First impression: BlackBerry Q10

If you go by its keyboard, it's easy to mistake the BlackBerry Q10 for the Bold 9900. No wonder my friend was taken aback when he saw me carrying one. "Did you just buy a Bold? Why not a Z10?" he asked.

Take a closer look and you'll find the Q10 doesn't have the metal strip around the Bold 9900. Also, the screen's bigger and the device is a lot lighter. But the smooth curves of the Bold are retained in the new device.

Like the Z10, the Q10 features just a power/lock button at the top and the volume rocker/play buttons on the right. While the all-touch Z10's screen is way bigger than the Q10's, the best part is the latter's keyboard. Even for a QWERTY junkie like me, the Z10's touch keyboard was a revelation - it compelled me to change my mind about touch screens. But give me a physical keypad any day. The Q10's keyboard was, in a sense, a sort of homecoming, as I had been using touch phones for the past few months. And, it felt as if I was typing on my Curve, albeit one on steroids. In fact, this keyboard feels even better than that of the Bold 9900.

Along with the QWERTY keyboard, one also gets intuitive predictive text - words one can just flick on to a message. The tactile feel of the keyboard ensures touch-typing is a breeze.

With specifications identical to the Z10, the Q10's performance is as good as the Z10, be it multi-tasking, browsing or calls. Of course, the bigger screen of the Z10 is more suited to browsing, but the Q10 holds its own because of the familiarity a long-term BlackBerry user has with the keyboard. However, it's difficult to use the Peek feature on the smaller screen.

The phone's camera is quite good and features all the goodies of the Z10. But the cameras of the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S4 are better. The Q10's speaker is quite loud as well.

During the launch of the Q10, BlackBerry said the design on the back cover was unique for each phone and that the cover was unbreakable. We tried a few stress tests and came away convinced.

So, would the Q10 be what most BlackBerry users were waiting for? Of course, the Z10 showed us the powers of the BB10 OS, but it wasn't a QWERTY device. The answer is yes, depending on how long the battery lasts (battery life hasn't been a problem with the Z10, but the Q10 would egg you on to work till you, or the phone, drops dead).

Would one pay Rs 44,990 for this device? A colleague who recently lost his Curve 8520 has been waiting for the Q10. He was ready to shell out as much as Rs 30,000 for it. But would he shell out Rs 44,990? BlackBerry would have to wait and watch.