1. quiestbml's Avatar
    Hey everyone! As we all know, the following image was posted the other day:



    So, with all of the talk lately of the Windermere/Q30/DevAlphaD, and the leaked images, two things concerned me.

    Firstly: Why would blackberry, which has maintained its iconic keyboard for god knows how long, suddenly change the proportions of the keys, and furthermore abandon their traditional typeface?

    Secondly: If that keyboard IS correctly displayed in the pictures, then the device is far wider than the Q10, which would make it unwieldy. Think that large, ugly 4:3 LG android phone that came out a year or two ago. Furthermore, the size of the power plug (standard MicroUSB) seems to indicate that it is in fact the SAME width as the Q10.

    So, I adjusted the proportions in photoshop with a quick width scale, and made the following image (important here is the front pic, not the back, which I adjusted for the third picture)

    Windermere is the Q30, and it's not what you expect.-q30-1.png

    Now, a few problems arise with that. Firstly, the blackberry logos are no longer correctly proportioned. How can this be explained? Well, my theory is this: the leaker of those images, being in a position where he was able to see/photograph something VERY FEW PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT, wanted to leak an image of a new smartphone to get people excited, but didn't want to spill all the beans just yet. He wanted to save a few surprises for later. So he played around quite a bit with the proportions, and we got the resultant image.

    In order to roll back those adjustments, I spent a few more minutes in photoshop, and created the following:

    Windermere is the Q30, and it's not what you expect.-q30-3.png

    Now, a few things (in my opinion) confirm what I held to be true: Firstly, as noted by another forum member, the Q30 prototype seems to use the Z10 camera sensor. Well, rotated and scaled up a tiny bit, the proportions are correct ONLY when the original Windermere image has been edited. Secondly, the Q10 image that I displayed alongside the other two confirms that the keys are now the correct proportions. And finally, when scaled, the Q10 top speaker fits perfectly in the space occupied by the top speaker on the Windermere image. BlackBerry re-used quite a few parts to rapidly prototype this thing.

    In terms of how the keyboard now functions, I have a theory: When a text entry field is selected, a number row pops up on the screen, in place of a full virtual keyboard. That number row has a symbols button, that when pressed, opens the full symbols menu as an on-screen keyboard.

    This isn't another cheap, Foxconn device.
    I believe this is an in-house prototype that was used to not only test the aspect ratio (4:3 I believe) for the Q30, but also to test the innovative physical/virtual keyboard hybrid that will be used for the upcoming device.

    Finally, I believe the screen to be 4" diagonal, and the resolution to be either 1080x1440 or more probably, 720x960.

    End thoughts.

    EDIT: Here's a rendering of what such a phone could look like as a production model.
    Windermere is the Q30, and it's not what you expect.-q30rendar.jpg
    Last edited by quiestbml; 02-20-14 at 03:30 PM.
    02-20-14 02:29 PM
  2. chiphazard's Avatar
    Ugly

    BlackBerry Since 2006. Rogers Halifax, NS - Z10 Official 10.2.1
    02-20-14 02:32 PM
  3. bbonfire's Avatar
    One very ugly phone. Lack of imagination. Square biscuit. I would not hold it up to my ear, kind of embarrassing if this is the Q30.
    02-20-14 03:00 PM
  4. Andrew4life's Avatar
    Nice speculation and photoshop, but no.

    Picture is of the actual hardware. Not the final hardware though. :P

    Posted via CB10
    bilzomaniac likes this.
    02-20-14 03:02 PM
  5. bbonfire's Avatar
    Someone says it is not square but rectangular. Ok if so, still lack of imagination. Same old same old as any phone in the market design wise. Would you buy this phone at this stage of the game when you are trying to catch up to your competitors? If you design a phone VISUALLY that everyone wants to have it on the palm of their hand, you got a winner. With BB OS and security, it will be bonus; the next most wanted mobile device in the market.
    02-20-14 03:07 PM
  6. FrankIAm's Avatar
    Why in the world are you claiming this to be the Z30? That's beyond me.

    BlackBerry 101 - Help Channel
    02-20-14 03:08 PM
  7. quiestbml's Avatar
    I never claimed it was the Q30. I believe that it is a PROTOTYPE for the Q30, to test a few different design ideas.

    When it's dressed up, it fits the part.
    Windermere is the Q30, and it's not what you expect.-q30rendar.jpg
    Last edited by quiestbml; 02-20-14 at 03:31 PM. Reason: Update the render (slightly)
    akabbani, tobasa, Signhere and 5 others like this.
    02-20-14 03:17 PM
  8. Bbnivende's Avatar
    There was an article on the keyboard
    BlackBerry Windermere Photos Exclusive Details | BGR

    Thanks OP great work.

    As far as ugly or not . We will buy it for the Keyboard or not . I would be happy with the 9900 level of style. I am not sure they should fiddle with the Keyboard at this point in time . The Bold keyboard is the best in the business.
    Q10Bold likes this.
    02-20-14 03:23 PM
  9. Aljean Thein's Avatar
    im not digging the keyboard
    02-20-14 03:27 PM
  10. Tyler Nellissen's Avatar
    Firstly. Nice work OP very nicely done and some good investigating.

