Introduction and design
When you’re down to 0.5% of the market share in global smartphone shipments, what do you do? If you’re BlackBerry, the answer is go back to what you’re best known for, namely full QWERTY keyboards, high-end security features and a focus on the business market.
Enter the Classic, a handset that’s very recognisably BlackBerry and which turns away from the iPhone-aping direction that last year’s Z30 went in. The screen is touch-enabled but also square, geared more for spreadsheets than Candy Crush, while the keyboard underneath follows the Q10’s lead by invoking the spirit of BlackBerrys past.
It is distinctly BlackBerry, which may or may not be exactly what you’re looking for from a mobile phone.
It’s not quite as unconventional as the Passport launched a couple of months ago, and it does offer something different to the Q10 in the form of the utility belt: four shortcut navigation keys and a touch-sensitive trackpad.
Call, Menu, Back and End can handle everything from jumping back a screen to applying default actions, depending on the context.
This belt has been a mainstay for BlackBerry in the past and die-hard fans will be glad to see it back – together with the QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry is going all in with the Classic, a sort of greatest hits package of the company’s past.
In terms of specs you’re getting a 3.5-inch, perfectly square 720 x 720 pixel display, a dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm 8960 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of on-board storage (with a microSD card slot available for expanding that by up to 128GB if required).
There’s an 8MP auto-focus camera around the back, with an LED flash and 1080p video recording capabilities. Around the front you’re limited to a two-megapixel camera and 720p video for those selfie shots (and important business video calls).
Those specs are distinctly ho-hum but it’s significantly cheaper than the top-end smartphones of today as a result: you can pick it up for $449 (around AU$550) in the US, £349 in the UK and $499 in Canada. That’s a lot less than you’re going to have to pay for an iPhone or flagship Android handset right now.
In terms of form factor, it’s chunky and heavy, with a rubbery, dimpled back and a thick metal band around the edges. It measures 131mm by 72.4mm by 10.2mm and weighs in at 177g (a touch heavier than the iPhone 6 Plus, though noticeably thicker as well).
Design
The Classic may not be the thinnest or the coolest-looking gadget out there, but it’s comfortable to hold and there’s little chance of this sliding out of your hand iPhone 6-style. It’s easily usable in one hand, though two hands really helps power through some typing.
It’s on the bulky side but it’s not an ugly device – the integration of ports, speakers, buttons and slots around the sides of the handset is particularly well done. The power button is on the top in the centre, with volume and mute buttons on the right. The mute button can also launch BlackBerry Assistant, of which more later.
On the left you’ll find the SIM and memory card slots while underneath there’s the microUSB charging port with HDMI-out capabilities, a speaker and a microphone. Another speaker sits at the top next to the two-megapixel front-facing camera and notification LED.
There’s a 3.5mm audio jack up on top of the phone and the 8MP camera and flash are around the back towards the upper end – the unit protrudes ever-so-slightly from the back but it’s not a problem at all.
It feels a lot more durable and fingerprint-resistant than most of the flagship handsets on the market today, and in many ways it makes for a refreshing change not having to worry about breaking a phone or getting it smudged with fingerprints. The stainless steel frame offers a touch of style and the textured back is eminently grippable.
It’s not a head-turner in the design department but it feels dependable and smart – depending on your preference you might prefer it to the skinny models on show from some of BlackBerry’s competitors. Think robustness rather than cutting-edge aesthetics.
The QWERTY keyboard is everything you would expect from BlackBerry and can make a real difference once you get used to it. Small frets and metal ridges help you distinguish the keys without looking, but like the Q10 the Classic adopts a straight, boxed approach rather than the curved keyboards of older legacy BlackBerry devices.
As for the display, it can’t hold a candle to the latest and greatest screens on other handsets, but it does the job and won’t let you down. Colours look bright and text looks sharp, and while the PPI is lower than the Q10, the overall screen space is greater, a trade-off that’s worth making overall.
