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BlackBerry Classic Review

Name: BlackBerry Classic Review
Item: BlackBerry Classic
Rating: 6.5
Author: John V.

posted by John V. / Dec 23, 2014, 6:10 AM

Introduction

BlackBerry is bleeding profusely, struggling to stay afloat amidst the competition. By now, it’s quite obvious that they’re no longer the trailblazing company they once were – so they’ve tried to reinvent themselves with devices and a new platform to keep up with the times. From the all-touchscreen Z10, to its redefined QWERTY in the Passport, there’s no arguing that BlackBerry has been experimenting a lot in order to find that “right” form factor. Unfortunately, none of them have been able to make a significant impact on consumers. Enter the BlackBerry Classic, an old-school ‘berry that employs an iconic design. Indeed, it’s a modern spin on a classic, but is it something that’ll really bring back consumers to BlackBerry’s circle?

The package contains:

microUSB charging cable
Wall charger
Stereo headphones
Owner’s manual

Design

Nostalgia comes full circle with this one, as we’re reminded of the BlackBerry Bold 9900.

Frankly, the BlackBerry Classic looks almost identical to the 2011-made BlackBerry Bold 9900 – though, it’s slightly larger in size. On one hand, we love the classic design, but on the other, we would’ve liked to see a more profound, evolutionary design. In all honesty, the design is a stark contrast to the BlackBerry Passport, which sports a daring industrial design for the times. Instead, the BlackBerry Classic comes off as tepid, one that attempts to give the classic design some notoriety once again, but comes off as being nothing more than nostalgic.

View more + 20 images

Front view
Side view

To see the phones in real size or compare them with other models, visit our Visual Phone Size Comparison page

Keyboard

Boy does it feel good to see this classic keyboard again! It’s a hundred times more useful than the Passport’s awkwardly arranged keyboard.

Thank goodness BlackBerry decided to use the classic Bold keyboard from yesteryear, as opposed to the newer layout and style of the Passport keyboard. No longer are we struggling to type on this QWERTY, as it features the same sculpted keys, stainless steel band separators, and tactile responses that made the old BlackBerry smartphones such a joy to type on. At the same time, the Classic brings back the optical trackpad and physical set of buttons beneath its display – providing another alternative to navigation and operating the platform.

Display

It’s not ground breaking in any sort of way, but its 1:1 aspect ratio is what gives it that “classic” BlackBerry look.

Gazing at the display of the BlackBerry Classic, it becomes clearer that this isn’t meant to be the most premium offering from the company, as it features a 3.5-inch 720 x 720 display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It’s smaller and lower resolution than the Passport display, but we find it more than detailed with its pixel density count of 294 ppi – that’s plenty enough to give fine details a fair amount of sharpness.

Impressively, the Classic’s display emits a potent 900 nit brightness, which not only makes it more than visible on the brightest of days, but it’s unequivocally the brightest display on a smartphone we’ve come across ever. Everything seems to be in good order with the display, since there are several great characteristics with it. However, our biggest complaint is actually is its size. Due to its square nature and smaller size, we’re constantly causing apps to “minimize” whenever we flick our finger from the bottom bezel towards the top – like the action needed to scroll vertically in the browser.

Display measurements and quality

	Maximum brightness Higher is better	Minimum brightness (nits) Lower is better	Contrast Higher is better	Color temperature (Kelvins)	Gamma	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
BlackBerry Classic	900 (Excellent)	7 (Good)	1:1170 (Good)	6307 (Excellent)	1.98	2.21 (Good)	1.92 (Excellent)
BlackBerry Passport	894 (Excellent)	4 (Excellent)	1:1161 (Good)	7042 (Good)	2.38	3.56 (Good)	2.91 (Good)
BlackBerry Q10	242 (Poor)	17 (Poor)	unmeasurable (Excellent)	6856 (Excellent)	2.22	6.76 (Average)	6.08 (Average)

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The numbers below represent the amount of deviation in the respective property, observed when a display is viewed from a 45-degree angle as opposed to direct viewing.

