The mobile device market is growing at such a fast pace that it is very difficult to keep track of which players appear on it and which ones disappear. If we all know about companies such as Nokia, Samsung or Lenovo, then people most often have not heard about lesser-known brands from China or even from small European countries.
Therefore, within the framework of this article, I would like to mention the BQ brand. Phones, the country of origin of which is Spain, are not so widely advertised in the mobile device market. According to sales statistics, the company's devices account for only 3 percent of all smartphones in their country. Despite this, the company has a turnover of more than 200 million dollars a year.
About company
The devices known under the BQ brand are phones whose manufacturer is called Mundo, a Spanish company that started operations back in 2009. The start of this group's success was the import of cheap electronics from China, mainly electronic books, the first mobile phones and some accessories. Smartphones as such, except then really did not exist.
Seeing the success, those who are now releasing (the country of origin, as already noted, Spain) have opened their own development. A design line was formed (phones, however, look typical for many touch devices) and a brand under which they started production. As time has shown, this decision was quite successful. This allowed to some extent attract buyers to BQ phones, the country of origin of which is the homeland for most of them.
BQ Products
You can see what the company's products are on its official website. A catalog is opened here, which presents mobile phones, as well as 3D printers. Of course, there are phones in the BQ catalog. Who is the manufacturer of them, it is not difficult to guess.
All prices for goods are indicated in euros, ordering from the official website is possible only for residents of Spain. Of course, the customer pays for shipping. Each of the lots on the portal is accompanied by a description, a small overview, and a section that shows the accessories available for order. The last possibility is very useful for those who buy BQ (phones). The country of origin of these covers and films is Spain, so you should not expect a catch in terms of quality. Of course, because of this, the price of accessories here is higher than, say, at the Aliexpress auction. Quality, as you know, too.
Device features
If you carefully study BQ (phones whose country of manufacture is also Spain), it will actually not be easy to identify the difference with Chinese gadgets. These are ordinary Android or Ubuntu touch-smartphones equipped with the same processors and graphics engines as Chinese products from little-known manufacturers. As a rule, this is MediaTek MT6592. If we talk about screens, then we will not find anything new here either - the models come with displays equipped with an IPS matrix.
Reviews
As shown by the few characteristics that we managed to find on the Internet from those who have already purchased a model of this company, the manufacturing country distinguishes BQ (phones) from Chinese ones. This is Spain, where labor is paid higher, but its quality at the same time complies with world standards. If the phone had come to us from somewhere from the factory in Guan Zhou province, it would most likely have had a gap in the lid and it would have been possible to determine the budget nature of such a model by touch.
BQ - phones, whose manufacturing country is not famous for such a large number of fakes and various production "blunders" as China, are somewhat different in this regard: the panels sit tightly, and the phone is quite pleasant to the touch.
Prices
True, and the buyer pays for this. On the official website, as already noted, the price is set for the models that are on sale. It can be determined for each of the smartphones and thus compare what the company offers and at what price. So, the cheapest BQ model can be purchased for only 169 euros. For this price, the buyer receives a device running on the MT6735 processor with a clock frequency of 1 GHz and with the Android 5.1 operating system. There are also two cameras - with a resolution of 8 and 5 megapixels, as well as options such as Wi-Fi, 4G, Bluetooth, GPS.
Another (the most expensive device in the BQ line) is offered at a price of 310 euros with an MT6592 processor (2 GHz frequency) in a metal case with Android 4.4.4. Other characteristics are not much different from the previous, cheaper model.
Other BQ
There is another company called BQ. To be more precise, this is BQ Mobile. It is imported into our country by a domestic distributor, while telephones are manufactured in China. The prices set by the sellers of these models are several times lower.
