November 18, 2015 at 10:44Blackberry Priv: First Impressions
After 25 days of waiting after ordering on October 23, my Priv arrived at me. Let's see what Blackberry has prepared for us and how promised the new product back in March meets expectations. I must say, the wait turned out to be long, I even managed to quarrel with the store and manufacturer support service.
For me, this phone has been associated with a long, more than five years, waiting for a new device with a QWERTY keyboard: I went with the Nokia N900 for three years, after her technical death (charge controller) I was forced to take the used HTC A7272 (in Russia it was known as HTC Desire Z), then I used HTC One Dual SIM for a year and a half. Priv again claims to be my phone for a long time.
I will not focus on technical details, they can be found by the name of the device in the first page of search results.
How safe was Blackberry?
Is backward compatibility with Blackberry apps and ecosystems maintained? Is it convenient to enter from the keyboard in Russian?
Answers under the cut.
In my opinion, the device is a bit big. The diagonal of 5.4 inches, even taking into account very small frames, determines the width of 77 millimeters.
After more than a year with HTC One, this is not deadly, but, as practice has shown, a screen of this width is inconvenient when working with one hand, if you need to reach an element from the opposite side, especially in the upper part, there is a risk of dropping the device. Perhaps this is the main reason why I am against the increase in diagonals and dimensions.
The case thickness is 9.4 mm, this is less than you expect from a phone with a rather big battery and keyboard.
Case material - plastic. The back of the device is made with a soft-touch coating. Using the new device is a pleasure, but previous experience says that it has the ability to peel around in the corners.
The mass of the device is 192 grams, it is more than many people are accustomed to, but less than the last iPhone with a battery case or Nokia E90.
In his hands he feels weighty, but not heavy: in my opinion, an adequate mass for a device of this size.
The device received a completely ergonomic shape, four buttons on the sides and connectors at the bottom of the case. This decision seems to me to be right, because in length when unfolded, the smartphone almost sets a record in length, reaching for the upper bound would be nonsense.
There are two connectors: microUSB and Jack 3.5mm.
The delivery set is concise: device, memory, microUSB cable, headset, instructions and other papers.
The charger is 1.3A, the phone is charged from a computer (USB 3.0) and the charger for Samsung, however, he refused to feed on an unnamed charger that gives out 500 mA and charged for five hours my old HTC One.
The headset is not bad, but it’s not good for music. There is nothing to remove the frequency response, according to the sensations, the middle frequencies stick out strongly, the sound seems flat.
With normal headphones, the sound is decent, clear. The built-in speaker also pleased with the volume and purity of sound.
Separately, I note that as an early customer Blackberry offered me a car charger and a hard case, but not with the phone, but with a separate order (for $ 0.00). They will come - I will add to the review.
Blackberry used a QHD screen (resolution 1440x2560 pixels). The AMOLED matrix is obviously from Samsung.
The screen is good, the white balance is comfortable, somewhat cold, but it can be configured for convenience.
The viewing angles are wonderful, which is a clear minus for the “private phone”.
You have to use pornoscopic films.
Against the background of "thin" competitors, Blackberry stood out with a relatively large capacity battery (3410 mAh), which, according to the manufacturer, provides up to 22.5 hours of "mixed use".
The battery is non-removable. It feels like the device works almost like the HTC One M7, with active work it sits before our eyes, but it suffices for a day as a whole. At the end of noon of use, it is too early to judge effectiveness. English-speaking observers noted that the phone software is not yet optimized, and autonomy may also increase in the future.
The filling of the phone is quite modern: Qualcomm MSM8992 (Snapdragon 808, 6 cores), 3 GB of RAM.
It would be strange to see the flagship from BB without the support of modern wireless technologies, Priv supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac / a / n, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC.
One SIM card, 3G, LTE supported. There is a slot for a memory card on the upper edge.
Environmental protection is not provided: I understand that the class is not the same, but a pity.
Due to the huge 5.4-inch screen, the Priv is huge in the hands. Despite the thin frames, the very small thickness of the case and the non-slip plastic on the back, I am constantly afraid to drop it. In a quiet environment, it is extremely convenient, but on the go only the keyboard pleases.
The keyboard is very good, has a dim and uniform backlight, accepts strokes. There are only 35 keys.
Blackberry implemented a number of small features that greatly help the use of the phone:
When closed, the phone has four hardware keys. There is no dedicated touch strip for the buttons under the screen, so part of the space is eaten away by the on-screen buttons.
The only “interface” that was not implemented was a fingerprint sensor.
Its absence caused questions among many people, since biometric identification is considered more reliable than using passwords.
In fact, it turns out that faking a fingerprint is not a critical task, but I was interested in something else: what will Blackberry offer instead?
It turned out nothing special, the standard Android unlock options are a password, a digital PIN, a graphic key, and moving the picture.
