The BlackBerry Classic wishes to turn successful depending on the bygone days and bringing back the old good things back in fashion. Literally, the BlackBerry Classic relies on what the company offers the best that is a great physical QWERTY keyboard for the text junkies all over the world.
The BlackBerry thus, brings back the old and its patent design and feature back with its new Classic to offer the true taste of a BlackBerry to its devoted fans round the world, and this is what is new about the BlackBerry Classic. The good thing about the phone is albeit its superb keyboard like always along with the facility of getting the all important Android apps.
However, in order to facilitate the BlackBerry patent sturdy and functional physical QWERTY keypad, the Classic has to compromise on the screen size and offers just a 3.5 inch display at a time when smartphones have overtaken the tablets with large screens.
Still there are many BlackBerry fans with whom this old-school design and cramped up screen would work, all for the sake of that brilliant keyboard that offers superb typing experience that a touch keyboard can never offer.
The name Classic only suggests the phone’s the original BlackBerry design language, and it is in itself a quality. The phone offers the signature quality construction and premium feel of an original BlackBerry with its stainless steel frame that offers ample amount of style.
The BlackBerry Classic can support only nano-SIM cards. The company has allowed the flexibility of inbuilt memory expansion of up to 128 GB with the help of micro SD cards for which slots are provided on the left side of the phone. The entire textured back panel is neat & clean and houses only the BlackBerry logo, but is good to hold.
The keyboard on the Classic is almost identical to the Q10’s.
It has three rows of equal size solid keys are there on the keyboard with a smaller, fourth row of keys at the end. Needless to mention, typing feels heavenly on this phones. The keys are shaped wonderfully and offer a very nice click when pressed for that typical brilliant typing experience that BlackBerry is famous for.
There are also four utility keys placed below the display that serve as the helpful Call, Menu, Back and End buttons. There is the optical touchpad in the middle which offers a cursor for browsing the websites or going around your documents. The Classic also provides many useful shortcut keys.
While the limited apps availability is a downside, the real problem is posed by the Classic’s odd square format. However, the phone offers three different screen ratio to choose from that helps a little.
The BlackBerry Classic offers many helpful features though like the BlackBerry Assistant, which works like the Google Now. Simply ask it a question, give a task, type a request and it will handle it. There is also the BlackBerry Blend that is a kind of command center for the users.
Blend allows you to write emails, texts and respond to your messages through an app, and to a lot more while syncing your Classic with a PC or tablet without saving any data on that device. Blend also offers a remarkable file management feature and offers access to almost everything stored on the device from files, to documents, to photos & videos.
The BlackBerry Classic performs well, though there is the occasional but inevitable lag and stutter while running heavyweight apps. Some of the heavy apps and games cannot be experienced at all on this otherwise quality phone.
Several available Android apps on this phone as well as games also suffer from considerable lag which would bug the Android lovers and heavy game lovers. This handset is certainly for the documents and the test aficionados and not certainly for the heavy apps and game geeks.
The BlackBerry Classic offers all the modern standard connectivity options that are expected from a modern smartphone. The phone offers great call quality and audio quality. The phone offers great audio clarity and lets you talk effortlessly even in great background noises. The Classic offers nice and loud speakers as well and allows for crisp clear conversations.
However, the down side is that the audio quality offered on this phone is slightly on the shriller side that is not so suitable for great quality music sessions. Thus, when it comes to music on the Classic, it is strongly recommended by using headphones only.
The Classic offers around 17 hours of talk time, and more than 13 hours of video playback time which is great. If one uses the device moderately primarily browsing and texting, expect it to last it well over a full day.
Guest Author
About the Author:
The Author have great interest in writing article on Technology and Handset reviews, currently he is working with 91mobiles.
The BlackBerry thus, brings back the old and its patent design and feature back with its new Classic to offer the true taste of a BlackBerry to its devoted fans round the world, and this is what is new about the BlackBerry Classic. The good thing about the phone is albeit its superb keyboard like always along with the facility of getting the all important Android apps.
However, in order to facilitate the BlackBerry patent sturdy and functional physical QWERTY keypad, the Classic has to compromise on the screen size and offers just a 3.5 inch display at a time when smartphones have overtaken the tablets with large screens.
Still there are many BlackBerry fans with whom this old-school design and cramped up screen would work, all for the sake of that brilliant keyboard that offers superb typing experience that a touch keyboard can never offer.
