BlackBerry Q5 launched in India for Rs 24,990

As expected, BlackBerry today launched the Q5 in India, which is the most affordable smartphone running its BB10 operating system. Priced at Rs 24,990 , the Q5 not only brings the new swipe-based UI, but also a physical QWERTY keypad, which is a rarity these days. BlackBerry hopes that the two factors – the pricing and physical QWERTY keypad – would help it revive its fortunes in India, one of the few markets where BlackBerry was still witnessing growth before launching BB10. The phone will be available from July 20 onwards.

On the specifications front, the Q5 bears a striking resemblance to the flagship Q10 with a 3.1-inch 720×720 pixel display sporting a pixel density of 328ppi, 2GB of RAM and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera capable of shooting 720p videos. Some features do get stripped down like a 1.2GHz dual-core processor instead of a 1.5GHz processor, a 5-megapixel rear camera instead of 8-megapixels and 8GB of internal storage instead of 16GB.

The biggest difference, however, is the build quality. The Q10′s premium finish and materials are swapped by plastic in white, black and red options. Even the keypad is a little different than the Q10. Think about it like this – the Q10 would fit in BlackBerry’s erstwhile Bold series while the Q5 would be in the Curve series in terms of both finish and flair.

While the Q5 will certainly have its physical keypad loving audience, the question still remains whether BlackBerry has got its pricing strategy right or not.

Read: Blackberry unveils Q5