BlackBerry Priv reviews are coming in

The BlackBerry Priv has been released, and the first reviews have been coming in over the weekend. It’s a bit of a mixed bag – people like the hardware and the keyboard, but the software seems to have bugs and issues. Some reviews, like the one from AndroidCentral, are radiant:

This is absolutely one of the best phones to be released this year, and while BlackBerry still has to demonstrate it can keep its promises when it comes to software updates this is already an exceptional experience. It’s only going to get better from here.

The review from Dieter Bohn at The Verge – certified keyboard enthusiast and Palm fan and thus an awesome person you can trust because anyone who sings the praises of Palm is a great person, as well all undoubtedly know – is, overall, positive, but the software issues he experienced did mar the experience considerably.

In truth, I wanted to tell him to do it. But I couldn’t. There are enough software bugs and slowdowns that I had to tell him to hold off and see if BlackBerry could finish the job it started here. Take those good ideas and buff off their rough edges, make the software just a little more stable. Because as a first effort at an Android phone, the Priv is remarkable, and I couldn’t wait to see what a second push would do for it (assuming, of course, that BlackBerry gets the chance).

I agree with Bohn that such software issues on a flagship device that’s supposed to save a company’s handset business are dealbreaker – this machine costs a hefty €699, and for that, you deserve a phone without such issues.

That being said, I’m still excited for the phone, if only because it will surely be picked up by the Android ROM community soon enough. This one is definitely on my list to eventually replace my Nexus 5.

11 Comments

  1. 2015-11-09 8:38 pm
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