Display, design and other features
BlackBerry keeps to the bold design strategy for the Classic as the company did with the BlackBerry Q10. However, the 3.5 inch screen of the Classic is bigger than that of the Q10's, but shares the same 720x720 pixel square screen resolution. The phone is pretty stylish and sturdy keeping to the patent BlackBerry profile.The name Classic only suggests the phone’s the original BlackBerry design language, and it is in itself a quality. The phone offers the signature quality construction and premium feel of an original BlackBerry with its stainless steel frame that offers ample amount of style.
The BlackBerry Classic can support only nano-SIM cards. The company has allowed the flexibility of inbuilt memory expansion of up to 128 GB with the help of micro SD cards for which slots are provided on the left side of the phone. The entire textured back panel is neat & clean and houses only the BlackBerry logo, but is good to hold.
Keyboard
This is of course the primary feature of an original BlackBerry phone which is boasted by the Classic. BlackBerry counts on those users who vouches by a physical keyboard and can’t think of replacing it with a touchscreen.The keyboard on the Classic is almost identical to the Q10’s.
It has three rows of equal size solid keys are there on the keyboard with a smaller, fourth row of keys at the end. Needless to mention, typing feels heavenly on this phones. The keys are shaped wonderfully and offer a very nice click when pressed for that typical brilliant typing experience that BlackBerry is famous for.
There are also four utility keys placed below the display that serve as the helpful Call, Menu, Back and End buttons. There is the optical touchpad in the middle which offers a cursor for browsing the websites or going around your documents. The Classic also provides many useful shortcut keys.
Operating System and features
The BlackBerry Classic is based on the BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS. This software has its own limitations, and while it supports Android apps, the device is primarily stuck with whatever is available on the Amazon Appstore. The BlackBerry World apps store is also there of course which BlackBerry claims to be satisfying the expectations of the users with secure, professional apps, while the Amazon apps store is there for the entertainment requirements.While the limited apps availability is a downside, the real problem is posed by the Classic’s odd square format. However, the phone offers three different screen ratio to choose from that helps a little.
The BlackBerry Classic offers many helpful features though like the BlackBerry Assistant, which works like the Google Now. Simply ask it a question, give a task, type a request and it will handle it. There is also the BlackBerry Blend that is a kind of command center for the users.
Blend allows you to write emails, texts and respond to your messages through an app, and to a lot more while syncing your Classic with a PC or tablet without saving any data on that device. Blend also offers a remarkable file management feature and offers access to almost everything stored on the device from files, to documents, to photos & videos.
Processor and performance
The BlackBerry Classic is powered by a dual core Qualcomm 8960 processor clocked at 1.5 GHz of speed, which is of course dated but an esteemed CPU. The processor is supported with 2 GB of RAM. The phone comes with 16 GB of internal storage space which expandable up to 128 GB of storage via micro SD cards.The BlackBerry Classic performs well, though there is the occasional but inevitable lag and stutter while running heavyweight apps. Some of the heavy apps and games cannot be experienced at all on this otherwise quality phone.
Several available Android apps on this phone as well as games also suffer from considerable lag which would bug the Android lovers and heavy game lovers. This handset is certainly for the documents and the test aficionados and not certainly for the heavy apps and game geeks.
The BlackBerry Classic offers all the modern standard connectivity options that are expected from a modern smartphone. The phone offers great call quality and audio quality. The phone offers great audio clarity and lets you talk effortlessly even in great background noises. The Classic offers nice and loud speakers as well and allows for crisp clear conversations.
However, the down side is that the audio quality offered on this phone is slightly on the shriller side that is not so suitable for great quality music sessions. Thus, when it comes to music on the Classic, it is strongly recommended by using headphones only.
The Classic offers around 17 hours of talk time, and more than 13 hours of video playback time which is great. If one uses the device moderately primarily browsing and texting, expect it to last it well over a full day.
Camera
The BlackBerry Classic offers a standard 8 MP primary rear camera with auto focus for nice shots, but there is no LED flash or even a front camera for selfies.Conclusion
BlackBerry wishes to move forward by going back to its patent offering. While the BlackBerry lovers will surely love the Android support, this phone does feel totally old fashioned as compared against the latest smartphones. Guest AuthorAbout the Author:
The Author have great interest in writing article on Technology and Handset reviews, currently he is working with 91mobiles.
