BlackBerry Q10 To Soon Land on Indian Shores
BlackBerry Q10 To Soon Land on Indian Shores
After an agonizing wait, BlackBerry has finally decided to launch the BlackBerry Q10 in India. While the phone has already received positive reviews in US and Canada, Indians have a longer wait as BlackBerry India’s Twitter account states “BlackBerry Q10 is coming to India soon. Stay tuned on our page for all the latest updates!” There’s no mention of a date though we’re guessing the launch would be in the first week of June.
Unlike the BlackBerry Z10 which is a sleek, completely touch-based phone, the Q10 is more traditional in terms of design and comes with a QWERTY keyboard. However, BlackBerry has retained none of the old BlackBerry charm and the phone is completely revamped right from the keypad design to the features.
BlackBerry Q10 comes with a ‘tiny’ 3.1-inch S-AMOLED touch-screen with a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels. Just like Z10, BlackBerry Q10 is based on the all new BB10 platform. The phone might look small and compact, but it is definitely a power-packed device.
BlackBerry Q10 comes with a dual-core 1.5 GHz processor under the hood. Just like most smartphones these days, the BlackBerry Q10 comes with 16 GB internal storage (expandable up to 64 GB via MicroSD card slot). There’s just one 16 GB variant so users with larger storage requirements better invest in a memory card. The RAM is a generous 2 GB.
The phone comes with a 8 MP rear end camera and a 2 MP video-calling front cam. The rear end camera comes with LED flash. At 139 grams and with a 2100 mAh battery, BlackBerry Q10 is a compact BlackBerry.
The phone does come with winner specifications and a revamped BlackBerry keypad but that is not enough to guarantee its success. BlackBerry Z10 too came with impressive specifications though that was not enough to guarantee its success. India being a price-sensitive market, the most important aspect is the pricing of the phone. BlackBerry clearly got it wrong with BlackBerry Z10. With BlackBerry Q10 rumoured to be priced between Rs 28,000 and Rs 30,000 we’re wondering if BlackBerry will repeat history.
When BlackBerry announced its new BlackBerry 10 platform and the two phones being launched on the same platform, there was a subdued excitement to see what the struggling Canadian phone-maker would reveal. India proved to be the luckiest as BlackBerry launched its flagship BB10 model BlackBerry Z10 first in India. While Z10 was launched soon after its announcement, the fraternal twin, BlackBerry Q10 was nowhere to be seen. With the Q10 soon up for launch, we really hope BlackBerry gets the pricing right this time. The phone-maker could sure use with some redeeming after the Z10 pricing fiasco.