We go hands-on the BlackBerry Classic!

We don’t envy BlackBerry’s current CEO, John Chen, at all. On one hand, he has to keep a company on the verge of extinction afloat by offering newer devices and on the other hand he has to play to the strengths of his company and his brand to stop whatever remaining loyal customers they have left from jumping ship to Android, iOS and Windows. With the release of the Classic, it seems that the company chose the latter, and have created a device that’s a clear throwback to BlackBerry smartphones during its hayday.

BlackBerry Classic specs

• 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 MSM960 dual-core CPU
• Adreno 225 GPU
• 2GB of RAM
• 3.5-inch touchscreen display, 720 x 720 resolution
• 16GB of internal storage, expandable via microSD up to 128GB
• 8-megapixel rear camera
• 2-megapixel front camera
• 3G, LTE
• WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, A-GPS, NFC
• 2,515mAh battery
• Blackberry OS 10.3.1
• Php 20,990

First impressions: BlackBerry’s greatest hits

The BlacKBerry Classic lives up to its namesake – it’s a clear throwback to BlackBerry devices of old, with a perfectly square 3.5-inch 720 x 720 resolution touchscreen display, with four shortcut keys right below it, along with BlackBerry’s iconic touchpad. The QWERTY keyboard that defines much of the BlackBerry experience is there, and is still as easy to use as the original.

As far overall design is concerned, the classic is chunky, heavy and all business, and sports a rubbery, dimpled back with a metal band going around the edge. There’s a 8-megapixel rear camera with flash and a 2-megapixel front, which limits the picture-taking capabilities of the Classic compared to similar devices in its price-range (more in this in a minute).

If the overall looks of the BlackBerry Classic is a homage to its previous devices, its processor is also a product of the past. In a time where quad-core processors are the minimum expected hardware (as far as processors go), the Classic sports a dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 MSM960 processor, along with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and LTE. While we can understand the rationale behind the move (you’re not exactly going to game with the Classic, after all) people looking for a speedier update to BlackBerry’s devices of yore may be disappointed with the Classic.

Like most of BlackBerry’s devices, the Classic sports the BlackBerry OS, now in its 10.3.1 iteration. Navigation through the device was fluid, fast and trouble free, and with announcement of the Amazan appstore as BlackBerry’s defacto app environment, it’s safe to say that it’s easier to find apps for the device now more than ever.

The Classic is priced at around Php 20,990, which makes it a difficult phone to sell in the Philippines, especially considering the specs to price ratio. Of course, BlackBerry’s devices has always attracted a different breed of consumer, people that need a phone for work above everything else has always been their target market. As one of the BlackBerry execs present at the local launch said, if you’re the sort of person that uses their phone to watch YouTube all day, go buy a cheap China tablet or smartphone. If you need something to make you work better, then a BlackBerry is for you.