Characteristics of BQ Mobile
True, in order to understand why this is so, some descriptions of models from BQM should be given. First, they are all buttons. That is, there is no need to talk about the presentation of smartphones with a touch screen, as can be seen in the model line of the Spanish company BQ. Secondly, each of the devices claims its own unique design and some special image. For example, there is an apparatus with a device for opening beer; a mobile phone for 3 SIM cards the size of a lighter and some other cool models.
They are inexpensive - about 2 thousand rubles. At the same time, it is difficult to say how reliable these phones are - the country of origin of the brand is China. But Russian representatives are quite actively promoting it on the device market - there is a website on the Internet that sells such models. Here you can find incredibly enticing descriptions, photos and, of course, great product reviews. True, if you read the reviews on the Internet, no one takes the moves of this company seriously.
By installing a mechanism for opening beer, for example, no major brand will conquer the market, except for Russian distributors. The phones themselves, marked on the case as representatives of the BQ line, are most likely made to order with this name in order to play on the delusion of the buyer, who may have heard about the high quality of BQ products before. At the same time, of course, it will most likely be too naive to expect that such a phone will serve for a long time and reliably.
Today we want to tell you more about BQ, whose devices have been repeatedly tested, and we want to introduce you to this brand.
The largest Russian smartphone manufacturer BQ, founded in 2013, offers a wide range of affordable devices on the domestic market, including reliable, stylish smartphones with high functionality, despite the affordable price, budget mobile phones and convenient tablet computers.
In just a few years, the BQ brand has gained a strong position in the Russian market. Its devices are widely represented throughout Russia and the CIS in retail outlets of more than 2,000 partners, including the largest federal chains. BQ products are sold in electronics stores M.Video, Svyaznoy, Eldorado, DNS, MegaFon, Beeline, Tele2, KNOW-HOW, etc., as in offline retail and online stores.
In 2017, BQ entered the top 5 most popular smartphone manufacturers in terms of sales according to Counter Point Analytics. In 2018, the brand, while maintaining its position, occupies 7% of the smartphone market, competing only with major international competitors. The audience of fans of the BQ brand is also growing. According to studies, 60% of BQ smartphone owners have been using one model for more than two years, not wanting to change it to another.
.750.JPG)
The steady growth in demand for BQ smartphones is primarily due to a number of company features that distinguish it from competitors.
- Affordable prices
The company strives to offer the most attractive price for the buyer - the cost of gadgets produced by it is in the range from 3 to 16 thousand rubles. A wide range of products allows you to choose a device for every taste. Currently, the consumer prefers not to overpay for expensive brands. In BQ smartphones, it will be able to offer the same high functionality and high quality, but at a lower price.
In the autumn, the brand released the flagship smartphone BQ-6200L Aurora with the 3D Face Unlock function based on artificial intelligence, a powerful MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor, a large frameless screen and smart cameras. Despite the top specifications, the cost of the smartphone is only 15,990 rubles.
- High quality
BQ products are distinguished by one of the highest levels of quality on the market.
Before entering the Russian market, each BQ device from a new batch undergoes mandatory strict multi-level quality control. In addition, the components used in BQ devices are of the same quality as those produced by leading manufacturers in the industry, and the manufacturing process complies with ISO-9001 standards.
- Localization
Another significant point is that BQ products are completely localized for the Russian market, which is especially appreciated by the domestic consumer.
Conducting in-depth marketing research allows the company to always know what the Russian buyer needs. BQ devices are developed specifically for the Russian market, while other vendors supply the same products to all regions of the world. The company strives to equip smartphones not only with the most necessary technical functionality, but also installs the most popular applications in them, such as, for example, Sberbank Online, Yandex, Avto.ru. Moreover, BQ smartphones are mainly equipped with pure Android, which ensures more stable and faster operation of devices.
During the localization process, BQ engineers fix translation errors in the Android OS, which improves the comfort of working with BQ smartphones.
- Hi-tech
BQ closely monitors market trends, so only the most advanced and up-to-date technologies are used in its products. A bright frameless screen with increased shock resistance, a high-capacity battery, a face unlock function, dual cameras, support for contactless payments - all these modern technologies can be found in BQ smartphones today, and, importantly, at a very affordable price.
