Conclusion is posted first if you don't care for reading the whole summary.
>Conclusion
>is the Priv the long-overdue messiah BlackBerry so desperately needs to regain some ground in the mobile realm? Well, sadly, there is no easy answer. While the Priv is a nice device on its own, its nature, purpose, and target audience and its position within the BlackBerry protfolio is riddled with ambiguity, which hopefully won't prove too confusing and detrimental to the model's success.
>there is the issue of price - if popularity is what BlackBerry is after, a €700 plus price point won't exactly invite a huge crowd considering that profit margins throughout the whole industry are slimming down.
>The underwhelming Android experience is another brow raiser..if you go into a store today and shell out the eye-watering amount of money for the Priv, you might naturally expect it to at least perform up to par with let's say a Galaxy S6 flagship, an iPhone 6s or any other hip device.
>But that is just it. The Priv might not shine as a tempting everyday user offer, but perhaps we should endeavor to look at it from another perspective, a quintessentially BlackBerry one and that would be as an enterprise-grade secure communication tool.
> Whether or not the Priv will be met with approval and set BlackBerry on a new development path is yet to be seen, but it is undeniable that despite its flaws, it is currently one of the best business smartphones out there.
>As for the Priv in its current state of infancy, you should definitely not miss on buying it if you already have a complete BlackBerry collection of your own or you use BlackBerries throughout your entire company.
>For one, the rounded corners of the screen really spice things up. It is the first such undertaking in the otherwise flat BlackBerry family and if nothing else it is definitely a bold and progressive move. Still, the curve is quite subtle - nothing too excessive or way overboard
>the BlackBerry Priv definitely has a lot of it. It measures 147 x 77.2 x 9.4mm, when retracted, which isn't all that bad by today's standards, but sliding it out makes it virtually impossible to reach to top corners of the screen, no matter how long your thumbs can stretch.
>The phone weighs in at 192g, but it doesn't really feel bulky of heavy. Weight is nicely distributed and even when the slide is open, the Priv remains well balanced and allows a secure hold. The grippy back certainly helps.
>Speaking of materials however, sadly there is a lot more to be desired. Don't get us wrong, plastic works great and we have seen OEM's achieve incredible things with it, but we have just come to expect more at this price range and rightfully so, since the competition is more than happy to oblige.
>While the Priv feels sturdy enough and well put together for the most part, it is made of plastic all around. That's not necessarily as bad as it sounds if it were of higher than average quality. Sadly, that's not the case and the material used on the back is way too soft and really prone to scratching. It's also quite flexible and gives in a lot more than we would have liked when pressed.
>We also noticed some less than perfect hole cuttings on the front speaker grill, which is simply unacceptable with today's precision cutting equipment.
>While the slider works smoothly enough, it is far from sturdy and has some inherent wobble to it (although pretty miniscule) from the very beginning, which might spell trouble in the long run.
>Overall, BlackBerry could have done better with materials and crafting. Everything looks well enough, but upon closer inspection, it is not exactly flagship-grade.
>The slider: If we didn't already make it clear, we really enjoy this throwback to a forgotten time when this form factor flourished on the phone market. Despite the aforementioned minor concerns about the durability of the mechanism itself, we can safely say that BlackBerry has done an excellent job implementing the form factor and adopting it for a large-screen device.
>So getting to the keyboard is simple enough, but is it any good? Well yes and no. Build-quality is great, it looks nice with the subtle backlight illumination and individual keys are surprisingly comfy with a well-defined 3d texture, nice physical feedback and tolerable key travel. The only real problem with the keyboard is that it is just too small. It is definitely more crammed than most other BlackBerry devices and key travel is far from what fans will be used to as well.
>We do realize, however, that this is purely subjective aspect and your experience may vary greatly depending on the size of your thumbs. Plus, a few hours in using the Priv is bound to recover some of that old muscle memory and typing becomes a breeze.
>Rather surprisingly, we actually found ourselves using the keyboard as a means of keeping our fingers off the screen even when not typing on most occasions. It excels at that thanks to built-in capacitive touch functionality. Simply swipe your finger across the keys in any direction and you can easily scroll across most any interface and it works great.
>Furthermore, there is the added nifty ability to assign shortcuts to each and every separate key. So, you could pretty much have all of your routine actions hot linked in a way that allows you to completely keep your hands off the screen.
>There is a third button in between [the volume rocker keys]. After a lot of poking around the only functionality we found it good for is to make it pull down the notification list or mute the microphone during a call, not much else, so it is definitely a little underutilized and more of a remnant of a former control scheme.
>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.
>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.
>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 [with a quick charge certified charger, not included].
