Gadgetory

in 2015 carrying a blackberry in public is an invitation to be interrupted you're bound to be asked by some well-meaning friend or nosy stranger is that a BlackBerry do people still use those and while the answer to that question is an unqualified yes the more interesting question is what's that like i'm michael fisher with pocket now and i spent a couple weeks finding out this is our video review of the blackberry classic this review was made possible by the folks at gsm nation offering unlocked smartphones and top-tier customer service at gsm nation.com and by US mobile providing simple fully-customizable wireless service at NGO us mobile.com as its name implies the blackberry classic is meant to evoke the best of times gone by for berry heads it's heavy chassis combines cool metal rubberized plastic and Gorilla Glass 3 for a package that feels high-quality durable and above all important in the hand even tiny details like the travel and feedback of the metal side Keys contribute to the premium feel it's like a moleskin of smartphones an instantly recognizable institution that commands respect if largely from the old-school in the best tradition of a blackberry this feels like a handset for work for getting things done when the little red light starts flashing central to that perception is the 35 key backlit keyboard one of the only physical keyboards you can find on the market and almost certainly the best this of course is BlackBerry's bread-and-butter a keyboard for pounding out everything from emails to essays and while I'm still faster on a touchscreen I find I'm often happier typing on the classic physical Keys lets you type by feel and the tactility of the whole experience elicits a sense of the familiar a comfort that modern touchscreens just can't reproduce and even if you're not susceptible to such romantic notions there's a practical advantage here to the BlackBerry trackpad has made its return as part of the resurrected tool belt even after so many years of touchscreen dominance it's still easier and faster to visit a cursor or highlight text with the trackpad like the physical keyboard itself it may seem like an anachronism but it's actually a very useful tool for those whose mobile lives hinge on the typed word of course the touchscreen still persists and here we see the classic fall more in line with modern concepts if not modern specs the LCD is small a 3.5 inch perfect square at 720 by 720 not exactly ideal for the widescreen world of media consumption but serviceable for everything else and sitting behind it is the same processor we saw in the blackberry q10 backed up by the same basic memory loadout yep for the most part this is a spec sheet from 2 years ago classic indeed but blackberry fans hoping for a full-on throwback won't find the stodgy software of old running on the classic is the latest build of the new BlackBerry OS and that's both good news and bad on the positive side the software is very fluid and in terms of animations quite responsive considering the older hardware it's running on active apps are contained within frames on the home screen which can be closed or kept running a handy feature for those who like to leave a youtube video playing in the background to the right set the cascading pages of apps and to the left the BlackBerry hub a unified inbox for every single notification no matter what happens from conceptually speaking the hub is still the smartest part of the new BlackBerry OS as with the hardware the classics software shines brightest when it leverages the keyboard you can unlock the phone with two key presses rather than relying on the lock button or a screen swipe just start typing on the home screen to jump right into Universal Search scroll webpages emails or social feeds a page at a time with the spacebar or turn a page in Kindle the same way jump to the top or bottom of lists with T and B search a web page for a specific word with s the list goes on pair some of these shortcuts with other BlackBerry conveniences like the browser's no frills reader mode and you get an interface that's refreshingly devoid of gimmicks or tricks at its best the BlackBerry user experience is one of powerful simplicity but BlackBerry 10 isn't at its best in a critical area apps it's commendable that the classic comes loaded with both blackberry world and the Amazon Appstore and it's awesome that you can sideload almost any Android app you want but compatibility isn't synonymous with quality here running Android apps within blackberry 10 is a sluggish buggy experience at every level from installation to everyday use that's a natural consequence of running Android apps on a non native platform with older hardware but it can be very frustrating if you're used to more powerful mainstream smartphones even outside the Android runtime BlackBerry 10 just isn't a fast OS the BlackBerry hub still drags its feet on tasks as simple as opening messages or marking items as read and Facebook Messenger is so slow to update conversations within the hub that it's almost unusable Universal search one of my favorite features of the platform is prone to missing the first few keystrokes if you're in a hurry even apps coded for BlackBerry 10 like Twitter and Evernote are much slower than their Android iOS and Windows counterparts and you can forget about hardcore multitasking grinding the classic to a halt is as easy as trying to snap a photo while you're streaming a podcast through stitcher even if you really want to like this device shortcomings as fundamental as these don't make it easy once again the ship starts to write itself when we return to the fundamentals I tested the blackberry classic in both Las Vegas and Greater Boston over the course of two weeks us mobiles connectivity is provided by t-mobile us and aside from a capacity crunch at CES the network's coverage and data speeds have been impressive and the BlackBerry hasn't had any trouble holding on to signal be it 3G LTE Wi-Fi or the Bluetooth connection that powers my LG tones phone calls are bright and clear on the earpiece with ample side tone that evokes memories of old landline telephones speakerphone performance is loud and clear as well there's not much to say about the 8 megapixel camera except you'll want to keep a steady hand while shooting autofocus is not the fastest colors can be quite saturated and rather nice and good lighting turn the lights down and you get the usual digital noise creeping in along with diminishing saturation and an even slower focus performance one notable thing about the viewfinder software is that it'll auto detect challenging lighting conditions and suggest HDR automatically also it's got a time shift mode to compensate for a blinking or talking subject take the BlackBerry home or back to the office after shooting a few photos and you can use the BlackBerry blended software to view the photos on your computer then check your calendar for your next appointment and even tap into your hub to answer the emails you missed it's a lot like Motorola's connect or a pared down version of AirDroid and it's convenient if you do spend a lot of time in your desk though I wish the file manager made it easier to bulk transfer media finally battery life seems fairly typical for a 2500 milliamp hour battery a BlackBerry's estimate of 22 hours of mixed usage seems ambitious but I never had trouble getting through a full day even with fairly heavy use during my time with the blackberry classic I took pages and pages of notes over several days and one of the world's biggest technology shows I juggled traffic from two email accounts as well as Facebook and Twitter and used blackberry messenger to keep in touch with my iPhone Android and Windows Phone toting teammates I kept the calendar in sync took the occasional phone call kept an eye on the weather watched the odd video and even read most of a novel in short I used the blackberry classic for work about 80% of the time and that's when it was at its best in this respect the BlackBerry diehards who shut down criticism by saying it's not a toy it's a tool well they have a point for a consumer who wants a modern smartphone with all the trimmings the classic is not the right choice hell it's not even the wrong choice it's a terrible one but for the shrinking pool of workers for whom a blackberry is an employer issued accessory meant to help get the job done and nothing more the classic is exactly what it needs to be and nothing more if you're gonna be stuck in the past by personal choice or by employer decree there's no better smartphone to do it with than the blackberry classic once again this review was made possible thanks to a device loan from GSM nation and us mobile pay them a visit in the links at the description below and be sure to check out pocket now's other recent reviews in the links above until next time this has been michael fisher with pocket now captain to phones on twitter off to try for another high score in brickbreaker thanks for watching everyone we'll see you soon