BlackBerry recently confirmed its intention is to enter into the mid-range smartphone segment with an array of announcements, but the most exciting one is the official launch of an actual product.
The Canadian manufacturer has come out with BlackBerry DTEK50. Even though the phone is just a rebranded version of the alcatel Idol 4, it promises to deliver on almost all fronts. The alcatel Idol 4 came out at the start of 2016. Apart from rebranding, there are also several new features added to the device. First and foremost is the addition of the BlackBerry Hub, which comes pre-installed.
BlackBerry keyboard is also available on the device, which also offers enhanced security features through a software called DTEK. The software provides an overall rating of the security status, thus enabling the user to either improve or downgrade the security level. DTEK also keeps tab on the several applications in the device and informs the user if an unauthorized person is taking pictures or videos using the phone.
Software enhancements are the major element on the BlackBerry version of this phone. The Canadian manufacturer brings aspects like instant actions, pop-up widgets, BlackBerry device search, and BlackBerry convenience key to the phone. This is in addition to the standard set of features like a 5.2-inch screen with full HD resolution. There is a 13-megapixel camera in the rear with features like phase detection autofocus. It is complemented by an eight-megapixel camera in the front.
Performance figures may be extremely decent due to the availability of 3 GB of RAM. However, the sole aspect that clearly demonstrates that the BlackBerry DTEK50 is not a top of the range handset is the presence of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 617 SoC. This is a middle of the range processor and it cannot compete with the likes of the snapdragon 820 even though there is substantial amount of RAM available on the device. The availability of just 16 GB of on-board storage is also a major disappointment, but BlackBerry DTEK50 is equipped with the ability to expand the memory using memory cards.
Since the phone has a 5.2-inch screen, users would have been expecting a slightly larger battery but the BlackBerry DTEK50 only has a 2610 mAh battery. The phone is priced at just under $300 and it is already available for preorder – four major European countries, the United States, and Canada – through BlackBerry’s official site.