It should be noted that among the partners of BQ are the three largest chipset manufacturers - Qualcomm, MediaTek and Spreadtrum. This also allows BQ smartphones to provide high performance and reliability.
- Service
The service policy of the brand deserves special attention, considering the quality of service for BQ smartphone owners as one of the main priorities in its work.
And if for some reason the broken device cannot be repaired, a similar model is issued instead.
Here, the possibility of overestimated cost of repair services and spare parts during the period of post-warranty service or in non-warranty cases is excluded, since BQ tracks the cost of repairs and spare parts throughout the entire life of the devices.
A guarantee of the high quality of the services provided is also the fact that all BQ authorized service centers periodically undergo mandatory certification.
A well-thought-out marketing strategy ensures the steady growth of BQ brand awareness. Currently, BQ has two major projects in the works - a partnership with FC Spartak Moscow and a large-scale federal project with the Hands Up! called BQ Tour.
It should be added that for about five years BQ has been cooperating with the Podari Zhizn charity foundation, providing active material assistance to children with oncohematological and other serious diseases and transferring part of the proceeds from the sale of each device to the foundation.
BQ's activities have been recognized with various prestigious awards. For example, BQ won an award for the first ever smartphone for fans of FC Spartak, the BQ Advance Spartak Edition. The brand also has an award in the Smartphone nomination of the Consumer Rights and Quality of Service award.
The entire segment of mobile phones can currently be divided into two categories depending on the manufacturer. These are products from large premium brands and inexpensive devices from little-known small companies, a large part of which are located in China. Between these extreme groups, of course, middle brands also occupy a place, but the tough conditions of competition force them to maintain a clear position in the market. And in this context, BQ phones occupy a special place. Reviews about them emphasize the affordable cost, but at the same time they praise the devices for the overall rather high quality of workmanship.
General information about the manufacturer
Compared to other popular cell phone manufacturers, BQ is a very young company. It was founded in 2010 and has since been part of the Mundo Reader holding. The company specializes in the development of electronic devices and accessories. In recent years, brand engineers have been creating BQ phones with some success. Customer reviews indicate the originality of the company's approach to the development of smartphones, in particular, which also determines the success of products in the market. Of course, there is no question of competition with corporations of the level of Apple or Samsung, but there are no serious differences from famous models in the same general quality properties either. The difference rather has a fashion connotation, which has nothing to do with consumer qualities.
Company philosophy
A special approach to the creation of phones is associated with the general concept of production. Initially, the company focuses on attracting people who have their own special vision of the product. This is what allows her to produce the original BQ phone. Reviews indicate that this concept can be traced both in the design of smartphones and in technical qualities with functional content. Although, of course, in order to maintain its position in the market, the manufacturer still has to follow certain rules for the development of phones related to the requirements for ergonomics and power stuffing.
Features of BQ Mobile Devices
Developers strive to offer brand fans relevant, but at the same time optimized offers. There is a framework within which the manufacturer manages to freely experiment with technical parameters and at the same time fit into acceptable price segments. For example, for most phones of this brand, a 5-8 megapixel camera has long become the norm. Moreover, the shooting quality itself is better than that of many competitive models with similar parameters. This, in particular, is confirmed by reviews of BQ phones. The memory specs aren't that high compared to the competition - the average RAM is just 1GB, and the 8GB storage isn't impressive either. But the operating systems in smartphones are constantly updated. The company bases the latest models on Android systems versions 6-7. In terms of autonomy, the models differ from each other. Developers can use both low-capacity cells of the order of 1500 mAh and 5000 mAh batteries. Of course, the equipment of one or another battery is determined by the potential cost of the resource of the device during operation.
