One of Blackberry's most recent phones, the Classic, is undoubtedly a great phone for business and productivity. The exception is when it comes to entertainment and accessibility, where it somewhat falls behind the competition. I understand that this phone is meant for business and the workplace, so I'll try to be as unbiased as possible in this review. This $499 phone is a great companion for anyone looking for a productive device or someone who enjoys typing on a physical QWERTY keyboard.
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| Blackberry Classic, full keyboard and touchscreen. |
Look and design - 4.5/5
It is an appealing design, with a nice sized touchscreen, full qwerty keyboard and a track-pad with navigational keys. The Classic keeps the 'classic' Blackberry design, which will be great and familiar to those who are used to using this type of phone. The back of the phone has a grip texture which makes handling the phone easy and adds a cool design. The keyboard has a nice clicky feel which makes typing feel quick and snappy. A problem I had with my keyboard was with the paint on the side of the keys, which began to chip off the first week I had mine. This caused LED light to show where the paint was missing and bothered me quite a bit when I first got this phone. Overall the phone does deviate much from the usual Blackberry design, but it has a very professional and clean look to it.
Functionality and Battery Life - 4/5
Let me first start off by saying that this device has incredible battery life compared to other smartphones I have used. It has lasted me two days without a charge which is helpful when I don't have a charger handy. With Blackberry OS 10, it updates the stale blackberry software into a more fluid experience, with simple gestures used to get around the device. The touchscreen is handy for quick tasks, and the track-pad works nice for when you need more precision. For most things, it does the job pretty well, like texting or emailing, and even taking pictures in surprisingly good quality. The processor is slightly lacking, noticeably slowing down on some occasions, but for the most part it is a more than adequate device for social and business needs.
Features - 3/5
| A photo I took of a street in Spain. |
For the usual features you would expect, texting and emailing, the Classic does a good job at performing, thanks to the Blackberry Hub. The Hub is a central location for all your messages, calls, emails, and notifications from apps on your device. The camera took great pictures when I went on my vacation and needed to snap a quick picture of something. What is really lacking on the Classic is app support. Although OS 10 includes the Amazon Appstore on the device, which gives it the ability to run android apps, they run at laggy, unusable speeds. Blackberry Appworld is also seriously lacking good apps, and to find a good app is a chore and will usually always cost money. This is understandable that not many developers would bother making apps for a business device, but is still almost a deal breaker for me.
Conclusion - 3.5/5
If you are in the business field and need a productive device which helps manage emails and communication, then this is the phone for you. If you are someone who only likes Twitter, Facebook, and texting your friends, than this is also an option. The keyboard is a nice touch with the track-pad, and the camera is also impressive. However, due to the low number of useful apps and lack of support, I would recommend spending a bit more money and getting an Android or iPhone.
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