BlackBerry Looking To Rope In Google, Cisco, SAP For Potential Sale

Another round of big name organizations are reportedly interested in BlackBerry. According to a report in Reuters today, Cisco Systems, Google and SAP are all ‘in talks’ with BlackBerry and considering purchasing the companies assets, specifically its secure server network and patent portfolio.

In addition, the report also notes that BlackBerry ‘has asked for preliminary expressions of interest from potential strategic buyers, which also include Intel Corp and Asian companies LG and Samsung.’ This is particularly interesting as Samsung has repeatedly declared they have no interest in the Waterloo-based company.

A week ago BlackBerry announced a $4.7 billion bid from Toronto-based Fairfax Financial, but the clause still ‘entitled to go-shop’ for other potential offers. New York-based Cerberus, who apparently specializes in investing in troubled organizations, is nowhere close to closing a deal and ‘is aiming to sign a confidentiality agreement that would allow it to access BlackBerry’s private financial information.’

The WSJ also reports that there’s another ‘distressed-investing firm’ interested in snatching up BlackBerry, but the ‘person familiar with the matter’ didn’t want to disclose the name. In addition, as previously rumoured, BlackBerry co-founder, Mike Lazaridis is considering a bid for the business.

BlackBerry declined to comment on the potential investor, stating “We do not intend to disclose further developments with the respect to the process until we approve a specific transaction or otherwise conclude the review of strategic alternatives.”

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BlackBerry Q10

SPECIFICATIONS

Company/Brand                         BlackBerry

Type                                          QWERTY Smartphone

OS                                              BlackBerry OS 10.1

Price                                           Rs. 44900

Announced                                January, 2013

Released                                   April, 2013

Hype                                         4/5

Chipset                                      Snapdragon S4 (LTE version)/ TI OMAP 4470 (Non-LTE)

Processor                                 Dual-core 1.5 GHz Krait (LTE version)/ Cortex-A9 (Non-LTE)

GPU                                         Adreno 225 (LTE version)/ PowerVR SGX544 (Non-LTE)

RAM                                        2 GB

Battery                                    Li-Ion 2100 mAh

Primary Camera                      8 MP, autofocus, LED flash

Secondary Camera                2 MP

Video Capabilities                 1080p@30fps

Weight                                   139 g

Dimensions                            119.6 x 66.8 x 10.4 mm

Main Display                         720 x 720 pixels, 3.1 inches (~328 ppi pixel density)

In-Built Storage                     16 GB

What We Like                        Keyboard, Browsing, Functionality

What We Don't Like               Screen Size, App Availability, Pricing

Build Quality And Design

At a time when every major manufacturer has shifted its focus towards touchscreen phones, Blackberry remains adamant on providing the QWERTY experience to their customers that they were once famous for. Hence, the Blackberry Q10.In terms of its design, the Blackberry Q10 will remind you instantly of any other QWERTY Blackberry ever made. It ditches the trackball/trackpad of the older BlackBerry devices in favor of a touchscreen display that works pretty well, though we still really miss the hardware buttons.

The Blackberry Q10 is a compact phone, sporting a small display with a keyboard underneath. With a soft, rubbery rear case and a plastic band along the sides, the Blackberry Q10 shares obvious design cues with BlackBerry’s other new device, the full touchscreen Z10.

Surrounding the square screen is a thin bezel on the bottom and sides, while above the screen is where you’ll find a BlackBerry logo, front-facing camera and its speaker. Below the screen is the star of the show, the QWERTY keyboard
.The back panel of the black Blackberry Q10 has a carbon weave texture which Blackberry claims is unique to each device. 

Overall, it looks and feels elegant, refined and professional. 

Keyboard

Moving on to the keyboard, one thing to note is that the once curved keyboard has now been straightened out and the metallic frets separating the rows of characters are now slightly raised for improved tactile feedback – in other words you should be able to feel where your thumbs are on the board more easily. The break in the keys is a nice clean look however and the overall size of the keyboard is similar to previous devices. 

