After the announcement that Blackberry won’t be making phones, it was presumed that the Priv and the Passport were going to be the last Blackberries that the world will ever have. We were shocked when a box with a Blackberry logo came knocking at our doors for a review.
Table of Contents
Design
Upon opening the box, we were surprised to find an all black Galaxy S7 with a Blackberry logo plastered at the back.
Starting from the attention grabbing camera hump packing a 21MP f/2.0 setup, the entire back portion is covered in curved glass apart from the flushed fingerprint sensor located right below the main shooter. The entire back portion curves at the sides to meet its chamfered metal frame that houses the volume rocker above the Blackberry convenience key at the right side. The opposite end contains the power button placed at the very top, awkwardly, and right below it will be the hybrid dual nano-sim tray. Fortunately the physical power button will only be used to completely turn the device off as a nifty feature to double-tap to wake and sleep is included in the OS. The top portion houses the left flushed 3.5mm headphone jack beside the secondary microphone. The bottom portion houses the USB type C port that supports Quick Charge 3.0 and the microphone.
The pleasantly raised top and bottom frames houses the dual firing speakers. Yes, you heard that right, dual firing speakers on the top and bottom portions of the raised frame that also blasts tunes towards the back.
The front panel bevels and curves towards the side frames towards a raised finish. Underneath it will be an 8MP front facing shooter, the iconic Blackberry red LED notification light, ambient and proximity sensors with the reasonably wieldy 5.5 QHD AMOLED display.
We have to admit, the design is subtle but refreshing and solid unlike the last few takes of Blackberries of old covering the back in plastic or some iteration of.
In all honesty, it’s a properly designed phone that feels cool and heavy in the hand.
Display
The 5.5 inch QHD AMOLED display is enjoyable with great color reproduction and just the right touch of saturation and contrast. No problems viewing your screen in broad daylight here. Viewing videos and playing games with high resolution are a pleasurable affair with all those pixels at 534 ppi to be exact.
The curvature of the screen aids a lot in queuing the productivity bar from the side panel built into the system by sliding from the right, seen here. Overall, it’s a comfortable screen with great resolution that’s bright and colorful.
Camera
It was a pleasant surprise for us to learn that the DTek 60 was going to come with 21MP of trigger happy goodness.
The camera does well in daylit scenarios with decent dynamic range and good color reproduction on its own. HDR will improve the experience if you’re looking for more details with a bit of processing lag.
Well lit indoor shots are much the same affair but are a tad soft for our tastes.
Low light scenarios are a bit of a struggle with some downfalls in clarity and sharpness.
Nighttime shots are even more apparent in the struggle to process see here with grain and noise creeping into the shot.
Selfies are a standard affair with much the same quality and capabilities as the rear facing camera. Though there’s some softness on the final image of my face here.
4K videos are starting to become a standard for flagship phones and that’s what the DTek 60 has. Sadly, there will be no Optical Image Stabilization and neither will it come with Software or Digital Image Stabilization. Third-party gimbals, stabilizers, Tripods and/or steady hands will be required to get good videos running.
Performance
Packed with early 2016 flagship specifications, there’s no doubt that this beastly phone can and will get the job done.
Rocking the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820, Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB of RAM, there’s no doubt any and all apps and games even set to the highest settings will whiz by without a hitch.
It stood true with our field test on daily average usage. Even with high resolution video playback.
The included Blackberry exclusive features like the Blackberry Hub that collates all your messages into one platform and reply in-line saves as lot of the time. This is on top of strict security features such as the DTEK app that screens permissions and notifies you if an app asks for your location for 30 times in a span of 5 minutes, for example.
Games will be a cinch set to the highest settings with no lag or stutter as processing power is more than capable of covering your needs.
You may notice while playing or watching videos that the metal frame warms up and spreads to the glass allowing heat dissipation but it won’t be too hot to the touch. It will just warm up.
Battery
Powered by a 3000mAh battery, it might not be sufficient for most users but its Quick Charge 3.0 will surely aid on this department as topping up will be a breeze. Charging from zero to a hundred percent took only an hour and 7 mins to be exact.
Endurance testing showed only 21 hours of standby time with 3 hours and a half of screen-on-time.
Audio
Listening to music and watching a movie never sounded so good when using a smartphone. The dual firing stereo speakers that blast not only at the front but also at the back provides powerful and clear sound that is very rare to find even with the leading flagships today reminiscent of the Nexus 6P, HTC’s BoomSound, and Alcatel Idol 4S it’s base model, that provides a similar experience.
If you are an audiophile, you will surely enjoy the MaxxAudio equalizer that allows you to use presets or custom preset that suits to your liking.
Pricing and Verdict
Blackberry DTEK60 is expected to land at P25,500 or $512. At that price range with 2016 specs, QHD, 4GB of RAM and timely software updates from Blackberry with superior security, it’s difficult to not include the DTEK 60 as a potential buy for yourself.
What do you think of the Blackberry DTEK 60? Let us know at the comments section below.
Mabuhay, Manila.
Blackberry DTEK 60 Specs, PH Price, Release Date
Display: 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED 534ppi
Design: glass and metal
Size: 7mm, 165g
Chipset: Qualcomm Snapdragon 820
CPU: Quad-Core 2.16GHz
GPU: Adreno 530
RAM: 4GB
Memory: 32GB expandable storage up to 256GB
Main Camera: 21 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash
Selfie: 8 MP, f/2.2, 1080p
Connectivity: 4G LTE, Wi-Fi ac, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, NFC
Ports: USB Type-C, 3.55mm headphone jack
Audio: dual-firing stereo speakers, MaxxAudio
Security: Fingerprint scanner
Battery: 3000mAh w/ Quick Charge 3.0
OS: Android Marshmalllow 6.0
Color: Black
Release Date: October 2016
Price: expected to land at P25,500 or $512
