back to article QWERTY-tastic BlackBerry Classic actually a classic

BlackBerry has looked into the abyss and seen ... a vintage BlackBerry staring back. Two years on from a catastrophic “modernisation”, BlackBerry has finally made a modern BlackBerry that people who used and liked a classic QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry will feel right at home with. Which accounts for the name. Natch. BlackBerry …

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  1. typeo

    "And it doesn’t have the zip of the BlackBerry Classic: it uses the same two-year-old, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor as the Q10, reviewed here."

    Do you mean it doesn't have the zip of a BB Passport? Wanted to check as currently using a Q10 which is great for messaging and want to replace with either a Classic or Passport. Looking forward to trying BB Blend.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sort of feels like back peddling in a last ditch hope to lure lovers of hardware keyboards back, but as we all know hardware keyboards were good in the days of resistive and poor performing touch screens, things have moved on ... and i suspect most of their client base. If you want hardware keypad your losing screen real estate.. if users want a hardware keyboard, you can get detachable slide out keyboard cases for most higher end smartphones for £20 of fleabay and other places and have the best of both worlds.... I really cant see it being their saviour or selling that well.

    1. durandal

      When Blackberry do keyboards well, they are very, very good. Slide out keyboards, even when built in, aren't the same by a long shot and a crappy Chinese knock off on ebay isn't going to come close.

      The fact that people are resisting upgrading their Bolds, etc. suggests that there is a market, but it's not the consumer one that Rim bet the farm on a couple of years ago.

      1. Steven Raith

        I used to miss slide out (and BB-style, below the screen) keyboards and had a dark period of about five years of frustrating text entry on mobile devices until I got used to using Swype-style tracking keyboards.

        For those whom a swipey keyboard doesn't do anything for them (which to be fair, is mostly non technical types who just aren't interested - I'd imagine most of the posters here would get on with them well, even if they weren't their final preference) then this phone is probably pretty tempting.

        I'll pass though - I'm far faster on Swype than I am with any mobile device keyboard, including the (admittedly really very good) Apple onscreen ones and the last couple of BBs I fiddled with.

        I reckon this'll keep BB going for a while longer, maybe even for the long term future - there's definitely a market for the old school BB experience, even if I'm not part of it.

      2. Jamie Jones Silver badge

        Bleugh, I have a few android tablets (typing this on one now), and tv sticks, and love them, but my mobile is my trusted old Nokia E63 I'll keep until it dies.

        I don't want to deal with androidisms when using the phone, and a physical keyboard is a must, for being able to type without looking at the keyboard (which invariably happens when walking or in someones company)

        The E63 has a great browser if you install UC Browser, and putty for ssh. The mp3 and other stuff is a bonus.

        And yes, it was my brothers back-of-the-sock-draw phone, and whilst he's upgraded, he never used it to 10% of it's abilities.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Good old days"? Not really

      "if users want a hardware keyboard, you can get detachable slide out keyboard cases for most higher end smartphones for £20"

      No. Not the same as built-in, now is it? Having to carry another component is HARDLY the same.

      You may think that hardware keyboards are passe but [your] love of capacitive touchscreens drives me absolutely crazy, as I wear gloves. Often. Especially when I am on my motorcycle. And there is nothing worse than having to pull off full race gauntlets in order to answer a damn phone call (when off the bike, whilst riding I have helmet Bluetooth) and grab the phone before it drops into voicemail. You may think that this does not happen often...but it does. Never you mind trying to answer a phone call in 0 degree Celsius weather while I am wearing street gloves...

      I'm tired of being told what I should like from other people, damnit. I WANT A HARDWARE PHONE KEY, at least - if you think not, I'm tired of being told that I should care. One guy I work with has been trying to get his hands on this new Blackberry for the past 1.5 months, maybe I'll take a closer look at it now myself.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "Good old days"? Not really

        >I'm tired of being told what I should like from other people, damnit. I WANT A HARDWARE PHONE KEY

        The problem is the customer base that thinks like you is about the same that still buys vinyl records. Enjoy BB while you can (they may not be on their deathbed but they are sure making it) and shoot for their one last phone you will be able to buy to hold you over for years to come (kinda like the N900).