Priv equipped the 18-megapixel main and two-megapixel front cameras. According to the fashionable trend today, flash LEDs (or rather, backlights) are two, in different tones. They create a luminous flux of about 30-40 lumens.
Examples of photos from the main (the original from 4896x3264 was squeezed in 1920x1440) autofocus cameras:
Macro:
Night shot:
In my inexperienced look, there is obvious progress compared to HTC One and iPhone 5 ☺
Despite the speed problems in some users of the device, in my copy There are no problems, the picture is taken in less than a second (not counting the HDR in the dark).
The device can not boast of the exceptional capabilities of the front camera, but for me this is not a significant drawback. For video conferencing, it’s enough.
I think the situation is similar for most future users.
This is the most interesting section for future buyers.
The smartphone runs on Android 5.1.1 (build version AAC826), which is not bad. There is no information about upgrading to 6.0; taking into account the lack of biometric sensors in the phone, part of the functionality built into 6.0 - if the upgrade does happen - will be unused.
The first download took a lot of time, about one and a half minutes.
Priv has a closed bootloader, encryption of the main file system is implemented. Outwardly, work to ensure increased security is invisible. Nevertheless, one of the few pre-installed applications was DTEK - an application for ensuring a constant security audit, checking the integrity of the OS, the presence of a screen lock that allows you to configure permissions for applications.
Other applications include BBM (Messenger), BBM Meetings, Blackberry Hub, and on-line help. Blackberry World, just like references to any support for older applications for BB10, could not be found.
In general, the manufacturer’s work is visible on providing support for all the hardware (keyboard, camera, screen, notification output) in Android (from AOSP), but they apparently decided to reduce support for the old ecosystem to the minimum.
The phone was bought in the USA, the price with free shipping was $ 760. Unfortunately, this is a non-standard payment.
The officially declared price of the device is $ 699, but do not forget that only five states have no sales tax, and California, alas, is not included in them.
I liked the device, although it’s too big in my hand. I can recommend onlystubborn fans of the hardware keyboard.
UPD: added a photo of the keyboard.
For me, this phone has been associated with a long, more than five years, waiting for a new device with a QWERTY keyboard: I went with the Nokia N900 for three years, after her technical death (charge controller) I was forced to take the used HTC A7272 (in Russia it was known as HTC Desire Z), then I used HTC One Dual SIM for a year and a half. Priv again claims to be my phone for a long time.
I will not focus on technical details, they can be found by the name of the device in the first page of search results.
How safe was Blackberry?
Is backward compatibility with Blackberry apps and ecosystems maintained? Is it convenient to enter from the keyboard in Russian?
Answers under the cut.
Case dimensions, weight, materials and design
In my opinion, the device is a bit big. The diagonal of 5.4 inches, even taking into account very small frames, determines the width of 77 millimeters.
After more than a year with HTC One, this is not deadly, but, as practice has shown, a screen of this width is inconvenient when working with one hand, if you need to reach an element from the opposite side, especially in the upper part, there is a risk of dropping the device. Perhaps this is the main reason why I am against the increase in diagonals and dimensions.
The case thickness is 9.4 mm, this is less than you expect from a phone with a rather big battery and keyboard.
Case material - plastic. The back of the device is made with a soft-touch coating. Using the new device is a pleasure, but previous experience says that it has the ability to peel around in the corners.
The mass of the device is 192 grams, it is more than many people are accustomed to, but less than the last iPhone with a battery case or Nokia E90.
In his hands he feels weighty, but not heavy: in my opinion, an adequate mass for a device of this size.
The device received a completely ergonomic shape, four buttons on the sides and connectors at the bottom of the case. This decision seems to me to be right, because in length when unfolded, the smartphone almost sets a record in length, reaching for the upper bound would be nonsense.
There are two connectors: microUSB and Jack 3.5mm.
The delivery set is concise: device, memory, microUSB cable, headset, instructions and other papers.
The charger is 1.3A, the phone is charged from a computer (USB 3.0) and the charger for Samsung, however, he refused to feed on an unnamed charger that gives out 500 mA and charged for five hours my old HTC One.
Sound
The headset is not bad, but it’s not good for music. There is nothing to remove the frequency response, according to the sensations, the middle frequencies stick out strongly, the sound seems flat.
With normal headphones, the sound is decent, clear. The built-in speaker also pleased with the volume and purity of sound.
Separately, I note that as an early customer Blackberry offered me a car charger and a hard case, but not with the phone, but with a separate order (for $ 0.00). They will come - I will add to the review.
Screen
Blackberry used a QHD screen (resolution 1440x2560 pixels). The AMOLED matrix is obviously from Samsung.
The screen is good, the white balance is comfortable, somewhat cold, but it can be configured for convenience.
