BlackBerry Gives Q5 Mid-Tier QWERTY a Center-Stage Introduction

by Michelle Maisto

Heins, toward the beginning of his two-hour keynote, introduced the Q5, saying it would head to emerging markets in July. In a statement, the company calls the Q5 “youthful and fun,” suggesting the more specific market it’s after.

The Q5 will come in black, white, red and pink.

Red is an increasingly common smartphone color option, though often it’s offered in a more gender-neutral matte finish. The red Q5 is a glossy nail-polish red. Some might find that the glossy finish makes it look and feel cheaper than the matte white version.

Here’s the BlackBerry Q5 in white.

The technical specs were unsurprisingly left out of the press release. The Q5 isn’t the thinnest phone around, but no one is going to have any trouble fitting it in a pocket. The processor—a spec we do know—is a 1.2GHz dual-core that seems speedy enough. Apps launched quickly during a brief hands-on.

Far from accents, color saturates every bit of these phones. The rocker button can also be used to snap a photo. The Q5 has a 2-megapixel camera up front and a 5MP on the back, instead of the 8MP on the back of the Q10.

On the Q5’s other side is a slot for the SIM card and a microSD slot. The battery, unlike on the Q10, isn’t removable.

BlackBerry has talked up improvements it made to the Q10’s keyboard, so it’s interesting that it gave the Q5 a different one. The keys are more separated, but some users—especially on the slippery red model—won’t find it second nature to use before getting some practice.

The keyboard on the overall more solid Q10 features less separated and less slippery keys that make for a more intuitive typing experience.

While the Q10’s exterior may feel a little compromised to those used to the high-end Q10 and Z10, on the inside it enjoys the same perks, including the BB10 Hub, where users can see all new alerts and correspondence at a glance, along with the Time Shift and Story Maker features in the camera.