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. cambsukguy

        Re: "Good old days"? Not really

        Or you could get a touch screen phone which works even with gloves. There are lots of places where gloves are worn a lot, like Finland for instance so at least one manufacturer makes their phones work with gloves. For those stuck with other phones, special gloves may be purchased, they look ok and are not expensive. Obviously, these would be inner gloves for a biker and not electrically heated.

        Gloves may limit delicate use but, on my phone at least, the phone app (and any other I choose to place on the start screen) was easily stabbed and subsequent stabbing of Mute, Speaker etc. was also easy. (I say was because recently touching is no longer required, it senses the orientation and proximity to auto-answer, mute or enable speakerphone etc.)

        I also notice that the swipe keyboard is much better with glove use than finger pecking with gloves, even with the very good word prompting, which forgives erroneous letters quite well.

        And, as if that wasn't enough options-wise, speaking to the phone to make a call (and do other things), even without BT attached, really works well, especially if you are wearing gloves or your hands are mucky or otherwise engaged. The newer phones even let you start the voice detection using, er, voice detection; clever stuff. Some clever phones let you make appointments and save notes etc. using voice.

        FYI, I had a hardware keyboard on my last non-WinPhone (N900). It was fine, it even had a Ctrl key. But, it was not a patch on the Lumia 800 keyboard, let alone my Lumia 1020 (bigger phone, slicker word prompting, very cool emoticon prompts along with words, swipe keyboard, auto correction/capitalisation).

        I think the world record phone typing speed was attained on a WinPhone until an Android using a swipe keyboard and rather fortuitous word prediction (read, cheating because the word sequence is a fixed one) just beat it. I do think lots of random phrases should be used for (say) 1000 words overall to make a fairer system but that's just me.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "Glove-friendly touchscreens" NOT!

          "Or you could get a touch screen phone which works even with gloves. "

          Sorry, tried several of those at the store and they all failed horribly with motorcycle gloves. Street gloves feature light enough materials for the "glove friendly" touchscreens to work; good motorcycle gloves, on the other hand, are significantly heavier and not a single phone model responded to the tests.

          Yes, I use Swype on my Android phone but I STILL want a hardware key to accept / end phone calls. Again, I'm tired of being told what I want, why I (should) want it and "you'll get used to it" when I'm forced to accept the living crap that is put upon me by others.

          Absolutely nothing personal, as this is not directed to you, but to the entire population of people, from designers to customers, who tell me what I should like: BUGGER OFF, I'M SICK OF YOU.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: "Glove-friendly touchscreens" NOT!

            I bet your a barrel of laughs at a party.

            1. Ambivalous Crowboard

              Re: I bet

              you're*

        2. Eddy Ito

          @cambsukguy Re: "Good old days"? Not really

          One problem I had with my WP8 Nokia was that the screen, which worked fine with gloves, was too sensitive without gloves. Even with the sensitivity set to the lowest setting I was constantly getting the stupid search to pop up when reaching across to touch a tile on the left side of the screen because it would register the base of my thumb near the search icon. I know, I'm holding it wrong.

          BTW voice control is pretty standard even on my new Passport. It's true, I can search the phone or the internet, make calls, play music, write texts, twitter, set reminders, navigate, send emails, etc. all by voice just like everyone else. I imagine dictating a formula filled spreadsheet would get a bit tedious but it's theoretically possible.

          As for typing speed, the cheating claim is a bit petty. It's pretty clear from the MS video that the guy competing for the record had practiced quite a bit and I'd wager if you rotate the phone or swapped to a different size phone his speed would change drastically because the muscle memory wouldn't be as accurate. Besides it's a phone, I'm not likely to write something the size of War and Peace on it. Granted, I'm considering making a small dock that uses the Slimport for the monitor and BT for a regular keyboard and mouse to investigate if it's good enough to ditch pass along the aging desktop I've got.