	Maximum brightness Lower is better	Minimum brightness Lower is better	Contrast Lower is better	Color temperature Lower is better	Gamma Lower is better	Delta E rgbcmy Lower is better	Delta E grayscale Lower is better
BlackBerry Q10	48.3%	41.2%	unmeasurable	18%	14.9%	31.5%	133.4%
BlackBerry Passport	80.9%	75%	76.5%	10%	8.8%	12.1%	30.6%
BlackBerry Classic	91%	85.7%	97.4%	6.3%	10.6%	64.7%	99.5%

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The CIE 1931 xy color gamut chart represents the set (area) of colors that a display can reproduce, with the sRGB colorspace (the highlighted triangle) serving as reference. The chart also provides a visual representation of a display's color accuracy. The small squares across the boundaries of the triangle are the reference points for the various colors, while the small dots are the actual measurements. Ideally, each dot should be positioned on top of its respective square. The 'x: CIE31' and 'y: CIE31' values in the table below the chart indicate the position of each measurement on the chart. 'Y' shows the luminance (in nits) of each measured color, while 'Target Y' is the desired luminance level for that color. Finally, 'ΔE 2000' is the Delta E value of the measured color. Delta E values of below 2 are ideal.

These measurements are made using Portrait Displays' CalMAN calibration software.

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149 Comments

2. Neros

Posts: 1016; Member since: Dec 19, 2014

Ugly and sucky.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 6:19 AM 4

124. farrid

Posts: 35; Member since: Jun 20, 2014

It has its intended audience and your not it so try not to feel too special. They didn't make it for kids that like cool tricks and big glitzy animations to make you think you have something amazing in your hand. This is for people who know what they want and want to get stuff done, not play games kido

posted on Dec 31, 2014, 10:52 AM 6

143. loknarr unregistered

Yeah, it's not a TOY phone like alot of the junk on the market. I just got one a few days ago and love it.

posted on Apr 26, 2015, 7:17 PM 2

146. robbster

Posts: 2; Member since: Jul 26, 2015

Great response!

posted on Sep 02, 2015, 7:46 PM 1

125. miles16852

Posts: 241; Member since: Oct 20, 2011

troll along please!

posted on Jan 01, 2015, 3:58 AM 2

4. hafini_27

Posts: 951; Member since: Oct 31, 2013

Damn, i wanted it to be good.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 6:27 AM 1

39. Crispin_Gatieza

Posts: 3182; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

It is. You're just not going to know about it here.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 5:46 PM 2

6. meanestgenius

Posts: 22714; Member since: May 28, 2014

Hey Phonearena, next time try judging the device on its intended purpose. A multimedia device this is not. It's intended for BUSINESS. Food for thought.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 6:29 AM 17

43. John.V

Posts: 99; Member since: May 27, 2011

Its intentions, I hope, is to be a great smartphone - not just business.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:53 PM 2

46. meanestgenius

Posts: 22714; Member since: May 28, 2014

IT IS a great smartphone, geared towards business. How you can say it's not, and yet the iPhone, which sucks at basic phone functions, is regarded so high by you all at phonearena reeks of bias. Too much BlackBerry hate goes on at this site, and it's also perpetrated by the authors of this site.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:56 PM 6

141. Mxyzptlk unregistered

You're bias is showing.

posted on Feb 16, 2015, 10:33 AM 1

142. meanestgenius

Posts: 22714; Member since: May 28, 2014

Dude, you're STILL responding to this article?? Let it go, dude.

