These days BlackBerry is only producing Android phones, which is just as well because it makes the firm’s devices much easier to recommend than before. We did rather like BlackBerryOS, but recommending it was difficult because it just wasn’t as well supported by app developers as Android and iOS.
Now that the switch to Android has been fully made, BlackBerry devices enjoy some excellent functionality and a huge range of apps and content. Plus, BlackBerry has managed to engineer plenty of its security, enterprise, and productivity features into its Android phones, so you’re really not making any compromises by opting for one over an old-school, non-Android BlackBerry.
BlackBerry KEYone
The BlackBerry KEYone is the firm’s current, oddly-titled Android flagship, with a premium design and build. Although it’s full Android though, there’s a significant nod to BlackBerry’s past with the inclusion of a full fixed QWERTY keyboard embedded under the display.
Sure, we may now be in the era of massive, edge-to-edge, 18:9 aspect ratio display panels pushing the Home keys and fingerprint scanners off the front panel, but even so, there’s a lot to like about having a physical keyboard. Just ask anyone who used one back in the day when BlackBerry was almost ubiquitous. They might have a few gripes about their old phone, but ask them about the typing on a physical keyboard and they’ll probably go all misty eyed while gazing off into the middle distance. Even the best on-screen keyboard doesn’t beat a physical QWERTY. Never has, never will.
As Rich said in his full review, “There’s no two ways about it: the BlackBerry KEYone is a beast….Pictures do not do it justice.”
“The BlackBerry KEYone itself is a hulking mass of metal, glass and premium-feeling, super tactile keys. It feels like a BlackBerry of old that has been smashed together with a modern phone. But importantly, and for the first time, BlackBerry has got it right.”
“The BlackBerry KEYone feels like a BlackBerry should; its reassuringly heavy, kinda thick and it really does look the business whenever you whip it out. During the testing period several people stopped me to enquire about the phone I was using; they liked the look of it and were surprised by the keyboard.”
However, although there’s a lot to like about the KEYone, we did find that the spec was a little lacklustre for a handset at this price point. Said price has been slashed since, but then again a lot of water has gone under the bridge and the spec is even less competitive now than it was at launch.
- Snapdragon 625 CPU
- Physical Smart Keyboard
- 4.5-inch LCD 1080p touchscreen, 3:2 aspect ratio
- 3GB of RAM
- 32GB of ROM
- 3505mAh battery
- Android 7.1 Nougat OS
- 12-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX378 camera sensor and 8-megapixel front
- USB Type C
“There is no QHD display, a mid-range CPU and only one option when it comes to storage – 32GB,” as Rich points out.
However, not all is as bad as it seems.
“I then received my review unit, booted it up and all my worries were put to bed once and for all. The phone boots quicker than my Pixel XL and feels just as snappy as the LG G6 and Galaxy S8.”
“The CPU might be a mid-range one, but Qualcomm’s silicon is very impressive stuff – even the mid-range 625 platform. Couple this with some brilliantly optimised software and a 1080p display and you’ve got yourself a recipe for success. Nothing holds the CPU back; BlackBerry has removed anything superfluous and drilled down on the basics and this ensures good performance across the board.”
“So, yeah… don’t let the specs put you off. BlackBerry has optimised the crap outta this thing. During my two weeks testing the handset I didn’t once feel like I was missing out on processing grunt. Not once. Everything feels suitably flagship-like.”
Add to that an incredible camera, decent battery life, and the fact that you can pick one up for much cheaper these days (though admittedly, you do have to poke around a fair bit to find said lower prices - in a lot of places it still retails for between £499 and the RRP of £549!) and the BlackBerry KEYone is quite a compelling package.
Here’s the camera spec as well:
- 12MP auto-focus large pixel camera
- 4K video recording at 30 fps
- Phase Detect Auto Focus (PDAF), Fast focus lock
- HDR 6-element f2.0 lens
- Dual Tone LED Flash – Enhanced photo colour balance
- 4x digital zoom
- Continuous & touch to focus, face detection, electronic image stabilisation
- Panorama, Burst, Live Filters
- Multi-Frame Low Light Enhancement
BlackBerry Priv
The BlackBerry Priv was the company’s first Android phone. It didn’t sell so well, which was a shame because it was actually a cracking handset with some fantastic features - most notably a full touch 5.4in QHD display and a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard.
The design is slick and the phone features a very capable 18MP camera. It also runs on a 64-bit octa-core processor (Snapdragon 808) which, while admittedly a little old now, still offers decent performance.
Most of the Priv’s issues can be overlooked given how cheap it now is. The BlackBerry PRIV has once again undergone a round of official price cuts in multiple regions. In the US it's down from $499 to $349; although the kicker is that the specific model being reduced in the territory isn't compatible with several major networks: Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular. In the UK the price has been cut by £80 down to £343, in Canada it's down to $465 CAD, and in Europe down to €399. All of which means the PRIV is now more tantalising than ever, costing a mere fraction of its launch price and still offering a very compelling bundle of BlackBerry tech, security features, and Android, as well as incredible design.
BlackBerry DTEK60 & BlackBerry DTEK50
Unlike the BlackBerry Priv and BlackBerry KEYone, the BlackBerry DTEK handsets are essentially an appeal direct to enterprise customers, in the sense that they’re the kind of more affordable mid-range phones a business might buy for its staff to use in the classic BlackBerry tradition.
These two don’t mess around with physical keyboards and are full-touch display phones.
The BlackBerry DTEK50, which is priced at just £275, features a 5.2in 1080p LCD display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 CPU. It also has a 13MP camera and 16GB of onboard storage.
The BackBerry DTEK60 has a bigger 5.5in touch display with a higher QHD resolution. The rest of the spec is also more robust, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 32GB of onboard storage. You also get a 21MP camera, a sizeable 3,000mAh battery cell, Type-C USB connectivity, a fingerprint scanner, and a programmable key on the phone's frame.
by pbriden via Featured Articles
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