    I think this is from factor people really wanted from the Q series.

    My only concern is their plans for the keyboard. How will you access symbols got g from keyboard to screen to keyboard would be awkward.

    Posted via CB10
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 03:42 PM
  11. BoldWorld's Avatar
    I like the final look

    Posted via CB10
    02-20-14 03:43 PM
  12. hxcellent's Avatar
    I like the bigger screen + KEYBOARD
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 03:46 PM
  13. BroncoVAL's Avatar
    I never claimed it was the Q30. I believe that it is a PROTOTYPE for the Q30, to test a few different design ideas.

    When it's dressed up, it fits the part.
    Attachment 249689
    first of all: great work!
    i like it a lot in that version, the keyboard is weird though...
    curious about keyboard innovation... what trick will they create to replace alt and shift buttons?
    i can't imagine rows popping up as a very good idea, not very intuitive imho
    space bar is too small too.
    But a Q10 with a 4" screen is all i want
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 03:51 PM
  14. tlegend2012's Avatar
    Great work. I will def buy something like this if it comes out
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 03:54 PM
  15. David Murray1's Avatar
    No trackpad, no deal.
    02-20-14 03:58 PM
  16. redsaph's Avatar
    Aren't they talking about the swiping keyboard? I think the swiping part is in the space bar.

    Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!
    02-20-14 03:59 PM
  17. BroncoVAL's Avatar
    yes i'm definitely intrigued by this swiping keyboard...
    in that perspective the next Q would be a mix of a physical keyboard and a sliding device...
    02-20-14 04:01 PM
  18. FunktasticLucky's Avatar
    Aren't they talking about the swiping keyboard? I think the swiping part is in the space bar.

    Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!
    Seeing the darker space bar that's my theory as well. And I'm taking it a step further and predicting that the keys will be like an e ink screen or whatever(each key an individual display). So they don't use battery to stay letters or symbols. Only to update them. It would be a very interesting design but I think the traditional keyboards would be better. We shall see.

    Posted via CB10
    02-20-14 04:13 PM
  19. thatplaybookguy's Avatar
    Maybe, just maybe you are all wrong and it is just a dev testing device and not one slated for any kind of release at all. Take gaming consoles for example, the ps4 dev unit looks nothing like the consumer product, the same for the xbone dev unit, it too looks nothing like a consumer model and actually if nobody told you what either dev unit was for, you wouldn't be able to guess. So my guess is that this is a just an in house dev unit for testing. Nothing more.

    Edit: In the leaked pictures, notice what it has written on the device in the lower left: Not For Sale.
    02-20-14 04:14 PM
  20. KDB84's Avatar
    Much better rendition, thanks for the hard work! Still not sure about that keyboard though. . . maybe the space bar is the track pad
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 04:22 PM
  21. KporalBoyQ10's Avatar
    Much better rendition, thanks for the hard work! Still not sure about that keyboard though. . . maybe the space bar is the track pad
    No trackpad

    Posted Via my Q10
    02-20-14 04:32 PM
  22. Signhere's Avatar
    I never claimed it was the Q30. I believe that it is a PROTOTYPE for the Q30, to test a few different design ideas.

    When it's dressed up, it fits the part.
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	q30rendar.jpg 
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    That is the nicest dressed up Q I've ever seen!! Good job!

    Posted via CB10
    sk8er_tor and toneytone like this.
    02-20-14 04:47 PM
  23. mphillips828's Avatar
    Yeah, we all know the dev units of all BB10 phones to date have been drastically different than the final product...all we really can say for certain is that the screen size will be 1440x1440 screen as they will be testing the screen size for devs...the internals can all change, RAM, hard drive, everything can change...the screen size they are testing for a reason and that is truly the only aspect that we can almost 100% confirm to be the next qwerty screen size...

    as for everything else, it can all change and we can and will speculate...BlackBerry clearly has changed the keyboard around but I do not think that will be the final keyboard stylings...there have been patents BlackBerry has made regarding updated sliders and other things, so they have lots of things to work with, and I am sure we will all be surprised whether it stays the same as the leaked photos, or if it changes...anything at this point that changes the Q10 keyboard would surprise us all...

    I like the concept of the larger screen size with the updated keyboard, but it looks like 1440x1440 screen will be the next qwerty device, and as such will not be rectangular...

    Just my two cents.
    02-20-14 04:54 PM
  24. akabbani's Avatar
    Now that's what I'm talking about! Just afew things I'd change...

    Would love to make that screen edge to edge and more appealing to the eye. Can save some screen space as the BlackBerry + Logo are abit stretched out at the top.

    Also I'm thinking there's no point of having that bottom bar below the keyboard? Seems like a useless waste of space to me. This space could also be used to enhance the screen size and make the device more cutting edge.

    Other than that I absolutely love this render and hope the final product is something very similar to this. Great job op!

    From the Q10 Until the Q30
    quiestbml likes this.
    02-20-14 05:14 PM
  25. IgotsThis's Avatar
    I actually really like the final render as well.

    Posted via CB10
    sk8er_tor, ErnstMach and quiestbml like this.
    02-20-14 05:19 PM
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