BlackBerry Classic, a nostalgic phone that bids farewell to an era

10 months ago, when BlackBerry released Passport, another model with the classic keyboard, Classic, was also released. Until today, this phone, which has whetted the appetite of BlackBerry fans with the banner of "classic", was officially released.

"In my first 90 days at BlackBerry, I've heard from passionate BlackBerry fans that the keys and touchpad are an important part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience, which makes their BlackBerry phones a productivity tool. I want these consumers to know that we listened to them and this new phone is built for them." BlackBerry CEO John Chen explained the origin of Classic at the press conference.

Blackberry Classic is like the successor of Bold 9900. It not only returns to the previously popular Bold and Curve design styles, but also the classic QWERTY and navigation keys. It is equipped with a 3.5-inch 720×720 resolution touch screen, an 8-megapixel rear camera, and a 2-megapixel front camera. The device runs the Blackberry 10.3.1 operating system. It has a built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB body storage, and a battery capacity of 2515mAh. It is priced at $499.

The volume button and mute switch are on the right side of the Classic, and the nanoSIM card slot and microSD card slot are on the left side. You need to use the provided tool to open the card slot tray. The power/unlock button is on the top of the body, the 3.5mm audio interface is on the left, and the microUSB interface is on the bottom. Similar to the iPhone 4, although there are two symmetrical speaker structures on the bottom of the body, there is actually only one speaker.

After opening the Classic's packaging, Crackberry's editor said that the first thing he did was bring him back to the days of using the Bold 9900. "It feels solid and reliable."

Compared to the Passport with a resolution of 1440×1440, the Classic still looks a bit old. But compared to the Q10, the Classic has a slightly larger screen. Crackberry editors believe that if users transition from Q10 to Classic, there will be no problem. Although its PPI is not high enough, the display area has been improved.

The full keyboard design is undoubtedly the soul of the Classic. The Classic inherits the classic BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard layout, including two left and right shift keys, an ALT key and a symbol key. However, the difference is that the Classic keyboard does not use the traditional arc structure, but is straight. In addition, the keys of the Classic are slightly larger than those of the Bold and Curve machines.

Just like the classic Blod and Curve, Classic supports the same shortcut keys, such as pressing B to open the browser, pressing C to compose a text message, pressing R to reply directly to an email, pressing L to reply all, etc. This is thanks to the new version of BlackBerry OS, which has gradually improved the keyboard support from the original basis.

BlackBerry's traditional navigation keys are back, and when using the optical trackpad, visual cues on the screen can tell you which area of ​​the screen you are focusing on. In browser applications, for example, you can also use pointer mode to help you quickly locate and select text. When writing text, the trackpad can also help users move the cursor precisely.

BlackBerry has put a lot of effort into perfecting the touchpad's performance on BlackBerry 10, but when it comes to compatible Android apps, support is less than perfect.

Like Passport, Classic has Amazon Appstore built in. Crackberry editors mentioned that running Android apps on Classic still encounters some problems, especially those from non-Amazon Appstore apps, but the situation has improved compared to before.

Photography has never been BlackBerry's focus, and the Classic is no exception. The image quality cannot match that of most 800-pixel smartphones, but if compared with its own Bold 9900, it still has a chance of winning.

It is worth mentioning that Classic has built-in BlackBerry's classic game brick breaker.

In general, as CEO Chen Shouzong himself defined it, Classic is a product designed for those die-hard fans who still stick to the BlackBerry camp and business people who focus on productivity. It was born in the mobile Internet era when BlackBerry was declining, heralding the end of an era, but it also blends the old and the new, integrating the latest BlackBerry 10 system while maintaining the traditional product form and interactive form. Perhaps as the name suggests, as an epoch-making classic machine, the value and significance of BlackBerry Classic is destined not to be measured by the commercial and technical dimensions of the mass market.