Some didn’t run fully due to a strange
network-related error. It looks like the DTEK50 blocks connections to
some sites, including those of AnTuTu and Geekbench, at the OS level.
Looking past numbers and benchmarks, what we have
here is a smartphone that runs well and without snags most of the time,
especially if you’re not into mobile gaming. The Hub is miles away from
the lag fest that it was on the PRIV when it initially launched, which
is great, considering it’s one of the selling points of the device.
The DTEK50 rarely gets warm (when installing Android
OS updates or patches, for example) and I didn’t notice instances of
overheating. It’s not a gaming machine, which is understandable given
the specs and price range.
The near-stock Android used is a great help, things
would have certainly been different (read: worse) with a “skin” like
many OEMs love to use these days. BlackBerry has done a good job
implementing Marshmallow on their Android-based devices (on the PRIV it
runs visibly better than Lollipop) so let’s hope the same happens when
they move to Android M.
Software (OS & BB Apps)
BlackBerry’s Android flavor is still very close to
the stock experience in terms of customization, a far cry from the deep
customization other Android vendors love to do much to the dismay of
their customers. Still, the security features and extras we’ve first
seen on the PRIV are here as well, including the Hub which is better
than ever… on Android that is. It’s still (and probably will ever be)
inferior to the original, BBOS 10 version.
Apart from the Hub, BlackBerry’s productivity suite
includes: Contacts, Tasks, Notes, Calendar and Device Search, plus the
BBM messaging app and a handy data transfer application that supports
both Android and OS10-powered BlackBerry devices.
I’ve described them all in detail in BlackBerry PRIV review
but it must be mentioned that the Hub is still the best mobile email
client out there, despite all the competition, especially after the
latest updates which added more app integrations and the missing pinch
gesture support. It’s fast, never misses emails, doesn’t lag and does
wonders for productivity on the go.
There’s still no gallery app, so you’ll have to rely on the pre-installed Photos from Google, or find a third-party one that doesn’t suck.
As a side note, most of BlackBerry’s apps are now
available for all Android phones, with a small catch: after 30 days you
can either subscribe for $0.99/month or agree to see advertisements
every now and then.
Before we move to the camera, a mildly interesting
fact: after adding a Google account to the phone I got the usual “New
Sign-in” email but instead of DTEK50, it mentioned Acer Iconia, which
isn’t even a phone (it’s a 6-year old tablet).
Camera
BlackBerry continues to work on its camera app and it shows: there are manual controls baked into it now, which might help squeezing the best shots possible from the DTEK50’s mediocre sensor.
I also took some comparison shots using the DTEK50
against the iPhone 6, Nexus 6P, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and BlackBery
PRIV and medium light and bright light.
There’s no optical image stabilization at all, which
BlackBerry tried to mitigate by using a software-based solution. It’s
better than nothing but keep in mind it gets disabled for 60fps videos
regardless of the resolution.
The 1.125um pixel size is all you need to know when
it comes to camera performance in low-light conditions: in short it’s
terrible, all the more so for videos. In bright light, however, results
are decent for this price range, but nowhere near anything you might
call a flagship device. Using a different camera app did not help
either.
There’s not much to be said about the front camera:
it’s got 8MP, it uses the notification LED as a flash (with varying
degrees of success) and it’s good enough for video calls with Google’s
new, shiny, and apparently very popular new app Duo.
Finally, it’s important to note that without a
memory card, the available built-in storage doesn’t allow for too many
videos, especially if you shoot 1080p@60fps.
The same warning applies to photos as well, because
despite a normal JPEG quality setting of 95% and JPEG subsampling of 2x2
(which favors reduced file size over image quality) the resulting files
are much larger in size than what other phones with similar
MP/resolution are able to produce.
Hit the gallery for camera samples (indoor, outdoor rainy, outdoor sunny).
Audio & call quality
In-call audio quality is very good, something we’ve
grown to expect from BlackBerries. After PRIV’s rather sneaky mono
speaker, we are again treated to a stereo setup that sounds great,
albeit not very loud, which was sort of a surprise given the four
individual speaker grilles.
The preinstalled Waves MaxxAudio app comes with
several equalizer presets for music plus a movie mode. It can be used in
simple mode (four knobs to tweak bass & treble levels, stereo
separation and “revive” – whatever that is) and advanced mode which
gives access to a traditional 10-band equalizer ranging from 32Hz to
16kHz.
There's an automatic mode as well, which picks the preset to use based on the audio being played at that moment.
Battery life & charging
The DTEK50 has a battery capacity of only 2610 mAh,
which is low and frankly unexpected given the market segment targeted by
the device. Matching PRIV’s 3410 mAh battery would have been advisable
because the device can barely last a day of moderate usage (20% or less
battery left in the evening) without a quick charge-up at the office.
Using the included charger with Quick Charge 2.0,
the DTEK50 charges from 0 to 50% in 50 minutes and to 100% in 2 hours
and a half. There is no indication of fast/normal charging however, and
as far as I can see, the red/yellow/green charging indicator doesn’t
display the ETA to full charge anymore. You can get an estimation in
Settings -> Battery, though.
The white-only notification LED also means you have
no way to quickly see the phone is fully charged, unless you allow the
charging indicator to be displayed at all times, which keeps the screen
dark but visibly on.
During charging, the lower part of the screen gets warm, but not the back side.
Security
Security is still front & center and DTEK, the
app the phone takes part of its name from, is preinstalled and ready to
give all sorts of advice regarding phone settings and permissions.
Its most useful feature is keeping tabs on what
permissions apps use (and when). You can review events by app or by
permission and there’s also the option to get notifications
automatically every time an app accesses something (configurable for
each app and permission). There are handy shortcuts to any given app’s
permissions and info pages from the app manager (settings) if you need
to make adjustments or even uninstall rogue apps.
A strange choice was removing the picture password
unlock method that was present on the PRIV. Granted, it was a bit
confusing for some users, but removing it altogether instead of fixing
it is not the way to go.
Other than that, you still get BlackBerry’s hardened
Android environment and the fastest security patch cycle among all
Android vendors.
With a better camera and CPU, the DTEK50 could have been a mid-range
best-buy. Instead, it’s going to mostly appeal to the business segment,
who favors security and productivity features. Regular users will look
past it and to alternatives that offer improved everyday features for
the same price.
I wouldn’t label the DTEK50 as a failure though, quite the contrary, it
looks like the beginning of a new, clearer and more focused strategy to
provide cost-effective DTEK-series devices for businesses.
It remains to be seen what will happen to the enthusiast segment,
because BlackBerry fans still long for a high-end device worthy of the
flagship title (in short, everything the PRIV was supposed to be).
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