Jack of all trades

The BlackBerry Q5, the cheapest BB10 device in the market, at Rs 24,990, comes in the mid-tier segment. Let's take a closer look at the device meant for India's youth.

Adding colour
The Q5 is available in three colours - black, white and red. The build quality, however, is way below that of its older siblings. The first thing one notices is the abundance of plastic and the non-removable battery, a first for BlackBerry. The device misses the premium finish of its elder siblings. The device sports a 3.1-inch screen and an island-style keyboard.

The notification LED and 2-megapixel (MP) front cam are to the right of the earpiece while the logo is on the broad bezel below the screen. The right side sports the volume rocker and voice command key while the left features the microUSB port and a flap, which when pulled out, reveals the microSIM and microSD card slots. The power/lock button and the headphone jack are placed on the top while the speaker is at the bottom. The 5MP back snapper with LED flash and a big BB logo are placed on the matt-finish back, which is a smudge magnet and gets scratched easily.

The essentials
The Q5 doesn't have NFC but, like the Q10, it comes with the Instant Action feature (so you can just type 'email boss' and voila! you're on the compose screen with your boss's coordinates).

We faced no lag during everyday use but there was some lag when we clicked on BlackBerry World, something we didn't face with other BB10 devices.

Call quality was good and we suffered no dropped calls. The screen, while not the best suited for video thanks to its aspect ratio, didn't suffer a drop in quality outdoors.

Browsing was quite fast over Wi-Fi, though the Q5 tended to heat up a bit while browsing over 3G.

The QWERTY keyboard is good, but not great.

The youthful side
A host of social networking apps are preinstalled and the speaker is quite loud if you want to play tunes for your friends. But we were quite disappointed at the lack of presets in the music player.

The front camera is great for video calls and 'selfies' though we'd have liked a more powerful rear snapper. To focus, one needs to press on the green block and bring it to the object on which you're focussing. It's tricky as the screen is also a big shutter button.

The battery will last through the day with heavy calling, email, social messaging and a little bit of music. And it's better than previous generation handsets.

The verdict
The BlackBerry Q5 would be a great buy if it cost around Rs 20,000. At its current price, one can't overlook the chinks which make the device a jack of all trades and master of none.

BLACKBERRY Q5
Price: Rs 24,990
Screen: 3.1-inch 720x720 IPS LCD multi-touch panel
Weight: 120 g
OS: BB10.1
RAM: 2GB
Processor: 1.2 Ghz dual core
Memory: 8 GB, expandable via microSD (up to 32GB cards supported)
Camera (rear/front): 5MP /2 MP
Battery: 2180 mAh

Pros
Good performance in a compact package
Long battery life
QWERTY keyboard

Cons
Plasticky build 
Poor camera performance
Lacks NFC, microHDMI slot