>The Priv also has wireless charging capabilities, both Qi and PMA compliant. Sadly, however, only the US model supports that.
>Despite the ample battery, the BlackBerry Priv is hardly an endurance champion. We guess we can say that even though we were unable to run a conclusive battery test as we simply didn't have the time for that. :(
>The official specs suggest 22.5 hours of mixed battery life and, in our experience, we rarely made it through more than a day on a single charge. But we mean starting at 100% fresh off the plug in the morning and putting it back on the charger not too late in the evening. During benchmark testing, we found ourselves charging the Priv both during the day, as well as overnight.
>We'll try to update this chapter with actual numbers as soon as we get our hands on another review unit.
>The OEM was aiming for nothing short of the full BlackBerry experience on Android and we are happy to report that the result seems to be just that.
>Of course, no software is truly perfect, especially Android builds, and there are a few notable hiccups in BlackBerry's pioneering effort and a lot of room for improvement. But, for the most part, everything works fine and as advertised
>The OS designed for the Priv has a distinct Vanilla Android look and feel and seems to be quite close to stock. That means, there is practically no bloatware to speak of, well, unless you have no need for the extensive BlackBerry app suite, but that sounds more like a case of wrong expectations
>the lock screen, it is the usual affair - a big clock, slide to unlock and a duo of unlock shortcuts at the bottom - phone and camera. Keen observers will surely notice the slightly weird notification icon underneath the clock, which is part of Blackberry's custom notification grouping mechanism
>The home screen is also pretty standard. You get a few panels for widgets and shortcuts, well, three to be exact - no more, no less, which is slightly limiting, as well as a row of four shortcuts stuck to the bottom. But, even though everything looks stock enough, something is still amiss and long-pressing the screen to enter into edit mode gives us the first hint that there is more to the UI than meets the eye.
>What BlackBerry has actually done for the Priv is develop its own custom launcher. It looks strikingly similar to the Google Launcher and is most-likely based upon it, but it has a few extra features. [Like custom icon support, special type of app-widgets, called Popup widgets.]
>Other than that, the launcher is the usual vanilla affair. Well, there are small tweaks, like the changed remove and uninstall drag target areas.
>Also, there is the somewhat odd, but still cool looking bar interface that goes along the right edge of the phone while charging to indicate the battery level. It looks to be intended for use when the screen is off, but it did, oddly pop-up occasionally on other GUI segments as well.
>Sliding up from the menu icon brings up a shortcut for Google Now, just like on a Nexus, but BlackBerry has also thrown in two additional shortcuts of its own - one on either side. They are fully customizable, so you literally have a lot of quick-access power right at your fingertips.
>Shortcuts actually play a big role in the Priv interface and there is a substantial set of quick activities BlackBerry has predefined from within its apps, like writing an email, or starting a BBM meeting.
>The Priv also has a convenient overlay interface that can be invoked from anywhere within the GUI. You simply slide it out and have quick access to your calendar, tasks, messages and favorite contacts. [similar to bb10OS]
>Last, but not least, there are a few advanced accessibility features baked inside the OS. You can flip the phone to mute an incoming call or make it go into sleep mode, which is convenient. Also, holding the phone in your hand can be used to keep your screen on for longer.
>When it comes to benchmark performance, the BlackBerry Priv is far from a record-setter, but with a Snapdragon 808 SoC and 3GB of RAM, it is quite adequately specc'd to compete with the current generation of flagship devices.
>the 808 still offers ample power for even the most advanced productivity tasks currently achievable with Android. Plus, more often than not, true performance comes down to proper implementation and utilization.
>Two ARM Cortex-57 cores, clocked at 1.8GHz and additional four Cortex-A53 ones, working a 1.44 GHz, should provide plenty of power to go around, despite being slightly under-clocked. However, the Priv doesn't exactly shine in the performance department.
>BlackBerry has undoubtedly done a spectacular job, as far as a first attempt at Android goes and, as already mentioned, all the features you would expect are there with an extra touch of BlackBerry innovation mixed in. However, optimization is really lacking down to the point where some parts of the GUI and a few apps, like the camera, tend to freeze up quite often.
>Benchmark scores on the Priv are quite low and we know that the Snapdragon 808 is capable of a lot more. We also have the data to prove it, as the LG G4, Moto X Style and Nexus 5X happen to use the same silicon with noticeable better results.
>Naturally, we made sure to include the above in our test charts. As for the rest of the competition, we made sure to pick out a few other phones with roughly the same display size. These include the Sony Xperia Z5, iPhone 6s, Huawei Mate S, and the Huawei P8. The rest of our picks are popular devices that fall within the BlackBerry Priv budget. Some of them, like the Z5 Premium and the 6s plus do cost a bit more, but if you are willing to sink so much cash into a phone, these shouldn't really be out of budget either.
