Review: BlackBerry Priv

Earlier this month I helped a coworker buy a discounted BlackBerry Priv — the one recommended on Smzdm. Based on my coworker’s case, it took a bit over two weeks to reach him via a forwarding service.

The price was pretty cheap, or at least not expensive. After it arrived, I got to play with it for a while since I’d helped with the purchase — maybe half an hour or so. Here are my impressions.

1. Screen

The first thing I checked was the screen, because foreign reviews all said the Priv’s screen was terrible, as bad as the Nexus 6’s. That was exactly what put me off considering this thing, since I know just how garbage the Nexus 6 screen is — piss-yellow.

But when it arrived, the screen turned out surprisingly good, and not piss-yellow — actually the cool-toned screen I like. No idea how those dumb foreign reviewers tested it.

2. Smoothness and heat

A lot of people praise the Snapdragon 808, saying it’s not a furnace. But from my experience with the Nexus 5X, this thing heats up more than my Nexus 6P’s 810. On the Priv I briefly ran the browser, some email, and a few built-in apps and settings — just fiddling around — and the machine stayed cool the whole time. Unlike the Nexus 5X, which is like a sensitive girl who gets hot the moment you touch her.

Of course, according to my coworker’s later use, he said the heat was still pretty fierce — after loading up all the usual apps it got hot as a furnace… okay then.

3. Appearance

I couldn’t wait to look at the screen and system first, and only then remembered to examine the appearance. The Priv’s looks are beyond doubt — beautiful! Beautiful from any angle. Even though it’s a curved screen that’s nice to look at but useless in practice, it’s still “nice to look at.” What needs complaining about is the back material — it’s completely plastic. Sure, it has a soft-touch finish, but it still feels cheap.

4. Keyboard

If many people have a stubborn attachment to BlackBerry, that attachment surely includes the physical keyboard design. But the Priv’s keyboard gave me a solid “cured on arrival” feeling. Why? Because it’s not good to use.

The keyboard is too small — only three columns — and the keys are tiny too, awkward to press. I typed for a while and made all kinds of errors, took me ages to get used to it. And I’d say I’m someone with pretty good adaptability…

After typing for a bit I really found it a hassle — you have to push it up to slide out the keyboard before typing, so in the end I just used the on-screen keyboard, which was better than this thing. Thinking about it, with touch input methods getting so good, the physical keyboard really is just nostalgia now.

Incidentally, this keyboard supports being used as a touch-sliding pad, like on the Passport — slide on the keyboard and the screen scrolls too. But… it’s useless, very choppy, obvious lag, like using a touchpad with very low DPI. Really better to just drag on the screen directly.

5. Software

The Priv runs Android, upgradeable to 5.0, but it’s not as good as stock. It comes with a whole pile of BlackBerry’s own software — even email has several clients — and it looks messy. Quite a few can’t be uninstalled at all, and apparently it can’t be rooted yet. If you get past the firewall you can install apps via Google Play, but installing apps is very slow for some reason — maybe because of some so-called “security modifications.”

6. Battery life

I only handled it for half an hour, so I can’t judge battery life. But my coworker said the battery drains like crazy — 60% at 7 AM, down to 55% by 8 AM on standby. Probably barely lasts a day. Even though the battery is big, it really isn’t power-efficient.

I bought the US version, which has wireless charging — should support the same kind the Nexus 6 used.

All in all, after this hands-on, my longing for the Priv is completely gone…

Still, when it comes to BlackBerry, I do like the Passport’s look. Don’t know when I’ll get a chance to pick one up, or if BlackBerry doesn’t die out, whether they’ll make an Android phone with the Passport’s design. If they do, I might not be able to resist.