Specifications And Hardware

The Blackberry Q10 is equipped with the famous Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 SoC, operating at 1.5 GHz, and the integrated Qualcomm Adreno 225 graphics card with 400 MHz core frequency and 2 GB of RAM. It has a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, albeit with a square 720 x 720 resolution rather than a widescreen aspect like a typical touchscreen phone. 16 GB flash memory and LTE round up the specifications of the Blackberry Q10. You can reach the entire specs list at the top.

Display, Performance And Multimedia

The 720 x 720 pixel, 3.1-inch square screen doesn’t feel too small at first glance, especially since the narrow bezel allows the screen to command maximum attention when it’s on. It’s also pixel dense, a key factor in readability. BlackBerry 10 defaults to a text size of 8 and small fonts need to be crisp to be legible.

The Super AMOLED touchscreen isn’t as bright as we’d like, yet is good enough for sunlight visibility. Colors pop and blacks are deep, as we’d expect with AMOLED. Viewing angles are generally good, though off-center a blue tinge creeps in that’s really noticeable on light backgrounds.

Just as with the Z10, the BlackBerry Q10 is powerful enough to run BlackBerry 10 smoothly with no lag or performance hiccups. If anything, the Q10 feels faster, potentially because the smaller screen requires less oomph or the update to version 10.1 sped things up all around.

The square screen means that videos on the BlackBerry Q10 are letter-boxed, which is disappointing. Playback though is quite smooth.

The speaker that sits on the bottom edge of the Q10 is well-placed; you’re unlikely to muffle with your hands. Overall audio quality is decent for a smartphone and loud enough to be heard over some background noise.

Camera There’s more noise in mixed light shots and little crispness or detail in outdoor pictures. We’re glad that the BlackBerry 10.1 update brought HDR to the feature set since there aren’t many at hand. It balances shadow and bright light better than Auto but requires a very steady hand. There’s no shutter icon in the camera app; to snap a picture you have to tap the display or press the space bar.

Battery Life

Battery wise, the Q10 is great. It requires less power to run than its Z10 cousin, but includes a larger 2100 mAH battery. With this size battery, the Q10 easily lasts all day and with regular usage, it can round out the day with around 15-20% of battery life left.

Calling And Network

The BlackBerry Q10 has the same 8-megapixel camera as the BlackBerry Z10. While it has some neat features that allows you to choose the best photo, the actual quality of the pictures left a lot to be desired. It’s just not on the same level with pictures we shoot with other smartphones from this price segment.

During calls, voices came through the earpiece and speaker clearly and we only encountered a bit of static in a low bar area. Our voice came through loud and clear on the other end as well in quiet and semi-noisy situations. The phone though is able to latch on to cellular networks even in weak signal areas.

Conclusion

There are a million touchscreen smartphones in the world. There aren’t many phones with good physical keyboards (and the competition mainly consists of other BlackBerry devices). The BlackBerry Q10 too serves those people who still feel the need for a physical keyboard and for those who are still BlackBerry purists. 

The actual BB10 operating system is great and its implementation is clean. For people who prioritize this above everything else, including good apps, the BlackBerry Q10 is a decent buy, but the pricing of the device is too high for most.

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Hi-Tech Gift Guide Guide : Smart Phones

The festival season is just around the corner and you want to spend some money on your loved ones. Here we bring you the recommended list of Smartphones that you can gift to your near and dear ones. 

1- Samsung Galaxy Star:

This is a basic phone from samsung which powered by a 1200 mAh battery and runs on a 1 GHz A5 chipset, along with 512 MB RAM and 4 GB of internal storage. The galaxy Star also has a 2 MP camera at the back and a 3 inch capacitive touchsrceen in the front along with Bluetooth 4.0. This budget device is available for about 4875 INR. You can check out the full specs .

2-Sony Xperia E:

The sony made Xperia E smartphone has a 3.5 inch screen and is powered by a 1 Ghz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, the phone also has a 3.2 MP camera and comes loaded with android 4.1 Jelly Bean. The device is priced at 7799 INR.

