Remember when a physical keyboard was a must on a smartphone? The act of typing more than 140 characters on a software keyboard was downright frustrating for many. Times have changed quite a bit, as not only have touch screens gotten really good but the software driving those keyboards has improved dramatically as well. Some rely on tracing and algorithms to predict your language and make it seem like typing is easier on glass, and for the hardware manufacturers that's a really good thing.
Keyboards on smartphones are expensive, especially if phones are supposed to keep getting thinner and lighter and cheaper and more powerful all at the same time. Cutting out the keyboard made this a lot less complicated, and made focusing on the commodity pricing to carve out market share while competing in design fairly trivial in comparison.
Keyboards on smartphones are expensive, especially if phones are supposed to keep getting thinner and lighter and cheaper and more powerful all at the same time. Cutting out the keyboard made this a lot less complicated, and made focusing on the commodity pricing to carve out market share while competing in design fairly trivial in comparison.
Are there still people out there who love a physical keyboard? Absolutely. Is there a company out there still making great keyboards? Absolutely. Are those phones running an OS that grants us access to the latest apps and features we Android fans love so much? Absolutely not. At least, not until now.
BlackBerry, the All-Father of smartphones, has decided to take a step left of its BB10 platform and give Android a shot. This means doing a lot more than just slapping Google's OS on something with the BlackBerry logo on it, though. For this to work, BlackBerry needs to take the things that make its phones special and integrate it with Android in a way that appeals to a new group of users without walking away from its loyal and loving audience. The first attempt is called the BlackBerry Priv, and it's the start of something new and exciting by resurrecting things that are neither new nor particularly exciting, which is kind of fantastic.
BlackBerry, the All-Father of smartphones, has decided to take a step left of its BB10 platform and give Android a shot. This means doing a lot more than just slapping Google's OS on something with the BlackBerry logo on it, though. For this to work, BlackBerry needs to take the things that make its phones special and integrate it with Android in a way that appeals to a new group of users without walking away from its loyal and loving audience. The first attempt is called the BlackBerry Priv, and it's the start of something new and exciting by resurrecting things that are neither new nor particularly exciting, which is kind of fantastic.
 | 5.79/7.24 in 147/184mm |  |
| 3.04 in 77.2mm | 0.37 in |
- Display:
- 5.43-inch dual curve Quad HD display
- 2560x1440 resolution (540ppi)
- Plastic AMOLED
- Corning Gorilla Glass 4
- Camera:
- 18MP Schneider-Kreuznach-certified rear camera
- ƒ/2.2, optical image stabilization, dual-LED dual-color flash, BSI sensor
- 4K 30fps and 1080p 60fps video
- 2MP ƒ/2.8 front-facing camera
- Battery:
- 3410mAh fixed battery
- Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0
- Qi and Powermat wireless charging
- Chips:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 hexa-core 64-bit processor
- 2x1.8GHz Cortex-A57 cores + 4x1.44Ghz Cortex-A53 cores
- 600MHz Adreno 418 GPU
- 3GB RAM
- 32GB internal storage
- microSD storage expansion slot
- Software:
- Android 5.1.1 Lollipop
- DTEK by BlackBerry security suite
- BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Calendar
- Keyboard:
- Physical 35-key 4-row sliding keyboard
- Contextual auto-correct, word prediction, and learning engine
- Touch-sensitive gesture control
Ayush Tyagi is professional web-designer and the founder of Howtodohtd.com, who love to learn new things and share them.
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