    3. Cameron Colley

      @AC: I'm glad you like your grubby, fiddly glass picture of a keyboard.

      I'm not sure whether you have bothered to notice but there are a few more people on this planet than just you, and some of them want different things to you. Sadly, it is people similar to you working within the technology industries who regularly kill products that people actually want because they can't see outside of their own "on trend" mindset.

      If you like a slab of glass for a communications device then I am happy that you are able to have one -- I wish though that you would do the courtesy of being happy that I, and others, can have our physical keyboards.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Have had enough of my Samsung Gala. It came unable to handle web based email without a lot of search for settings (can see me doing that in China); preloaded jokes; and useless travel suggestions - can't wait to receive the Classic I have bought on line from the Blackberry site. It seems designed for messages vocal or written, not trying to be all things to all teenagers.

  3. lolwhat

    When do you plan to do a review of the Passport?

    1. typeo

      Already reviewed

      Here is The Reg review of the Passport:

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/10/08/review_blackberry_passport_smartphone/

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      He did.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Blackberry looked into the abyss

    And the abyss said 'meh'.

    Chapter 11 in 2015 I think.

  5. Bassey

    Handy choice

    I know a few people whose companies have switched them onto Android (mainly Galaxy S4s) for lack of a decent Blackberry who will be battering down the door of their IT managers looking for one of these. Never saw the attraction myself (but I'm happy to acknowledge I was never the target market) but I know so many with a crackberry habit for whom Android just couldn't quite scratch the itch.

  6. AMBxx Silver badge
    Happy

    Yes, please

    If they've fixed the BBM battery thrash problem in 10.3, I'll take one. I like my Lumia 1020, but still get keyboard envy every time I use my wife's Q10.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Really quiet in here.

    Anyone would think you all had something better to do.

    EDIT: Aha - moderators have something better to do instead. :)

    Anyway, on topic, I would be tempted if it had a removable battery. I like the form factor. Reminds me of the Palm Pixi, which I still miss. Wonder how BB will cope when the ART runtime gradually replaces Dalvik. Anyone have an idea?

  8. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Only game in town?

    BlackBerry is the only game in town for QWERTY keyboard phones

    It is? I have a non-BB Android phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, and when I bought it last year I found a number of other models with them. This page, from last year, lists three models each from Motorola and LG. Have all the other manufacturers really stopped making physical-QWERTY phones, or is this just hyperbole?

    In the past I've resisted Blackberry because I didn't care for their legal antics or their walled garden, and I was dubious my IT department's commitment to supporting Blackberry interop with corporate systems, so that wasn't much of an incentive either. I might be willing to forgive the first couple, but I don't want a phone with a battery I can't remove, and I don't want the keyboard exposed when it's in my pocket.

  9. Frank N. Stein

    I don't know why BlackBerry won't just do a thin 5.2" phone with a side sliding keyboard. Best of both worlds. 5.2" screen for all the screen tap stuff you want to do, and a slide out keyboard to let you tap away to your heart's content with a physical keyboard. SHRUG.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Happy new year...

    Happy new year, El Reg and fellow commentards. May 2015 bring as much snarkiness as 2014.

    1. JudeKay (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Happy new year...

      Happy new year, dear reader. The thing I like most about this kind wish is that it was posted anonymously, as if you were ashamed to be caught out being earnest and sincere. Long live our snarky commentards and I raise my coffee mug to you in particular, anonymous. May no one's keyboards be safe in 2015.

  11. Barry Rueger

    Tempting but...

    Just switched back from a BlackBerry Z10 to Android.

    I really, really miss the superb BB writing tools. It was the first on-screen keyboard that actually worked for me, and the predictive text was nothing short of brilliant after less than an hour.

    In short, if writing long or complex messages you really do want a BlackBerry - Android is painful by comparison. REALLY painful.

    But, and they are big buts....