3- Nokia Lumia 520:

This is a budget Windows phone available at a price of around 8650 INR, the device comes up with 4 inch screen size along with a 5 MP camera. The device also comes up with 7 GB of skydrive storage and runs in Windows phone 8 OS.

4- Micromax Canvas 2:

This device is one of the best sellers from micromax, it comes up with a 4.9 inch display along with a 8 MP rear and VGA front facing cameras. The canvas 2 runs on android 4.0 is powered by a 1 Ghz dual-core processor.

5- Samsung Galaxy Core:

This device has a 4.3 inch display and works on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, galaxy core is powered by 1.2 GHz Dual Core Processor and features a 5 MP main and VGA secondary Camera, the device is available for 13240 INR.

6- HTC One V

The HTC One V has a 3.7 inch screen and is powered by a 1 Ghz processor, the device has a 5 MP primary camera and is capable of doing HD videos. It is priced at 13990 INR.

 7- XOLO Play:

Xolo play is high on specification if compared to the same priced phones, as this phone comes with 4.7 inch HD screen, and is powered by 1.5 GHz NVIDIA Tegra Quad-Core along with a 12-core NVIDIA GeForce GPU. The Xolo Play also has an 8 MP Primary and 2 MP secondary Camera, the device runs on Android 4.1

8- Samsung Galaxy Grand Quattro:

This Dual SIM device from samsung has a 1.2 GHz Cortex-A5, Quad Core processor, the device has a 5 MP primary and VGA Secondary camera. Grand Quattro is priced at 15499 INR.

 9- Nokia Lumia 720:

This Windows phone from Nokia has a 4.29 inch screen and is powered by a 1 GHz Dual Core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processor. Lumia 720 has a 6.7 MP primary and 1.3 MP secondary camera. 

10- Sony Xperia SP:

The Xperia SP runs on Android 4.1 and comes with a 4.6 inch HD display. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro Processor and has a 8 MP primary and VGA secondary Camera. Xperia SP is priced at 22490 INR.

11- Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8:

This device comes with a mega display of 5.8 inches and is powered by 1.4 GHz Dual Core Processor. The Mega 5.8 has a 8 MP primary and 2 MP secondary camera, the device runs on Android 4.2.2. 

12- BlackBerry Q5:

This Blackberry phone runs on BlackBerry OS 10.1 and has a 3.1 inch touch scren along with QWERTY keypad. Q5 has a 5 MP primary and 2 MP secondary Camera, the camera does full HD recording.

13- Samsung Galaxy Note 2:

This device is powered by 1.6 GHz Quad Core Cortex-A9 Processor, Note 2 has built in stylus support- S-pen. The device has a 8 MP primary and 2 MP secondary camera, the device is priced at 30,000 INR. 

This festive season you might also want to pamper yourself with a smartphone, gift yourself with these latest premium phones:

14- Samsung Galaxy S4:

The S4 is the latest edition in the Galaxy S series after the S3, the device is lighter and thinner than the predecessor. The Galaxy S4 comes with a 13 MP main camera, and has a Full HD screen, Dual video recording along with Hand gestures support. The device is priced at 39000 INR.

15- LG G2:

LG G2 is the latest flagship from the company, the device features a new layout of buttons at the back, which make it unique in terms of appearance. The device has a 5.2 inch screen and runs on Android 4.2.2. The G2 has a 13 MP primary camera along with 2.1 MP secondary camera.

16- Sony Xperia Z1:

Xperia Z1 is the latest flagship from sony, the device has an amazing 20.7 MP primary and 2 MP cameras. The 5 inched device is powered by 2.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Quad Core Processor. This is also completely Water resistant and dust proof, the only phone in the category with these features

17- Samsung Galaxy Note 3:

Samsung’s latest flagship, the Note 3 features a 5.7 inch full HD Super AMOLED screen. The device has a 13 MP primary camera and does full HD recording, Note 3 is powered by Octa Core Processor by Samsung(1.9 GHz Quad + 1.3 GHz Quad) and 3 GB RAM.

Stay tuned for more guides: Happy Gifting!

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