Being able to use keyboard, trackpad or touchscreen for most operations is a lot more intuitive than you might think if you’ve never used a BlackBerry (or indeed a touchscreen) – it’s akin to using the trackpad and keyboard shortcuts in tandem on a laptop, and you can quickly figure out the best and quickest way of accomplishing each task.
The Classic isn’t a dazzler as far as its design goes, but BlackBerry has put its components together in a way that feels substantial and reliable, which is probably exactly the effect it was looking for from the start.
Key features and performance
The BlackBerry Classic is all about its traditional design and its security features: these are BlackBerry’s priorities, often to the detriment of the phone’s other characteristics.
It takes longer to start up and shut down, for example, thanks to the extra layers of security in place. Data encryption, app-by-app permissions, and customisable lock screen notifications are all supported.
BlackBerry Protect is the company’s equivalent of Find my iPhone and Android Device Manager: set it up on your phone, then access it via the web if your handset gets pinched or lost.
There’s also BlackBerry Balance, a way of keeping work and personal data separate on the device. In other words, your IT administrator at the office can manage your apps in one part of the phone while you’re free to browse Facebook and text in the other.
As for the keyboard and trackpad, they absolutely can make certain tasks and processes easier, but everyone’s mileage will vary. Old-school BlackBerry users are going to love typing and scrolling around; others might throw the Classic at the wall in frustration. Most users will probably be somewhere in the middle.
The Classic is a success in that it’s everything a BlackBerry fan could want – but it’s debatable just how many fans are out there.
The tool belt button ribbon between screen and keyboard sums up the issue: shortcut heaven for seasoned BlackBerry users but a pain to get accustomed to if you’ve only ever known Android or iOS.
Of course with some time and effort you can adapt to BlackBerry’s way of working – it would be wrong to say the Classic is difficult to use (and most operations can be done via the touchscreen anyway – but I’m not sure it’s a superior experience to Android or iOS.
For BlackBerry, this additional complexity is a positive: “You need navigation buttons that do more than ‘go home'”, says the reviewer’s guide. Well, do you? Then you know how much you’ll like the Classic.
Interface and performance
Setting aside the question of the way you interact with BlackBerry 10.3.1.747, it’s an OS with its own set of strengths and weaknesses. As we’ve mentioned in previous reviews, the BlackBerry Hub is a great idea, a central focal point for all your texts, emails, Facebook messages, tweets and everything else.
The browser is a high point too, something else we’ve noted when looking at earlier BB10 handsets. The square screen really shows off webpages nicely, it’s fast and responsive, and having the trackpad and back button is very helpful when surfing the web.
Notifications are also done well, perhaps even better than Android and iOS – a little shade drops down whenever something happens in case you want to take action, and you can jump to the relevant app or dismiss it as required.
Many major actions have a keyboard shortcut equivalent available, so you don’t necessarily have to take your thumbs from the keys to launch the browser, reply to a message, search the inbox or lock the device.
App support remains a disappointment, even with the introduction of Amazon’s Android store. It lacks the official Google apps and the likes of Instagram and Netflix, and a lot of apps just aren’t built to run on a square screen, leading to graphical glitches and problems aplenty.
Big names such as Spotify and Waze are here, and side-loading apps isn’t too difficult to do – but I don’t think that’s an option for the masses. Even if you set up a workaround there’s no guarantee that your imported Android app will function well on the Classic.
There is the option to change app dimensions to use letterboxes like a widescreen video, but it’s a bit of a makeshift fix and doesn’t work all that well. Many Android apps are touchscreen only too, and haven’t been built to support trackpad operation.
Performance wasn’t particularly impressive during testing, with apps often hanging or proving sluggish in use. It wasn’t a crippling issue but it did happen often enough to be annoying, particularly when trying to set up accounts or when one app would switch to another for whatever reason.