>First up, we have the raw CPU performance test with GeekBench 3, which should be straight-forward enough. Like we mentioned, the Snapdragon 808 inside the Priv has more than enough horsepower to breeze through computing tasks, just like the LG G4 and the Moto X Style or the Pure Edition
>Sadly, that is not the case. We see the Priv underperform quite a bit and it is an observable pattern throughout all the benchmark results. We often find the Priv below the Huawei Mate S and P8, which are both equipped with notoriously under-performing HiSilicon chips. BlackBerry definitely has a lot of work on its plate, if it is going to bring the Priv up to code.
>And if you hoped that the Priv could at least redeem itself in the graphics department, well, it's not the case. The Adreno 418 inside the Snapdragon 808 is no pixel-pushing monster, but it is still a capable platform for some casual gaming and light GPU tasks. The LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition both manage to hit a good 34 frames on the GFX 2.7 test and the LG Nexus 5x with its Android 6.0 firmware, pushes the envelope even further and can squeeze out 37 frames.
>The BlackBerry Priv, on the other hand, was only capable of producing 27fps on the same test, which is a lot less than what the Nexus is capable of, despite having the same identical hardware. And mind you, we are talking about offscreen rendering, so the display cannot be blamed in any way.
>This is a major example of poor implementation and underutilization yet again. And while, you would have trouble spotting the missing frames while working with the GUI, gaming is another thing and it is a shame that the Priv can't even hit the pivotal 30fps. Then again, perhaps it wasn't meant to be a gaming device.
>The BlackBerry Priv ships with the Chrome browser by default, which is definitely a good thing. Google's mobile solution offers clear-cut performance and stability advantages over most any other proprietary browser we have experienced and it is generally a good idea to stick with it, expecially in BlackBerry's situation of just adopting Android.
>Still, like every other aspect of the OS, Chrome suffers from the overall bad optimization.
>Like the old saying goes - "Never judge a book by its covers". It is definitely true when it comes to the BlackBerry's first big dip in the Android realm, but sadly, the connotation is slightly different. The legendary Canadian OEM has definitely put a lot of effort into adapting the OS to its needs and bringing over all of the essentials of its own secure ecosystem and that has actually worked out quite well, even better than we expected.
>However, underneath the slick GUI the Priv is hiding some pretty major optimization issues. We know it's a first try and do sympathize with BlackBerry and the process it is going through, but we can't exactly give up on our expectations of flagship-grade performance to meet the flagship price.
>if it is power you are after, you can most-certainly do better than the Priv and even spend far less. However, it's not like there is a better Android Lollipop device with a slide out keyboard out there
>The BlackBerry Priv held on to signal excellently and in-call sound was just fine. The proximity sensor makes sure the screen stays off when you hold the phone to your ear.
>the OEM might have gone a little overboard in its quest to keep the Priv as bloat-free as possible. Keeping the stock looks is one thing, but there seems to be some missing functionality in the handset to the point of inconveniencing the user. There is actually no dedicated gallery to speak of, which is fine, as far as pictures go thanks to the bundled Google Photos, as well as music, also handled by the search giant's software.
>Video, however, is a whole different story. If it comes from the camera, the app itself has built-in preview, which is fine. But, if you want to browse for files in the storage, there is no apparent option to quickly get around your clips, especially if they are side-loaded or downloaded. There is a local storage browser in Google Photos that picks up on video as well, but that is far from convenient.
>Blackberry seems to have only one other solution put in place, which is BlackBerry Device Search. It is a rather powerful tool that goes through every inch of your device to search for a keyword. the Search app can be convenient if leveraged correctly and it follows pretty much the same all-encompassing philosophy as the BB Hub, which can be overwhelming.
>We can't imagine many people going for the BlackBerry Priv for its audio reproduction qualities alone, but these days no high-end phone is allowed to be subpar in this department. The business-meant droid started off impressively showing great clarity and very high volume when working with an active external amplifier.
>Loudness remained stellar even when we plugged in a pair of headphones, showing that the Priv will have no trouble handling some high-resistance headphones. However some distortion crept in and even though the stereo crosstalk was decent for the use case the performance isn't quite perfect. It's still very adequate though and there's nothing for the Priv to be ashamed of.
>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...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.
> 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 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
>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.
>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.
>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.
>We do, really, recommend that you leave the auto HDR enabled as it tends to improve overall quality and fix shadows and highlights.
>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
>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.
>Panoramas come out pretty well on the Priv. There is almost no noticeable stitching to speak of and only some minor perspective warping.
