BlackBerry Q10 vs Samsung Galaxy S4

How well does the Rs 44k BlackBerry Q10 with its premium finish and a Qwerty keypad stacks up against Samsung Flagship Galaxy S4?

BlackBerry has recently launched its flagship smartphone, the BlackBerry Q10, in India. The BlackBerry Q10 offers premium features for Rs 44,990.

But BlackBerry Q10 has a very tough opponent from flagship Android smartphones from other manufacturers, especially the Samsung Galaxy S4 which is now coming for less than Rs 40,000 but it offers very high end features like octa core processor.

So let's find out how BlackBerry Q10 stacks up against the Samsung Galaxy S4.

Design

The BlackBerry Q10 has a glass weave like construction at the back panel which is stronger than the average plastic used in older BlackBerry phones and at the same time its body is flexible enough to withstand minor jerks. The device employs machined metal chassis that has been carved out of a single piece of metal for added durability while the use of stainless steel makes it lightweight as well.

The BlackBerry Q10 is not very slim though, as it is 10.4 mm thick.

The highlight of BlackBerry Q10 is its keyboard which has a tactile feel and is also the keys have been made bigger than the one in the previous models for ease of use. With it the BlackBerry Q10 certainly looks more premium, splendid to the palms and great typing experience with new Qwerty keyboard design.

On the other hand the design of Samsung Galaxy S4 is unparalleled to any of the devices Samsung has launched till now. The device itself is very slim and sleek and lightweight too, making it extremely easy to handle and use.

The device comes in two colour options, white and black and both options feature a high gloss finish polycarbonate body that makes it lightweight and durable. The device features metallic trimming on the edges all around the device that give it a unique accent as well.

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Display and touch

The BlackBerry Q10 comes with a 3.1-inch Super Amoled display with a 720x720 pixel resolution, offering pixel density of 328 pixels per inch. The display is good for most tasks including watching HD videos as well. The touchscreen is quite responsive and the actions are translated on the device without any effort or lag.

On the other hand the Galaxy S4 features a 5-inch full HD Super Amoled display built using Corning Gorilla Glass 3 technology. The display is sharp and the touch is responsive and it reacts to all the actions and gestures without any lag.

But the Q10's touchscreen might not be the best in class experience for many as we are not used to operate on the squarish touch screens since mostly devices have shifted to the full rectangular touchscreens.

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Hardware

The BlackBerry Q10 has a dual core 1.4 GHz OMAP 4470 processor from Texas Instruments based on ARM cortex architecture which is assisted by 2 GB RAM. The hardware configuration does full justice to the device and the new age operating system offers fluid operations. All in all that is some powerful hardware to run the BlackBerry 10 OS and also pack enough muscle for running several apps as well as multimedia content.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is the first Android smartphone to feature an eight core Samsung Exynos 5 Octa 5410 mobile processor clocked at 1.6 GHz and the new PowerVR SGX544MP3 graphics chip.

Talking about Octa Core processor, the Exynos has 4 cores of a low performance ARM Cortex A7 architecture clocked at 1.2 GHz and four cores of high performance ARM Cortex A15 architecture.

This combination allows for better power savings and on demand performance as well.

Performance wise the BlackBerry Q10 might not be the speediest one on the block but still it has been optimised to tackle the BlackBerry 10 operating system quite well and easily.

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Camera

BlackBerry has used an 8 megapixel camera with auto focus and LED flash at the back. The camera is quite responsive and is the same unit as the one used on the BlackBerry Z10. There is a 2 megapixel front facing camera for video chat and video calls via BBM.

The front camera can also be used for self-portraits. The BlackBerry Q10 can record 1080 p videos using the rear camera as well as 720p videos using the front camera as well.

While the Samsung S4 has used a 13 megapixel camera with LED flash, autofocus and zero shutter lag features. This camera is capable of recording full HD videos and clicking high quality images.

There is also a front facing camera capable of clicking high quality self-portraits and videos. Samsung has introduced the new dual shot feature that allows the phone to record video and click images, as well as click two images at the same time using both cameras.

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Operating system

The all new BlackBerry 10 OS makes the phone look great with the Super Amoled display presenting shades of purple and black. The BlackBerry Q10 has the new Type and Go function. Basically, the universal search bar is missing in the BlackBerry 10 OS but the Q10's keyboard has been equipped with direct search function.

For instance, if you want to send an email to your colleague, just type Email to Colleague (Contact's name) on the keyboard. And the same feature can be used for several tasks as well adding to more utility.

Similar shortcut can be tied for the BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook or Twitter apps. Just type the app name and contact name to send the message to the user. You need press through the different navigation levels for sending an email. Another visible change is that the Active Frames appear square instead of rectangular due to smaller display.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 on the other hand runs on the latest version of the TouchWiz Nature User Interface or UX (User Experience as the company calls it) on top of Android 4.2.2 operating system. In the new interface users can choose which notification buttons they want displayed, and arrange them according to their preference or need.

For people new to smartphones, Samsung has added an Easy Mode, which, when activated, displays only the essential features in the phone. This feature will help beginners better understand their phone in a gradual manner and as they understand they can get on with the advanced features.

In the Q10, optimisation has been done on the OS part so despite its dual core processor, the handsets gives a smooth and fluid performance.

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Finally

The BlackBerry Q10 is something BlackBerry fans were longing for but the price tag of Rs 44,990 might turn off some of the fans as it is a big price to pay. But the device has a premium appeal to it and offers NFC, HDMI along with core functionalities.

In terms of innovations Samsung has really gone overboard with the Galaxy S4. The eye tracing, hover gestures, gesture input, eyeball tracking makes this device more like a science fiction device rather than a daily sue object. But to be honest Samsung really needs to brush up the features and should offer more finesse than features.

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