That dual-core 1.5GHz processor may cover the basics but it doesn’t make for a very responsive or snappy experience – you might be able to type and scroll quickly on the BlackBerry Classic, but it’s hardly nippy in other respects. Alas Geekbench 3 refused to run on the handset (it installed but then repeatedly crashed), so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
The BB10 home screen is filled up with thumbnail shortcuts to your recent apps rather than apps you’ve pre-selected, while the full set of apps is another swipe to the right. Universal Search is also available from the home screen, letting you hunt through everything on the phone with a few taps.
It doesn’t quite have the slick feel of its high-profile rivals, but BB10 continues to improve and has some unique tricks of its own.
Battery life and the essentials
Battery life
With average specs and a small screen we were expecting to see the BlackBerry Classic last a substantial amount of time, but performance was up and down this regard.
One day the phone lost just 25% of its juice by the evening time – a day when I hardly took it out of my pocket – but on a subsequent day it lost its final third of power in just a couple of hours from nothing but a bit of texting and web browsing.
Was a rogue app to blame? Was it struggling to get a cell signal? It’s difficult to tell but battery life was certainly patchy. Other reviewers seem to be eking out around a day of life each time so perhaps it was just bad luck the couple of times that my Classic crashed and burned.
BlackBerry is claiming a talk time of up to 17.2 hours and a standby time of up to 15.2 days which seems very generous. After a week of use I’d say it will get you through the day – probably – but you’ll still be looking for a charger by the evening.
Over the course of writing this review for the last hour, the charge has dipped from 67% to 50% – that’s thanks to some playing around with apps and a bit of web browsing, but nothing substantial. Power users are surely going to be disappointed with that.
Our high-definition video test managed to drain the battery from a full charge to 83% over 90 minutes. That’s a step below the 87% logged by the BlackBerry Passport but a step above the 74% that Apple’s iPhone 6 managed, probably due to the extra power required to push pixels to that 1334 x 750 pixel, 326ppi screen.
It seems as though the more you leave the phone alone (so watching a video, say), the better the battery performs, but start getting busy and that level can start dropping fast. For reference there’s a 2515mAh non-removable battery installed, though of course there are many other factors involved.
I should also note the battery saver mode that kicks in at 20% but which can be switched on or off manually too. Based on my usage I wouldn’t say it makes much of a difference – in fact the juice seemed to drain faster below 20% – but BlackBerry claims you can extend the Classic’s life by 15%.
The essentials
As a phone, the Classic works very well – it has dedicated answer and hang up buttons, after all. Calls we made sounded crisp and clear and the Contacts app works as well as the BlackBerry Hub with which it’s integrated.
It’s in these native pre-loaded apps where the Classic really shines: whether you want to switch between notification modes, delay a calendar reminder for a custom ‘snooze’ time or share an attachment out of the Hub, these are the areas that are most impressive.
Pre-installed apps from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Evernote all work well and integrate tidily into the BlackBerry Hub, so it’s only really when you start looking outside the basics that the problems appear.
Docs To Go comes with the phone and is capable of editing the common Office file formats, and with a physical keyboard and a trackpad at your disposal the task is easier than it would be on a lot of other smartphones. It coped admirably with opening complex spreadsheets but editing is still a pain on such a small screen even with alternative input options.
It’s also worth mentioning BlackBerry Blend, a desktop tool for Windows or Mac that can wireless sync media files and data (contacts, emails and more) between computer and mobile. You can send texts from your computer, quickly transfer photos, and so on, very easily.
For companies running BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 or above, Blend also lets you jump into your corporate network without having to navigate through screen after screen of security settings and configuration options.
If you’re not so concerned about third-party apps, and the keyboard and trackpad are features you’ve been longing for, then the Classic starts to seem a whole lot more appealing. I also saw fewer glitches and crashes from apps that had been specifically built by BlackBerry, which is as you’d expect.
Media and camera
Media
It’s not likely that anyone is going to be picking up a BlackBerry Classic for its music and video-playing capabilities, but they’re worth mentioning anyway.
