least to a certain segment of mostly business-oriented customers — the Q10 invites the inevitable comparisons to the BlackBerry Z10 that was unveiled back in January.
The all-touch-screen Z10 was the first BlackBerry to run BlackBerry 10, an operating system built around touch gestures, known as "peek" and "flow." I got comfortable with these gestures fairly quickly, but there is a learning curve. Instead of the physical "home" button found on most smartphones, the Z10 user had to swipe up from the bottom of the bezel to revive a sleeping phone. You then swipe left and right to see the icons for all your apps and to check out which of them are running.
From any screen you can peek at the BlackBerry Hub, the convenient single repository for e-mails, missed calls, texts, BlackBerry Messenger messages, social-networking posts, scheduled meetings and more.
The Canadian company reported recently that it sold about 1 million BlackBerry 10 devices in its latest quarter, but the long-term customer verdict remains to be seen.
My verdict on the Q10: Physical keyboard devotees will embrace it, but the phone still seems destined to remain a niche product. BlackBerry launched BlackBerry 10 with the Z10 and not the Q10 for a reason. Despite significant pre-launch interest in the device, most people carrying smartphones have moved on from physical keyboards. It's been about six years since Apple ushered in the virtual keyboard era with the launch of the first iPhone. While not everyone has taken to them, such keyboards have become the norm.
Make no mistake, the physical keyboard on the Q10 is solid. It lights up in the dark.
Stainless-steel frets separate the rows of keys. The keys are about 30% larger than on the Bold 9900, BlackBerry's last big Qwerty flagship, which is still being sold. The frets are slightly raised to help keep the display from getting scratched when you place it face down.
You can use the physical keyboard to dial the phone but don't have to — you can summon a virtual phone dialer on the screen.
The phone itself has a stainless-steel frame with a glass weave finish that feels like plastic but is, according to the company, about 2½ times stronger. The back is removable, letting you swap out the battery. I didn't run a formal test, but the battery made it through my workday. I was initially disappointed with the battery life in the Z10 but the one inside the Q10 is larger.
After an adjustment period (since I am mostly a virtual keyboard user myself) I pretty confidently typed away with two thumbs, and sometimes one. You can exploit a feature that predicts the words you are likely to type next based on what you have already typed. On the Z10 you see these words in tiny type over the next letter it anticipates you might strike and you flick on the word to select it; On the Q10, three predictive words appear below the screen and above the top row of keys. If one is correct, you tap it.
I imagine the BlackBerry fan who has been patiently waiting for this very device will be satisfied. And who knows, BlackBerry might even woo the odd iPhone or Android user who never quite cozied up to virtual keyboards.
Physics being what they are, however, the keyboard exacts tradeoffs. Most notably, the display on the phone is a mere 3.1-inches, and while that's bigger than the Bold, it is considerably smaller than the 4.2-inch screen on the Z10 and a dwarf compared with many other smartphones.
I felt cramped reading pages on the Web — and had to spread my fingers to enlarge the text to see anything. Moreover, you can't rotate the phone to change the orientation of the 720 by 720 screen, not ideal for videos. Rotating the display is now common on smartphones.
While the two phones both run BlackBerry 10 software, on the Q10 you are necessarily swiping up from the area just above the physical keyboard.
BlackBerry now claims more than 100,000 apps in its BlackBerry World store, up from 70,000 when the Z10 launched. Among the apps, you still get Documents To Go for free, which lets you view and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as view Adobe PDF files. You can also create Word docs or Excel spreadsheets from scratch. Skype is now available as an app.
BlackBerry 10 software has gotten a modest upgrade, too, with version 10.1 bringing minor fixes and adding some polish.
At about 4.9-ounces the Q10 is a little shorter than the Z10 and a shave heavier. Apart from screen size and resolution, the specs on the two BlackBerry 10 devices are near identical. Both have dual-core 1.5 GHz processors, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of flash memory. Both have a microSD card slot that is concealed beneath the back cover (and capable of increasing your memory by 32 GB.) Both have 8-megapixel rear and 2-megapixel front-facing cameras.
The two phones can also take advantage of the password-protected BlackBerry Balance feature, which lets your employer segregate your corporate information from your personal stuff.
The company formerly known as Research In Motion once owned the physical keyboard smartphone market and still does. How big a market that remains is in question, but the Q10 is a winner for BlackBerry aficionados keen on thumb typing.
E-mail: edbaig@usatoday. com. Follow @edbaig on Twitter.
The bottom line
BlackBerry Q10
www.blackberry.com
No U.S. pricing yet but expected to cost around $249 with contract.
Pro. A BlackBerry for fans of physical keyboards. BlackBerry Hub. BlackBerry Balance can enterprise stuff separate from personal. Removable battery.
Con. Screen is small relative to many rival smartphones. Once the norm, physical keyboards aren't for everybody. Fewer apps than competitors.
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