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BlackBerry PRIV Review

Written By Diangson Louie
Published • December 12th, 2015
Gadget ReviewsMobile
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Table of Contents

Display and Multimedia

The PRIV packs a 5.4-inch AMOLED display but with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels or equal to an impressive 540ppi. The display is crisp and vibrant with rich colors and deep blacks. The Gorilla Glass 4 protection, which curves on both sides, is a very welcome addition as well.

When it comes to speaker quality, the PRIV has the right to boast. It’s loud and clear with crisp trebles and decent amount of bass. In addition, it doesn’t distort even in maximum levels. That being said, the PRIV is a great multimedia device whether it’s for watching videos or listening to music. Overall, no problems in this department.

Camera

When it comes to the imaging department, the PRIV sports an 18 megapixel Schneider-Kreuznach camera with Phase-Detect AF and dual-tone flash. The last smartphone we encountered that also used a Schneider-Kreuznach camera was the OPPO N3 so we’re expecting, at the least, a good performance.

True enough, the PRIV was able to produce images with good colors and clarity. The Phase-Detect AF also proved to be quick in locking in on subjects. Low-light performance on the other hand is decent. Although noise is evident, the camera was able to soften it into tiny smudges rather than sharp speckles.

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: Very Low Light 1

: Low Light

When it comes to in-camera features, the PRIV doesn’t have a lot and is limited to built-in filters, Panorama, and Auto HDR. What we liked about it though is that you can manually adjust the exposure by sliding from left to right. You can adjust it in very tiny increments so it leaves you with more control on how exposed your subjects are.

As for the front camera, it only has a 2 megapixel shooter with 1.75um pixel and f2.8 aperture. Sounds fancy but the image quality produced is similar to other phones with same camera spec. Good enough in bright conditions but not so good in low light.

When it comes to video recording, it can shoot videos at 4K – 30fps, 1080p – 60fps/30fps, and 720p – 60fps/30fps in MP4 format. Quality is good with nice dynamic range and contrast. One thing to note though is that you can only record 4K videos at a maximum of 5 minutes. The PRIV can get a bit toasty as well while recording at around 46.5-C. Watch the sample below.

OS, UI, and Apps

Running the software side is Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. Although it almost looks vanilla, BlackBerry included a lot of its own features and UI tweaks. Below are the UI changes and new features we’ve noticed:

* App drawer uses vertical scrolling similar to Marshmallow
* Apps can be rearranged: Default, Alphabetical, Newest, Most Used
* Notifications in lock screen and home screen uses the familiar red BlackBerry star
* There’s a dedicated search bar for apps, widgets, and shortcuts from inside the app drawer
* Aside from Widgets, shortcut icons were also added
* Pop-up widgets – Swipe up on icons to reveal a quick menu of its widgets
* Recently opened apps are arranged in three different modes: Rolodex, Tiles, Masonry
* Tap and hold on the Home button to show shortcuts to Device Search or BlackBerry Hub
* Persistent Productivity Tab on the right. Swipe to reveal important info from calendars, messages, notes, and contacts
* Battery status is shown on the curved edge when charging
* Double tap to wake
* Flip to mute – silence the device when you receive a call
* Flip to save power – put the device in sleep mode when you place it facedown
* Hold to stay awake – keep the screen on longer when you hold your device
* Automatically wipe device after 10 failed unlock attempts

As for the applications, BlackBerry didn’t skimp in installing its own proprietary apps for the Android platform:

* BBM
* BBM Meetings
* BlackBerry Keyboard
* BlackBerry Launcher
* DTEK by BlackBerry – monitor and control your device’s security
* BlackBerry Camera
* BlackBerry Services – required for apps like BlackBerry Hub, Calendar, Tasks and Device Search
* BlackBerry Paswword Keeper
* BlackBerry Hub
* BlackBerry Calendar
* Contacts by BlackBerry
* BlackBerry Content Transfer
* Notes by BlackBerry
* BlackBerry Device Search
* Tasks by BlackBerry

That’s a total of 15 BlackBerry Android apps. These apps are housed inside the Play Store and can be updated just like any Android app. Google’s basic apps are here as well including Docs, Sheets and Slides.

Storage-wise, the PRIV comes with 32GB of internal storage with 23.86GB as usable. It supports microSD cards of up to 2TB capacity. USB OTG is not supported though.

Overall, the BlackBerry PRIV’s UI still looks and feels like a stock Android Lollipop but on BlackBerry steroids. First time users may find it both familiar and unfamiliar and might need a bit of reacquainting. One example is the new implementation of the Hub as it feels separate unlike on BB10 which feels more native and natural.

Next Page: Performance and Benchmarks, Battery Life, Conclusion

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Diangson Louie

This article was written by Louie Diangson, Managing Editor of YugaTech. You can follow him at @John_Louie.

https://www.yugatech.com

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One Comment

Orange says:

9 years ago

*drool* *drool*
I have the latest iPhone (na gusto kong itapon because of bad call quality and bad ability to pick-up its issuing carrier’s signal) but I can’t because it’s office issued. My personal phone is an Android, sigh, I hope this is offered by the local telcos sa plans nila
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