>We were actually quite impressed with the way the Priv handles 4K in particular. Detail and colors are awesome to the point where you can actually freeze a random frame and get a very nice shot, which is impressive. Some more uniform scenes did give it a bit of a strain, like shooting the sky, for example. But, overall, we can't really ask for anything more in terms of video quality.
.
>The combination of OIS and EIS also works wonders for handheld shooting. The Priv was even able to keep up with fast-moving objects and quick pans and camera movements came out smooth and fluent. 4K video retains a steady bitrate of around 30Mbps and audio is captured at 96Kbps.
>In 1080p mode, the Priv also faired pretty well. Processing seems to be excellent regardless of the resolution...It has a respectable bitrate of 17.1Mbps and sound is once again captured at 96Kbps.
>There is even a 60fps mode at FullHD resolution. It smooths out motion nicely, with no noticeable detrimental effects on quality
>DTEK by BlackBerry. Seeing how privacy is a main concern, the OEM has made sure to inform you on the state of your handset. The app itself is mostly a diagnostic tool that scans the system and then gives you all sorts of helpful tips as to how to improve overall security. Most of them are pretty obvious and others just seem a little self-indulgent, like the hardware scan that gives you a positive result if you are using "BlackBerry" hardware, but it is a nice tool to have.
>The geeks among us enjoyed using some of its more advanced features, including a per-app notification and permission control and even a full system-wide event log. It is pretty useful for tracing misbehaving software.
>The Suite also includes Google maps, Google docs and spreadsheets and BB's calendar
>Our conclusion that OP is a fag has proven to be true. He literally has nothing better to do than to post 20 times in his own masturbatory shill thread.
>There are a few anons here that might fall for the bait however, and that is very concerning.
>There's hope that Blackberry can provide us with another contentious suite of kekold material in the future.
>>51788317
Indeed, forgot /g/ is /b/ 2.0 now and nerd shit should stay away
>>51788497
man, i have made several bb threads and can be considered a bbfag, but dumping text is kind of no no. people won't read those posts anyway. just make your point and let anons shitpost about the brand itself or how physical keyboards are not needed. some bb threads last for days if you are lucky.
coming back to the topic, they say priv runs hot quite often, if some privfag is here, can they confirm?
>>51789019
Yeah it does get pretty hot a lot hotter than my nexus 5 ever got but evidently the new update bb just released is supposed to fix that somewhat, unfortunately i'm on att and haven't gotten the update yet to confirm
![blackberry-vienna-android[3].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/JqKAZnq.jpg "blackberry-vienna-android[3].jpg")
>>51790296
and i was expecting it to be running pretty normal after seeing that they wouldn't use the memedragon 810 ebin housefire.
well, whatever I will try to hold on to BBOS phones for as long as i can. can't say I like android. maybe people buy priv and bb earns enough money to keep making phones, including new BB10 ones. fuckers are planning for a second android.
>>51790483
>fuckers are planning for a second android.
Meanwhile the all touch BB10 fans (like myself) are merciless left out in the cold.
>>51787615
I don't get why BlackBerry didn't go all in with super high-end handset targeted at the true power-professionnals and didn't put some kind of Windows Phone with added security on those terminals.
>>51790636
>windows phone
>true professionals
>added security
>>51790661
Winblow is apparently more popular in enterprise than lagdroid.
>>51790661
I feel all windows phone lacked was a true flagship phone and a real brand. BlackBerry, who had a solid reputation and a well established brand among top corporate buyers at the time, was a perfect candidate.
BlackBerry could have produced the ThinkPad of smartphones, instead of pathetically tying to make their products "cool" and affordable. Microsoft could have shipped an OS with a tighter integration to it's business solutions.
Instead, BlackBerry wasted it's time and money developing a dead-end OS and Microsoft did the same trying to develop a brand and a flagship product.
>>51790636
>true power-professionnals
Chen said he couldn't make enough money on niche markets and they had to expand to normalfag market which is huge. however I don't think plebs care about physical keyboards. he somehow tries to re-encourage those people to press keys.
>>51790733
if you care about muh apps, try your luck with priv. otherwise consider either passport or classic.
>>51790661
>Wojack carries Pepe from the field.jpg
>>51790798
It's wojak
>>51790802
>>51790814
there should be still Leap and Z30, if you can live without a physical kb.
I bought the priv, but the battery drain is serious, it's getting a little better though, whats the deal with that? should I get it repalced?
>>51790742
BlackBerry is a niche brand, Chen has to deal with it. I guess the profit margin would have been ok if he didn't waste all this money on shipping an OS that nobody uses.