posted on Feb 16, 2015, 11:58 AM 1

123. whowhy5

Posts: 1; Member since: Dec 30, 2014

It's intentions as presented by their CEO John Chen is to be a great business and productivity tool geared at their core enterprise customers, not to be a great smartphone for consumers who focus on multimedia, emojis, games and apps (even though users have access to the Amazon App Store, Blackberry World and with very little work the Google Play Store.) This review should have been done based on who the phone was designed for and what it was designed to do. You wouldn't compare a mini van against a luxury sports car would you? "The 2014 Ford Mini Van is really sluggish compared to the 2014 Porsche 911 and we aren't really sure why Ford would release such a vehicle."- Phone Arena 2014

posted on Dec 30, 2014, 9:40 AM 4

148. bmobini

Posts: 2; Member since: Jul 11, 2016

Every tool has a purpose. In the same way that one would not attempt to cook food under a clothes iron, one should not expect to watch movies on a Blackberry. They are great phones that excel at their intended purpose, which is messaging. I have used various iPhones, Android devices, and even Windows phones to no avail. Typing on a touch screen is very inaccurate and spell check or correction incorrectly changes words to make my messages completely convey the wrong messages. I use an Android tablet for media consumption and my Blackberry for messaging and emails, since I am self-employed. Besides, watching movies all day makes one poor and fat.

posted on Jul 11, 2016, 9:34 AM 0

145. farrid

Posts: 35; Member since: Jun 20, 2014

You are like the kids in the new generation that know nothing but the touch screen and brainwashed on what you think should be. You obviously can't think outside of your box and won't appreciate the true benefit and functionality of BB10 phones. Your a slow learner and I will have to give you some slack I guess.

posted on Apr 29, 2015, 9:55 AM 3

7. Bondurant

Posts: 787; Member since: Jun 04, 2014

A 3 layer keyboard of passport on the classic would be awesome. The screen being 3/4 the front surface of classic and keypad for the rest, cut off a bit more of the top bezels too. Would make the classic more next generation and attractive to non-business consumers.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:32 AM 1

8. EC112987

Posts: 1216; Member since: Nov 10, 2014

Besides looking at the score it was given...I read the first setence and knew it was going to bash this phone. Smh

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:43 AM 2

9. toiletcleaner

Posts: 224; Member since: Oct 10, 2012

You want a multimedia device, go and buy one Ipod touch. want a phone? get the Blackberry classic

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:52 AM 5

45. John.V

Posts: 99; Member since: May 27, 2011

How about wanting a great phone?

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:55 PM 2

47. Busyboy unregistered

How about wanting an unbiased review?

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 8:02 PM 6

111. Mxyzptlk unregistered

How about getting over it

posted on Dec 25, 2014, 9:54 AM 0

147. robbster

Posts: 2; Member since: Jul 26, 2015

jez, nobody likes you! wonda why!

posted on Sep 02, 2015, 8:15 PM 0

58. Crispin_Gatieza

Posts: 3182; Member since: Jan 23, 2014

I defy you to find a better messaging phone or platform. Go ahead, I'll wait.

posted on Dec 24, 2014, 12:10 PM 3

10. Anshulonweb

Posts: 468; Member since: Feb 07, 2014

wtf!....900 nits!...

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 7:58 AM 4

11. g2a5b0e unregistered

How is 2515mAh a modest battery size for a device with a 3.5" screen? That's huge! Unless it is horribly optimized, this phone should get awesome battery life.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 8:20 AM 6

126. miles16852

Posts: 241; Member since: Oct 20, 2011

yes, it does, I have it, and so far it says battery is at 27% and time since last charge is 2days and 9hours!

posted on Jan 01, 2015, 4:00 AM 1

12. fairnuff

Posts: 3; Member since: Dec 23, 2014

6.5? really? 7.5-8 shouldve given it justice. its a business phone not an iPhone.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 8:56 AM 8

14. SaintHelena

Posts: 397; Member since: Nov 05, 2014

This phone is 4 years too late. It should be 4.5.

posted on Dec 23, 2014, 9:18 AM 3

17. fairnuff

Posts: 3; Member since: Dec 23, 2014

4 years too late in what aspect? yes the chipset is bit too old but it's just right for a phone that doesnt run on android. funny how you called a phone with physical keyboard a 4 year old tech.