Here, right in this space, there was supposed to be a phone review of the BlackBerry DTEK50, but with whatever remaining respect is possible for the company, I’ve decided it’s just not worth the time. And, y’know, it’s my site, so…
Before all three remaining BlackBerry fans, and John Chen, lose their shit, I will state this: it’s not a bad phone. That’s pretty much irrelevant at this point though, because no-one is going to buy it. And even if they do, there won’t be any more from BlackBerry itself.
So how, in good conscience, could I recommend you buy a phone from a company that’s no longer making phones? Exactly. BlackBerry is going to focus on software instead – and let’s hope that’s not a plan based entirely on licensing BlackBerry 10, because if BlackBerry can’t make it work, not many other manufacturers are going to bother trying.
So, on the off-chance you are still considering buying the DTEK 50 – and I’d have to question why exactly – I’ll just tell you this again: it’s not a bad phone. It won’t blow you away, but it’s light, capable(ish) and comes with the few BlackBerry tweaks that do actually make some sense, like its integrated Hub for all your messaging.
The camera isn’t anything special by any means, but the display is a crisp, bright 5.2-inch 1080p panel. It really is one of the highlights of an otherwise pretty middling handset. Unfortunately, with such dazzling feature (singular) to praise, the less-than-desirable battery life and frequent ‘wtf is taking so long’ moments probably won’t fill you with joy overall.
It’s certainly not expensive, at around £270, but honestly, why bother? There are plenty of alternatives you could go for from big name brands, and higher spec alternatives from companies like OnePlus at similar price points.
It’s sad to say it, but if there didn’t seem to be a lot of point reviewing the phone, there probably isn’t a lot of point buying it either. One last time though: it’s not a bad phone.
RIP, BlackBerry.