    BlackBerry's integration with Google services is pathetic.

    Have a nice big contact list with lots of custom tags? Not only will your BlackBerry do a piss poor job of working with it, it will also change records with no warning.

    Other common Google services may or may not work, and some can only be got at via the browser.

    Android apps? I guess you no longer need to side load them, but there's no way of knowing which of them will work properly - especially those that rely on Google integration.

    This matters because the pool of BlackBerry native apps is tiny, very tiny, and most of them are at least one or two generations behind the Android versions.

    If you're a Linux user be warned: BlackBerry offers you nothing. If you don't run a PC or Apple box you're out of luck.

    On my system I could access only the SD card via USB, and only the internal storage via wifi - via a strange and convoluted trick not for the fainthearted. I won't speculate about the logic behind that.

    Because I run Linux there was no possible way to back up the device.

    I found that many of the frequently changed settings (like turning on USB file access every single time you plugged in.) were buried many steps down odd and unintuitive menus.

    And BlackBerry has what has to be the least understandable icon set yet imagined.

    At this point what I really what is to see somone rip out all of BlackBerry's text handling tools and graft them onto Android.

    I'd pay real money for that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Tempting but...

      10.3 supports Android KitKat. And just about any Android app that doesn't require Google services should work fine. (For obvious reasons Google services don't work - though oddly enough Google Navigator works fine).

      Many can be downloaded from Amazon or 1Mobile or similar app stores.

      Or if you have an old Android device you can just copy them over via Dropbox or similar.

      I have the Passport. Absolutely amazing phone. A few minor annoyances (like Google services) but a small price to pay. And the new voice assistant is pretty phenomenal. Somehow or other it understands my North Atlantic accent with incredible accuracy.

  12. Jim84

    Square the circle

    Will Blackberry ever be able to square the circle and produce a phone with a decent slide out keyboard, avoiding any compromise on screen size?

    1. Tommy Pock

      Re: Square the circle

      How about a normal hardware keyboard-ed phone, with a slide-out screen for when you want to watch pr0n?

    2. Philip Lewis

      Re: Square the circle

      Slide keyboards are a mechanical weak spot, an accident waiting to happen. I've had 2 from different tier-1 manufacturers and both succumbed - the keyboard was the problem. YMMV

      My past history included many years where almost everything I did was recorded on my PSION 5mx. I have a personal preference for keyboards still, but my experience in the past was not good, and pretty much everything after the PSION was second rate for serious use. I only scrapped it when the screen became too weak to read - RIP to the best PDA I ever tried or owned.

  13. IHateWearingATie

    The only camera test that matters for this phone...

    ... will be can it take a decent detailed snap of a fair sized whiteboard with much squiqqling on it in a single picture.

    Important for the vast majority of users of this I suspect. My old Blackberry Bold sucked at taking pictures of my squiggles on whiteboards.

  14. Bronek Kozicki

    I have one

    Pre-ordered directly from Blackberry by end of November, delivered just on time for Christmas. It's a very nice device, good upgrade from my battered 9900. Battery very good, if one bothers to:

    - configure location services off when in bedside mode (by default they are always on, which is silly)

    - switch bedside mode when going to, well, bed.

    I had over 30% battery left by the end of second day - I suppose it would also last 3rd. Also it works well with plain Exchange server without the need for extra Blackberry server software. I bought an Exchange account from an ISP and it feels like using a company's blackberry - except that I own the services here :)

    Apart from that, I side-loaded Snap right on the first day and am using few of my favourite Android apps which I bought/downloaded earlier for a tablet and which are not currently available on Amazon AppStore. They work well - nicest thing is using all these apps (native and Android ones) with the same keyboard I got used to with 9900 :)

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    BBM Meetings

    Pretty sure you don't need a BES to use BBM Meetings.

  16. iDavid

    Tempting, but...

    Useful review. Concerned at the size/heft, also holes in Exchange support. No Tasks/Notes sync? Still itching for that clicky keyboard, but call me an iSheep for now.

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