A few months ago, Blackberry announced a new phone during the GITEX technology week in Dubai. An all screen phone named as ‘Motion’, this new Blackberry is an android device that’s leaving behind company’s signature keyboard that’s prevalent in almost all Blackberry phones. It’s the third Blackberry phone to ditch the keyboard after the release of DTEK50 and DTEK60 in 2016.
The phone was released on the last day of October and it’s interesting but not totally satisfying (more on that later). It’s the first Blackberry phone that’s water and dust resistance, a feature made common by many major smartphone companies so that’s a step in the right direction if you want to compete with the rest. The phone specs are decent as well.
The Blackberry Motion features a 5.5-inch LED display and a Snapdragon 625 chipset. Although new phones are coming out with the latest Snapdragon processor (645) now, for a phone that was released in 2017 it’s still pretty good, especially given the fact the Snapdragon 625 processor is not a bad one at all; it still ranks as one of the best.
One of the biggest positives about this phone is its large battery (4000 mAh). To put that into perspective, the iPhone 8 has a 2675 mAh battery. Battery life is a key selling point for every phone, so it seems wise to include a large battery as there are very less phones whose full charge lasts for an entire day.
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The handset will be manufactured by Chinese company TCL communication. However, the “disappointing” aspect about the phone is that although the specifications are decent, it’s availability is limited. A phone won’t sell much nor gain much popularity if only a limited number of people are going to have access to it. So far it seems to have only headed to Canada where it’ll likely be found at stores like Telus, Bell and SaskTel and at online stores like Koodo. It’ll likely cost $600 CAD.
Blackberry’s been lost in the shuffle for a long time ever since smartphones started to dominate the market. For a company trying to get back in the game, the phone is a step in the right direction however it needs to be available worldwide to become a success. Only supplying it to one country is a recipe for disaster.
For the company to regain customers and become a solid competitor in the smartphone market, it needs to spread the decent phones it makes (like this one) to the wider market else nothing will change.
However, there are rumors of availability in other areas like the U.S later down the line with the rumored price to be around $460. You can also tell that Blackberry is about to make serious changes as it’s officially discontinued its signature Blackberry phones (the classic). Later, Blackberry also declared that it would internally cease developing its own handsets and focus more on software development.
The rise of Apple’s iPhone completely wiped out Blackberry from the market however the company made profits through other ways such as mobile security. These profits, if put to good use (such as the Motion) can bring Blackberry back into the fold thus creating more competition for all firms. More competition will only give incentive to other companies to create even better phones so it’s a win-win for all of us as customers.
The full specs of the Blackberry Motion are:
- 5-inch LED display with 1920x1080p resolution.
- Water and dust resistant.
- Anti-scratch display.
- Fingerprint sensor and home button.
- Android 7.1 Nougat.
- 12MP rear camera and 8MP front.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 2.0 GHZ Octa-core processor.
- 4 GB RAM, 32GB internal storage.
- Programmable convenience key.
- Up to 2 TB extended storage.
- Fast charging technology.
- USB-C charger.
- 4000 mAh battery.
