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BLACKBERRY DTEK50
A Well-designed phone with added security features — Ashok Pandey
B
lackBerry has stopped shipping its devices with BB OS and their two new devices DTEK 50 and 60, launched recently, are being manufactured by TCL. However, the Blackberry quality is still maintained. We received BalackBerry DTEK 50 review unit, which looks decent but does this Android have the BB benefits like security? Let’s find out… Lightweight phone: As like previous BB devices you won’t find any physical keyboard in this 5.2-inch device. The phone is surprisingly thin, only 7.4mm and light, just 135 grams. The plastic build phone has a black aluminum band with shiny silver edges. The dimension of the phone is quite balanced enabling you to hold the device even with one hand. On the right side panel, there are volume rocker and one dedicated programmable button to launch any app you want. This can be customised as per your choice. It holds a 5.2-inch, 1920x1080p IPS screen which produces good colours. It has good level of brightness allowing you to use the phone even in direct sunlight. The BB effect: We can expect higher security from Blackberry and other functions in the phone and the company did just that. It’s an android phone and the UI is pretty clean offering similar experience, yet BB has done several tweaks to it. There is a productivity tab that can be seen at the edges. Slide out and you will get calendar, etc. BlackBerry Hub is also there, enabling the user to add multiple email accounts, slack messages and social media updates. About the security of the device, BB uses storage encryption which can be found in smartphones running Android 6.0 or above. As it’s named after DTEK, an app that informs the user about other apps’ access permission for instance camera, GPS, mic and other. But Android 6.0 or above running device also force for the same permission. Thus, we can say it’s a secure phone but nothing out of the world. However, as like Google’s Nexus and the newly introduced Pixel, which get patched the quickest, the DTEK is also one of the device which will bring them quicker than other devices. Can handle various apps: The phone has the capability to handle different apps and games easily. Though we found that it’s slightly slow in opening apps. But while running them we didn’t encounter any lag in the performance. We played games like Asphalt 8 and Fifa. It was able to handle both games; even while switching between these two there was no visible lag. Decent camera: You can click decent quality images with the rear camera in both day and low light conditions. Though in low light it can produce a bit noise, still it’s acceptable. The front is also good in terms of selfie and groufie images. The UI of the camera is also simple and clean. 56
PCQUEST
JANUARY 2017
Price: `21,990/-
SCORE PRICE: 7/10 PERFORMANCE: 8/10 FEATURES: 9/10
Overall:
8/10
Key SpecS: 5.2-inch full HD display, octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 3GB RAM, 16 GB ROM (expandable up to 2TB), 13MP rear camera, 8MP front camera, 2,610 mAh battery, Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS proS: Clean UI, build quality, decent performance and battery conS: Average camera
Day long battery backup: While using the device, it lasted for about 11 to 12 hours with moderate usage that includes playing games, taking calls, playing music and video and surfing the net. In our video loop test, we were able to watch almost two movies roughly about 5 hours 36 minutes over Wi-Fi, with full brightness and volume. It offers pretty decent battery life, allowing you to play with the device day long. Bottomline: In this price range, BlackBerry DTEK 50 is a decent and common device with some BB tweaks. If you prefer BlackBerry as a brand and looking for added security, then you can consider this. Else go for Asus Zenfone 3 Max or Lenovo Zuk Z2 Plus available at lower price.
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