BlackBerry Priv review
Introduction
A curved screen QWERTY slider by BlackBerry that runs Android, are we getting this right? We double checked and the Priv is just as exciting as it is unique. Honestly, it is one of those things many may've fantasized about but nobody actually believed would happen. It's also probably the last chance for BlackBerry to try and turn things around.
The BlackBerry Priv is a risky and costly venture - acknowledging the irony of saying that about a device, which is both superbly equipped and tightly secured.
Hopefully, for BlackBerry's sake, the Priv will meet the expectations it set for itself and go down as a visionary, not an anomaly. Before we start exploring it though, we simply feel compelled to stop and let its marvelous ambivalence sink in.
The Priv looks strikingly like a highly customized car. It is almost as if BlackBerry walked into the dealership and ticked every possible box, even some that are barely compatible, and then went on to request a completely different engine. And if that wasn't enough, BlackBerry then took it upon itself to fit its own security protocols so that the level of communication privacy matches its own high standards.
Key features
- 5.4" 1440 x 2560 pixels AMOLED (540 ppi) capacitive, curved edge touchscreen
- Slider form factor, complete with a hardware 4-row BlackBerry keyboard
- Qualcomm MSM8992 Snapdragon 808 chipset - Dual-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A57 & quad-core 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53, Adreno 418 GPU; 3GB of RAM;
- 18MP 4896 x 3672 pixels phase detection autofocus camera with OIS, dual-tone LED flash, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, 2160p video recording.
- 2MP front-facing camera, 720p video recording, selfie panorama mode
- Android OS v5.1.1 Lollipop with a custom BlackBerry launcher
- 32GB of built-in storage; dedicated microSD card slot
- Cat. 9 LTE (up to 450Mbps); Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac; Wi-Fi Direct; Bluetooth 4.1; A2DP, EDR, LE; GPS/GLONASS/; NFC; microUSB port with USB On-The-Go; 4k @30 fps video out supported with standard SlimPort adaptor
- Active noise cancellation with a dedicated mic
- 3,410 mAh sealed in battery with wireless charging and Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 support
Main disadvantages
- Non-removable battery
- No quick charger in the bundle
- Wireless charging available only on the US model
- Underwhelming front-facing camera
- Quite a handful but for a better reason than most
On the outside, the Priv is extremely attractive and instantly credible. Hardly a surprise though - the premium BlackBerries have always had it.
Now, the entire concept of a BlackBerry/Android hybrid has some enormous potential but the very first of this breed is definitely not for everyone. There're many unknowns and there's the price tag to consider as well. To continue with the car analogy - the top specs, the level of security and the BlackBerry badge on the hood all add up to an eye-watering price tag of about €780 (perhaps a bit less in the US).
That's what Apple's charging on the iPhone 6s, which we don't say it's fair, but last time we checked BlackBerry and Cupertino weren't exactly neck to neck in the ratings.
There's nothing wrong with exclusivity and fewer devices can do better at that than the Priv, but we can understand every bit of skepticism as to how well this will work out in BlackBerry's current situation.
It's exactly the less-than-the-stellar state of affairs though that makes one appreciate BlackBerry's courage. Even more so for the attempt to maintain its high security standards on an open-source platform.
BlackBerry Priv official photos
Now, Android inside doesn't make the Priv a mainstream device. It will still end up in mostly executive hands, plus a small group of true BlackBerry fans. It's a matching name by the way - officially, Priv stands for both privilege and privacy. Now Privacy has always been BlackBerry's core business. Security is up to scratch, as usual, but will BlackBerry convince enough people that it's a privilege as well? Let's see.
Display
The display is one department BlackBerry hasn't cut any corners - a 5.4 inch 1440p display is about as good as it gets. Plus, Super AMOLED technology guarantees sharp and punchy colors and deep blacks.
AMOLED is definitely a rarity in the BlackBerry realm, although a quick search in our database reveals one other handset that pioneered in - the Z30. Still, it is a slightly uncharted area for BlackBerry and the size is yet another thing - the Priv is actually the first BlackBerry to break the 5.0-inch barrier. And that's aside from the fact that it's their first Android phone.
All things considered, it is a great first effort and there is little not to like about the Priv's display. With a pixel density of 540 ppi, it is very sharp and the slightly curved edges make for an elegant and high-end feel.