A basic YouTube app is included, though it’s only really a wrapper for the mobile version of the site, while the Amazon App Store is packed with rather ropey, ad-filled alternatives.
The built-in apps do an adequate job of letting you get at your media – the music player has an equaliser with 17 built-in presets, for example – though they’re a long way short of Google Play Music or iTunes. The Amazon App Store has some useful alternatives up its sleeve, including Spotify and Rdio, but again those average specs can slow everything down.
Watching videos isn’t much fun on such a small screen with such obvious letterboxing, but it does the job at a pinch, and that’s a description you could apply to pretty much all of the Classic’s media-playing capabilities. In other words, the option is there if you need it, but don’t expect much.
You do get some basic photo and video editing features integrated into the BB10 operating system. We played around with these for a little while and again they’re functional without being spectacular. There are some Instagram-style filters to experiment with and a neat Story Maker app if you don’t trust your own editing skills.
Camera
Even if you’re a high-profile executive who works through lunch you’re still going to need to snap a photo every now and again, and the Classic comes equipped with a serviceable 8MP camera around the back complete with autofocus and an LED flash.
That flash can be set to on, off or auto and there are five scene modes to choose from: Auto, Action, Whiteboard, Night, and Beach or Snow.
There are also Panorama, Burst and Time Shift modes – that latter one takes several pictures quickly and lets you choose the one where everyone is smiling and has their eyes open.
HDR and timer options are available too, and that’s a lot of functionality packed into a camera that isn’t one of the key selling points of the phone. Shutter response speed can be variable, depending on how much work the autofocus has to do, but overall it’s a camera that’s surprisingly capable.
There’s the 1080p video recording too, don’t forget, though trying to capture widescreen clips on a square screen isn’t ideal and can require some squinting to get everything set up correctly. The video recording is just one tap away from the camera screen which is handy.
Also handy is the ability to take photos while you’re recording video. It’s obvious that BlackBerry’s software team has put plenty of thought into the app, even if the hardware doesn’t quite match up in terms of quality.
As for the end results, they’re unlikely to cause you to ditch the DSLR for good, but they won’t embarrass you. As with many a mid-range snapper, less-than-perfect lighting was where fuzziness and blurred lines started to appear in the photos, but in good conditions the Classic copes very well and might even surpass your expectations.
The HDR mode is particularly useful for shots where there’s a lot of colour contrast (ground versus sky for example) and it will even pop up as a recommended option if the camera detects that the conditions are right.
Videos recorded on the Classic were impressive without being mind-blowing, and it’s reassuring to know that if you do need some quick footage of the kids or pets then the phone can step up – no one’s going to mistake this for video shot with an iPhone, but then you probably knew that anyway.
Photo and video quality is a big consideration for smartphone buyers these days, but not so much for BlackBerry devotees. For a feature that isn’t a priority, it stands up well enough.
Sample images
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Comparable phones
BlackBerry Passport
The other flagship phone in BlackBerry’s line-up in 2015, the Passport, ditches the tool belt and modifies the keyboard, as well as offering a bigger screen and better specs. That extra power and room on the display can really come in useful, even though you may have to use two hands rather than one in order to take advantage of it.
You’re looking at a 4.5-inch, 1440 x 1440 pixel screen and a quad-core 2.26GHz processor, and on top of that there’s more storage space and a better camera. Of course all this comes at a cost and the Passport will set you back £529 ($599, AUS$680) for a SIM-free version.
As for the Classic, it’s running the same software as the Passport – and all the pros and cons that come with it – but on a smaller screen with less powerful innards. You’re only really going to choose the newer phone if you want to save yourself some money, you appreciate the smaller size or you absolutely want to have a trackpad and a traditional BlackBerry keyboard at your disposal.
The Passport does have a QWERTY keyboard but it’s on three rows rather than four and doesn’t have quite the versatility of the one sported by the Classic.