Reviews of the model BQM-1831 Step
One of the most affordable models of the company, which offers basic communication capabilities. The owners of this phone point to good audibility, solid body and physical ergonomics. The device turned out to be compact, but at the same time functional for its class and well-assembled. For example, it is worth noting the interfaces Bluetooth, USB, as well as the ability to listen to tracks in MP3 format and access the Internet - these and other functions are equipped with this BQ BQM phone. Reviews with negative impressions about this model also take place. They, in particular, indicate a modest battery capacity, a tiny display and limited communication standards.
Reviews of the model BQ-5022 Bond
This device can be called an intermediate link between the budget versions and the middle class in the manufacturer's line. The device belongs to the category of smartphones, supports Android 6.0, has an 8-megapixel camera, navigation tools, etc. In turn, reviews about the BQ Bond phone refer to its strengths as a touchscreen, display quality, high performance with quick response, sound and design.
The shortcomings of the smartphone, which are noted by the owners, deserve special attention. Mostly criticism concerns glossy surfaces. They leave traces, which does not add to the attractiveness of the stylish body of the BQ phone. Reviews about the battery are also not encouraging. The small volume of the battery and the rapid consumption of the energy reserve are also emphasized, even in the average mode of resource use.
Reviews of the Strike Mini
Also a model of an intermediate category, which can be considered as a budget smartphone. The device is based on the Android 7.0 platform, allows you to work with two SIM-cards, has 8 GB of memory and a 5-megapixel camera. The owners also point out the good build quality, the use of high-quality plastic and the stylish design of this BQ phone. Reviews about physical ergonomics are ambiguous. On the one hand, many are quite satisfied with the heaviness of the case. But there are also negative weight assessments, the authors of which add to this criticism of the low potential of the battery - only 1300 mAh. And yet, in terms of the totality of functionality with a wide range of communications, this option is quite worthy of attention. Especially considering the price tag, which is about 3 thousand rubles.
Reviews of the model BQ-5059 Strike Power
The most noticeable and popular model of the manufacturer, the features of which include a 13 megapixel camera with autofocus and a capacious 5000 mAh battery. Otherwise, we can state the balance of the technical parameters of the BQ 5059 Strike Power phone. Owner reviews just emphasize that the main advantage of the device is in the battery. If in other indicators the model has many direct competitors, then it is the capacious battery that noticeably distinguishes it. But this is not all the pluses. For example, many owners of the gadget highly appreciated the presence of metal panels in the case and a well-implemented operating system based on Android 7.0.
But it was not without drawbacks. They are expressed in those same average parameters. So, users criticize the creators for the reduced amount of RAM - only 1 GB. Therefore, those who are looking for a device for powerful games and applications can avoid the BQ 5059 Strike Power phone. Reviews also negatively assess the size of the main memory. Only 8 GB for a model of this level is certainly not enough, although there are options for expanding memory.
Reviews of the model BQ-5057 Strike 2
The model is positioned as the next generation of the previous device, but this is rather a variation on its platform, since the phone has acquired little in terms of technology and functionality. Moreover, with the preserved shooting capabilities, the same communication and technical stuffing, the device lost half of the battery capacity - the volume is 2500 mAh. Of course, this flaw was compensated by the price tag of the second generation of the BQ Strike phone. Reviews note that the device is available for 5 thousand on average and this is a worthy offer, taking into account the remaining merits. If we talk about other advantages besides the reduced cost, then the presence of an energy-saving mode, an optimized and ergonomic body, as well as a high-quality screen with a modern IPS HD matrix will come to the fore.
A presentation dedicated to the official entry into the Russian market of the BQ company took place. For a manufacturer that produces (among other things) smartphones, BQ has a very unusual philosophy: the company actively supports and focuses on "makers" - people who can create something on their own, on an engineering, rather than consumer, approach to gadgets. This is reflected in the range of smartphones with tablets, where among the standard Android models there are modifications on Ubuntu, Cyanogen and Android One, and in other things produced by BQ: 3D printers, educational robotics and smart toys. All products created by BQ are open source.
