If you're a BlackBerry fan, you've probably been waiting for the release of the BlackBerry that should have debuted first, the QWERTY equipped BlackBerry Q10 instead of the all-touch BlackBerry Z10. Well, the wait is finally over as, according to new reports, T-Mobile will be the first carrier in the U.S. to begin offering its customers the BlackBerry Q10.
T-Mobile hasn't officially announced the news yet, but it should be happening any minute. The carrier is believed to be getting ready to announce that it will begin selling the much desired BlackBerry Q10 on June 5. This will give T-Mobile official bragging rights of being the first U.S. carrier to offer its customers the BlackBerry with a real, physical BlackBerry keyboard. While the BlackBerry Z10 has been a very impressive smartphone, most BlackBerry fans will tell you that BlackBerry is all about the keyboard, and the BlackBerry Q10 lives up to the reputation.
The BlackBerry Q10 follows up very nicely on what made BlackBerry the king of the smartphone world a few years ago. It offers users the next-generation and very impressive BlackBerry 10 operating system on a physical QWERTY packing smartphone. If you've been hanging onto that BlackBerry Bold, Curve, or Torch because the BlackBerry Z10 did not offer the "BlackBerry keyboard", it's a good time to think about upgrading to the Q10.
BlackBerry was king of the smartphone world just a few years ago until it was caught off guard by the iPhone and slew of Android smartphones joining its smartphone's on retail shelves. The Canadian company played the waiting game too long and it failed to keep up with companies like Apple and Samsung, who would soon take the title away and make BlackBerry seem like an irrelevant player in the mobile world. Blackberry decided that the only way to compete with iOS and Android would be to bring an updated version of its BlackBerry OS to its smartphones that would be able to offer some similar and new features found in the two market leader's mobile devices.
BlackBerry 10 is what the company believed would be its best hope at climbing back up to relevancy and it was right. If you've ever used the BlackBerry Z10 there's no denying that BlackBerry did an exceptional job with BB10. It still feels like the familiar BlackBerry OS that millions of consumers are grown fond of, but brings with it an ultra-intuitive and gesture-based operating system. BlackBerry believed that the Z10 was the device it needed to compete with the all-touch smartphones of the world; it was also a nice size display to show off BlackBerry 10. After spending some time with the BlackBerry Z10, I can understand the appeal. I also understand why consumers and more importantly, BlackBerry fans wanted to wait for the Q10. There is still something about typing on a physical QWERTY keyboard that trumps virtual keyboards, in my opinion. T-Mobile fans will be the first to experience BlackBerry 10 on a "real" BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry Q10 comes nicely equipped with a gorgeous 3.1-inch 720 x 720 Super AMOLED display with 330ppi (pixels per inch), which just edges out the iPhone 5's 326ppi display. The Q10 also includes a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, microSD card slot with support for up to 64GB cards, NFC, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G LTE radio, and a removable 2,100mAh battery.
T-Mobile hasn't announced the official pricing just yet, but according to the Tmonews, it will charge $99 down and 24 monthly payments of $20 added to your monthly bill.