We have come to associate Super AMOLED panels with absolute blacks and infinite levels of contrast and that fits with the nature of the technology itself. Still, with the Priv, we didn't actually manage to get an absolute black to display. Perhaps it is some intentional software trick or a controller bug, but the best we could do is 0.01 nits on at 50% brightness and 0.02 at full blast.
In reality, that isn't all that much to be visually noticeable, but it does mean that the contrast is not infinite, but rather works out to about 25133. Again, that is just as fine in terms of perceivable results, but there is one other far more detrimental consequence.
Not being able to achieve absolute darkness, suggests that the backlight of the display is never truly off. Being able to simply switch off the pixels that are not being used is one of AMOLED's greatest benefits over LCD and it is the thing that delivers power optimization. This could be a major reason for poor battery performance on the phone - but we have yet to test that.
The panel on the Priv is also relatively dim, producing only 377 nits at full blast. Sunlight legibility, however, definitely does not disappoint. The Priv remains easily usable even under direct sunlight. Not to mention that having a physical keyboard is a huge bonus in this respect. Provided you are fluent enough to navigate "blindfolded" for simple tasks.
Sunlight contrast ratio
BlackBerry Priv battery life
The Priv is equipped with a fairly large 3410mAh battery. In keeping with current trends, it is sealed in. As already mentioned, the Snapdragon 808, powering the phone, supports Quick Charge 2.0, which can get you from zero to 60% in about 30 minutes. Sadly, the bundled charger doesn't support quick charging so you would have to get an extra one.
The Priv also has wireless charging capabilities, both Qi and PMA compliant. Sadly, however, only the US model supports that.
Update, Dec 23: The BlackBerry Priv posted what can best be described as “satisfactory” battery life results. On a 3G call the smartphone lasted only around 15 hours, which is on the short side. A Samsung Galaxy Note5 can go for twice as long, while a Sony Xperia Z5 Premium and a Huawei Nexus 6P hover around the 20 and a half hour mark. Then again an LG V10 and the Apple iPhone 6s Plus aren’t much better at 16:40 and 15:51, respectively.
The Priv’s endurance when browsing the web over Wi-Fi was at 8:20 hours in our test. Again nothing impressive, but not entirely disappointing. It’s the exact same number the V10 posted, marginally lower than the Nexus 6P, and an hour less than the Xperia Z5 Premium. The iPhone 6s rules here with a little short of 12 straight hours, outlasting the Note5 by an hour.
Where the BlackBerry Priv performs least admirably is video playback. It throws in the towel after just 6 and half hours, but in all fairness the smartphone isn’t meant to be a multimedia-gobbling device. The flagships are all over the place in this test too. The Z5 Premium, for example calls it a day after 7 hours and change, the V10 a quarter of an hour later, and the Nexus 6P in 10 hours straight. It’s the Note5 and iPhone 6s Plus that truly excel, both a smidge short of the 14-hour mark.
Our proprietary score also includes a standby battery draw test, which is not featured in our test scorecard but is calculated in the total endurance rating. The BlackBerry is very frugal in this respect and can last for over 15 days, if left untouched and connected to a 3G network.
The battery testing procedure is described in detail in case you're interested in the nitty-gritties. You can also check out our complete battery test table, where you can see how all of the smartphones we've tested will compare under your own typical use.
Connectivity
The Blackberry Priv is quite versatile when it comes to network connectivity. Thanks to the modem built inside the Snapdragon 808 SoC, it comes with quad-band GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz and multi-band 3G (model and market dependent). Cat. 9 LTE is also onboard with support for theoretical downlink speed of up to 450 Mbps.
Local connectivity is duly covered with dual-band Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac with Wi-Fi Direct and hotspot support. Bluetooth v4.1 with A2DP, EDR, LE is on board as well.
You also get GPS and GLONASS support. NFC is available as well and the microUSB 2.0 port can output up to 4k video via SlimPort.
Pretty good 18MP camera
BlackBerry never really put too much effort in the camera department and one could argue there is little need for such splurging on what is essentially a business tool. Few models have made it up to the 8MP mark and even less have ventured to pass it. Still, in recent years, the OEM has started paying a lot more attention to image capturing, as evident by the Passport, which leveraged its 13MP shooter fine and produced very decent shots.
With the Priv, Blackberry has taken things one notch further with a quite impressive leap to 18MP. The aperture is F/2.2, the optics come courtesy of Schneider-Kreuznach, there is phase detection autofocus, there is also a dual-tone LED flash and last, but not least, optical image stabilization. Put all these things together and you get an impressive camera, at least on paper that is.