The viewing angles are wonderful, which is a clear minus for the “private phone”.
You have to use pornoscopic films.
Operating time - battery
Against the background of "thin" competitors, Blackberry stood out with a relatively large capacity battery (3410 mAh), which, according to the manufacturer, provides up to 22.5 hours of "mixed use".
The battery is non-removable. It feels like the device works almost like the HTC One M7, with active work it sits before our eyes, but it suffices for a day as a whole. At the end of noon of use, it is too early to judge effectiveness. English-speaking observers noted that the phone software is not yet optimized, and autonomy may also increase in the future.
Insides
The filling of the phone is quite modern: Qualcomm MSM8992 (Snapdragon 808, 6 cores), 3 GB of RAM.
It would be strange to see the flagship from BB without the support of modern wireless technologies, Priv supports Wi-Fi 802.11ac / a / n, Bluetooth 4.1, NFC.
One SIM card, 3G, LTE supported. There is a slot for a memory card on the upper edge.
Environmental protection is not provided: I understand that the class is not the same, but a pity.
Ergonomics
Due to the huge 5.4-inch screen, the Priv is huge in the hands. Despite the thin frames, the very small thickness of the case and the non-slip plastic on the back, I am constantly afraid to drop it. In a quiet environment, it is extremely convenient, but on the go only the keyboard pleases.
The keyboard is very good, has a dim and uniform backlight, accepts strokes. There are only 35 keys.
- English for the device is "native", the only thing that confuses is the location of the Sym and Shift keys. You can get used to it.
- I have not applied the Russian layout, but in the language settings you can add languages, including Russian. A number of letters, including "s", "h", are not explicitly represented on it; I have not yet found them in combinations with Sym and Alt.
- SwiftKey and other third-party keyboards for Android can be delivered, while the hardware can only be typed in English. When you switch to them, a warning is issued about this.
Blackberry implemented a number of small features that greatly help the use of the phone:
- In standby mode, the screen responds to a double tap.
- You can drag your finger across the keyboard without pressing keys; this gesture is perceived as pressing the cursor keys
- When charging, the screen displays progress in the corner - the ability to use only a small part of the AMOLED screen is implemented. You will probably also be able to get it to display the clock in standby mode.
When closed, the phone has four hardware keys. There is no dedicated touch strip for the buttons under the screen, so part of the space is eaten away by the on-screen buttons.
The only “interface” that was not implemented was a fingerprint sensor.
Its absence caused questions among many people, since biometric identification is considered more reliable than using passwords.
In fact, it turns out that faking a fingerprint is not a critical task, but I was interested in something else: what will Blackberry offer instead?
It turned out nothing special, the standard Android unlock options are a password, a digital PIN, a graphic key, and moving the picture.
A photo
Priv equipped the 18-megapixel main and two-megapixel front cameras. According to the fashionable trend today, flash LEDs (or rather, backlights) are two, in different tones. They create a luminous flux of about 30-40 lumens.
Examples of photos from the main (the original from 4896x3264 was squeezed in 1920x1440) autofocus cameras:
Macro:
Night shot:
In my inexperienced look, there is obvious progress compared to HTC One and iPhone 5 ☺
Despite the speed problems in some users of the device, in my copy There are no problems, the picture is taken in less than a second (not counting the HDR in the dark).
The device can not boast of the exceptional capabilities of the front camera, but for me this is not a significant drawback. For video conferencing, it’s enough.
I think the situation is similar for most future users.
Software
This is the most interesting section for future buyers.
The smartphone runs on Android 5.1.1 (build version AAC826), which is not bad. There is no information about upgrading to 6.0; taking into account the lack of biometric sensors in the phone, part of the functionality built into 6.0 - if the upgrade does happen - will be unused.
The first download took a lot of time, about one and a half minutes.
Priv has a closed bootloader, encryption of the main file system is implemented. Outwardly, work to ensure increased security is invisible. Nevertheless, one of the few pre-installed applications was DTEK - an application for ensuring a constant security audit, checking the integrity of the OS, the presence of a screen lock that allows you to configure permissions for applications.
Other applications include BBM (Messenger), BBM Meetings, Blackberry Hub, and on-line help. Blackberry World, just like references to any support for older applications for BB10, could not be found.
In general, the manufacturer’s work is visible on providing support for all the hardware (keyboard, camera, screen, notification output) in Android (from AOSP), but they apparently decided to reduce support for the old ecosystem to the minimum.
Issue price and conclusions
The phone was bought in the USA, the price with free shipping was $ 760. Unfortunately, this is a non-standard payment.
The officially declared price of the device is $ 699, but do not forget that only five states have no sales tax, and California, alas, is not included in them.
I liked the device, although it’s too big in my hand. I can recommend only
UPD: added a photo of the keyboard.