Meet the BlackBerry Motion

You all know about BlackBerry’s disastrous foray with smartphones, so I will not bore you with the details. The past aside, BlackBerry as a mobile brand, now leased out to TCL, is making good gains with the new BlackBerry Motion. PHOTO| COURTESY| BLACKBERRY

What you need to know:

  • The all touch phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 with an Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and 32GB worth of storage that is expandable by 256GB via microSD card.
  • Well, it may, but in the bigger scheme of things. Here is what matters. It is a rock solid phone. The build quality remains a key attribute, as does its 4,000mAh battery that should keep it rolling for hours.
  • It is an LTE phone, with a single SIM, as traditionally has been, except for less than a handful of others, and has a Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor under its noticeable “chin”.

You all know about BlackBerry’s disastrous foray with smartphones, so I will not bore you with the details. The past aside, BlackBerry as a mobile brand, now leased out to TCL, is making good gains with the new BlackBerry Motion.

The all touch phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 with an Octa-core 2.0 GHz Cortex-A53 processor backed by 4GB of RAM and 32GB worth of storage that is expandable by 256GB via microSD card. It has an Adreno 506 GPU that outputs to a 5.5 inch full HD display. The rear camera comes with a 12MP sensor supported by dual tone LED flash as well as an 8MP front-facing one that delivers quality selfies.

To be realistic, this isn’t the most powerful of phones ever made, if you were to consider all that, and its pricing, at around Sh48, 000, it does seem a bit dear for what seems to be a mid-range phone, but it isn’t.

Sure, they could have done better and added “AC” WiFi to the 802.11b/g/n mix, or they could have gone to Bluetooth 5.0 instead of the current 4.2, and even tried getting better than Android 7.1 Nougat as stock default, but in reality, all that doesn’t matter.

Well, it may, but in the bigger scheme of things. Here is what matters. It is a rock solid phone. The build quality remains a key attribute, as does its 4,000mAh battery that should keep it rolling for hours. It is IP67 certified, meaning it will survive in 1 meter of water for about 30 minutes.

It is an LTE phone, with a single SIM, as traditionally has been, except for less than a handful of others, and has a Type-C 1.0 reversible connector, and a front-mounted fingerprint sensor under its noticeable “chin”.

Worth buying? Everyone was happy with the KEYone, and this, effectively, is a keyboard-less KEYone so yes, its stable-mate’s reputation has that going for it.

It does feel overpriced though.