BlackBerry Q10
The Classic is the direct successor to the Q10 (it was originally called the Q20) and the upgrade is something of a no-brainer for BlackBerry fans, assuming they have some spare cash in their pockets.
You’re getting a slightly bigger screen, the additional of the tool belt and the usefulness of the trackpad, and access to the latest and greatest version of BlackBerry 10. Not much has changed in terms of the internal specifications but those differences should be enough to tempt most people into upgrading, and the Classic will be able to take on more software updates in the future.
Unless you can get a very good deal on the Q10 and you think the belt of shortcut buttons is a bit of an eyesore, we’d recommend plumping for the Classic if you’re in the market for an inexpensive BlackBerry phone.
The screen resolution is the same on both devices (so text is a little sharper on the Q10’s smaller screen), and it’s a little more compact too, but there isn’t a great deal in its favour. There might not be a whole lot to choose between these two handsets in terms of the camera and software capabilities but the majority of BlackBerry fans are going to plump for the Classic.
Nexus 6
Google’s latest flagship phone offers the best that Android can offer, assuming you can get your hands on it, so it’s worth comparing it against the best that BlackBerry can offer.
The differences are fairly obvious: the 5.96-inch 2560 x 1440 pixel QHD AMOLED display and quad-core 2.7GHz run rings around what BlackBerry is offering, while Android 5.0 Lollipop offers an experience that’s slick, intuitive and full of the latest and greatest apps. It’s a demonstration of just how well Android has matured and it’s a worthy competitor to the latest iPhones released by Apple, although we’d like to see it at a cheaper price.
In the Classic’s favour, it offers more in the way of security and enterprise capabilities (well, depending on your company) and it can be used in one hand easily, which is definitely a bonus.
It has a trackpad and a QWERTY keyboard as well as a touchscreen which may or may not prove to be a serious improvement over the Nexus 6 depending on the dexterity of your fingers, your history with BlackBerry and your personal preferences. There will be those who prefer the Classic, but I’m not sure there’ll be a lot of them, even with the price difference.
Verdict
The Classic has been eagerly awaited by BlackBerry enthusiasts and it absolutely hits the mark for that audience, those who care far more about a clicky, physical, full-size keyboard than installing Instagram.
Unfortunately, BlackBerry can’t have it both ways – the same features that its existing fans love are going to be off-putting to newcomers.
We liked
As someone not overly familiar with BlackBerry devices, I found the keyboard and trackpad a refreshing change as far as input goes. The device is solidly built and feels comfortable in the hand.
The stand-out apps are the BlackBerry Hub and the browser, though there’s plenty to please business users and the security-conscious here too. BlackBerry Blend isn’t perfect, but it’s a promising start.
We disliked
You’re not going to find the majority of the world’s most well-known apps here, unless you want to play around with side-loading them (and even then it’s hit and miss).
The screen is fine but just doesn’t suit the majority of tasks that today’s smartphones can tackle: that’s okay for BlackBerry enthusiasts, but they’re dwindling in number. The battery life isn’t great, performance is questionable at times and the camera is only so-so.
Final verdict
The Classic is a difficult phone to rank: it’s like the greatest Bond movie ever, as long as you’re really into your Bond movies – and specifically the old Connery and Moore ones before everything went a bit Jason Bourne.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen has gone on record as saying this is a smartphone built in response to requests from BlackBerry die-hards, the majority of whom should be very pleased with what the company has produced.
There may be iOS and Android users out there who yearn for something a bit more business-like, secure and durable – so there is the possibility that the Classic will win converts – but the tide isn’t going to turn against slimline touchscreen devices at this late stage, and what matters most to most people is the app selection, an area where BlackBerry is still some way short.
Scoring the Classic has to take all of this features into account, weigh them carefully against each other, consider every user case scenario, and come up with a mark out of five; but to be honest, you already know what you’re going to think of the BlackBerry Classic as soon as you hear its name.
First reviewed: December 2014
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