We were actually pleasantly surprised with the overall camera quality, especially considering Android is running the show and we have seen more than a few catastrophic examples of bad OS adoption by other OEM's, especially with Lollipop. Now, don't get us wrong, the camera experience is less than perfect and the app is actually one of the more unstable ones across the whole OS. The fact is, however, that the Priv does surprisingly well in terms of processing and produces pretty satisfactory results.
Like most other aspects of the Priv, the camera experience is a pretty ambitious first attempt, but still far from perfect. This is especially true for the camera app. It looks well enough and has a decent feature set, but is quite unstable. It kept freezing and crashing and on a few occasions, closing it did not help recover from the crash. We had to actually reboot the phone itself to get going again.
Also, taking photos is really slow. Disabling Auto HDR does help a bit, but overall, the Priv doesn't even come close to other current flagships, like the Samsung Galaxy S6, the LG G4 or the Xperia Z5 for example, with their constant strive for instant photo capture. Still, it is important to note that BlackBerry is obviously working hard to remedy as many of the software hurdles as it can. Core app updates were constantly flying in during the review process, so, hopefully, all of these will be fixed in a timely manner.
The camera interface itself is very clean. Nothing too fancy. A few shortcuts are found on the left, like settings and toggles for the flash, self-timer and aspect ratio. The Priv can take photos in either 4:3 aspect ratio, or 1:1. This seems to be another remnant of BlackBerry OS and it is a little odd that there is no 16:9 option. But again, we have to refer you back to the business tool statement.
Clean camera UI • 1:1 aspect ratio • HDR toggle
The last toggle controls HDR and the phone comes with an Auto HDR mode, switched on by default. It works pretty well and has little trouble deciding when to help out. The effect is usually subtle and results come out nice, so, we would definitely leave it on. On the right-hand side of the UI, there is the shutter, a mode selection with Photo, Video and Panorama options and some filters. Last, but not least, there is one more feature to note in Photo mode - exposure compensation, which is conveniently accessed by sliding the viewfinder left and right.
Camera effects • camera effects • exposure compensation
As far as camera settings go, the Priv is a bit lacking. Video quality options are well laid out and actually quite abundant, with 60 frames available at 1080p, as well as 4K and 30 fps. Photo quality settings, however, are a bit perplexing, with one a toggle with two quality levels available. Just leave it on Fine and shoot away.
Priv camera settings
There is no manual camera mode to speak of, but the Priv does offer a dedicated video viewfinder.
Dedicated video viewfinder
The BlackBerry Priv makes quite good use of the camera hardware it has at its disposal. It captures really decent photos with plenty of resolved detail and nice sharpness. Colors are pretty nice as well, but do sometimes appear washed-out and are very dependent on lighting conditions. Here are a few 4896 x 3672 pixels samples shot with auto HDR on.
Priv camera samples with auto HDR
We do, really, recommend that you leave the auto HDR enabled as it tends to improve overall quality and fix shadows and highlights. You could also opt to leave it off entirely, but the results are less than ideal. Here are mostly the same scenes shot at the same conditions with HDR off.
Priv camera samples with HDR off
You can also override the auto mode and enable HDR manually. That yielded mixed results during our tests with some shots coming out nicer when we deemed the enhanced dynamic range is necessary, while others were best left up to the Priv to decide. Here are the sample pairs to prove it.
Auto HDR • Manual HDR • Auto HDR • Manual HDR • Auto HDR • manual HDR
But, there is one other important note to be made about the camera. Keep your subject well illuminated and shots will generally come out nice. But, as the light goes down, so does detail and photos quickly become a bit too noisy for our taste. Colors also get washed-out somewhat rapidly.
Low-light shots lose a lot of quality
Panoramas come out pretty well on the Priv. There is almost no noticeable stitching to speak of and only some minor perspective warping.
Panorama samples in both orientations
Still camera comparison
We've uploaded the full resolution (18MP) photos to our photo quality comparison database so you can compare it against other high-resolution smartphones.
SupVideo camera comparison
The BlackBerry Priv captures gorgeous 4K videos. It managed to resolve a lot of detail in our resolution chart rest and under good light conditions, but there is quite a bit of noise and artefacts when shooting in low-light.
BlackBerry Priv in our video compare tool: 2160p resolution
لا يوجد تعليقات
أضف تعليق