BQ was founded in 2010 and is part of the Mundo Reader technology holding, which unites enterprises engaged in the development and production of electronic devices and accessories.
For people who are serious about 3D printing, BQ should be well known for its Witbox model, one of the most popular closed-frame consumer 3D printers.
Even more enthusiastic followers of the RepRap philosophy should be familiar with the name Hephestus - one of the most inexpensive "models to build" on the market today.
The presentation showed Hephestus 2, which is a new version of the 3D printer, equipped with a stable metal body (get rid of printed elements), an improved sled and an extruder that supports stable printing using Flex plastic. The price by today's standards will be, again, democratic - in the region of 60-65 thousand rubles. Sales will begin towards the end of the year.
Even Russified interface is provided.
BQ offers a variety of kits for building simple robots, and ready-made robots. This toy is called ZOWI, the body for it is printed on a 3D printer, works on the basis of a proprietary board and can flicker, dance and move. However, you can reprogram it yourself using the simple Bitbloq app, available on both PC and Android.
BQ is known to the general public (and now in Russia) as a manufacturer of inexpensive smartphones, in terms of sales of which (without reference to mobile operators) the company ranks second in its homeland, Spain. Sales of the Aquarius E series (including the E5 models on Ubuntu, 15,500 rubles) and Aquarius M (19,000-23,000 rubles, depending on the screen size and memory capacity) have already started in Russia.
Sales of the top line Aquarius X5 will begin in March next year. The cost on the Russian market has not yet been determined, but you can start from the European price of 229 euros. This thin (7.5 mm) smartphone with a large (2900 mAh) battery, a 13-megapixel main camera, a 5-megapixel front camera and a 5-inch 720 × 1280 pixel screen is powered by the Qualcoom Snapdragon 412 platform and is equipped with 16 GB flash and 2 GB RAM.
Bright&Quick is a brand owned by the Russian company Antares. It represents: devices are made in China, but, as often happens, they are offered as a Russian product - at the place of registration of the brand owner.
However, for some reason, Antares decided to shorten the brand name to BQ - and this name was registered in 2013 by the Spanish Mundo Reader, SL. Antares also calls itself BQ-mobile.
Mundo Reader, SL alleges that Antares is misusing the BQ trademark.
The quality of goods and the price range of the two mentioned companies differ significantly, which misleads smartphone users in the Russian market.
Mundo Reader, SL
BQ Trademark Owner
The Russian company entered the market in 2015, while the Spanish brand was founded in 2010 and, importantly, is the leader of the Spanish consumer electronics market. The original BQ is smartphones and tablets running Android, Ubuntu, Android One, Cyanogen, Witbox 3D printers, Hephestos, and even educational robotics. The company's annual turnover is more than 350 million euros, products are presented in 50 countries. Digital devices are also created in China, but under the control of Spanish management, and 3D printers, robotics, products for the Internet of things - in Navarra in northern Spain.
Added:
Later, the Russian company submitted documents confirming the existence of trademark rights (the decision of the arbitration court dated July 14, 2016 is available on the website). A spokesman for Mundo Reader, SL, commented on this material as follows:
Passed the first instance. During the hearings, BQ-mobile presented a registered trademark in the Russian Federation. Therefore, the court actually transferred the decision on recognition of the confusingly similar BQ-mobile mark to Rospatent. The main hearings will now be held there. For, according to the conclusion of a study conducted by VTsIOM, up to 70% of respondents confuse the two companies. The European BQ entered the Russian market in November last year. Having found the "namesake", I got in touch with him, offering to calmly shift the emphasis in the name of the products to BRIGHT & QUICK - the slogan present on the logo of the Russian company. Without being heard, I had to go to court. Of course, there is no theft here. We are talking about similarity to the point of confusion and priority on the trademark of Europeans.
