BlackBerry’s newest QWERTY smartphone running on BB10 version 10.1, BlackBerry Q5, will be available in the Philippines beginning Saturday, August 24th.
About the Q5
The Q5 comes with all the sprinkles and notable features found in both the Z10 and the Q10—the Hub, Balance, BlackBerry World, Time Shift, and 4G support—with a few updates to boot since it wields an upgraded version of the OS of the two devices.
On the outside, the Q5 is highly similar to the Q10, if only its keys weren’t spaced out and if the edges were more rounded. Apart from that, though, you get nearly the same physical dimensions, the same 3.1-inch touchscreen, and the same full QWERTY keyboard. However, unlike the Q10, the Q5 is available in four different color variants: black, pink, red and white (although it has not been confirmed whether all four colors will be immediately available in the Philippines).
Despite having the same screen size and resolution (720 X 720 pixels), the two smartphones vary in the technology used for their respective screens. The Q10 uses a Super AMOLED display, while the Q5 is furnished with an IPS LCD screen. The camera also shows slightly less power, with a 5.0-megapixel sensor instead of the 8.0-megapixel shooter found in the Q10. They are tied, however, in terms of front-facing camera capacity, both having 2.0-megapixel snappers that can record videos in 720p.
Internal storage capacity is 8GB—only half of what the Q10 offers—but is expandable via microSD to up to 64GB.
Availability in the Philippines
BlackBerry Q5 will hit authorized retailers this weekend. The official SRP is PHP 18,690.
BlackBerry has also announced that the Q5 is available at a special offer under their Swap, Switch and Win campaign, in which customers can swap any mobile phone—working or non-working—and purchase the Q5 for PHP 18,690 less the trade-in value of the swapped phone + PHP 2,000.
Those who want to avail of the special offer can do so at the BlackBerry Mall Caravan held at the ground floor of Glorietta 1, and the four BlackBerry stores located at the Cyberzone areas of SM Megamall, SM North EDSA, SM Sta. Rosa and SM Pampanga.