BlackBerry DTEK50 Review
Design
The DTEK50 from BlackBerry features an all-touch design with an on-screen BlackBerry keyboard and 5.2″ scratch resistant display. Sporting all-black with a grippy, textured back, the DTEK50 may be easy to hold but it certainly doesn’t stand out against more premium looking smartphones such as the Apple iPhone. However for BlackBerry fans, the DTEK50 does offer a much slimmer and lighter option from the recent Priv. In fact, the DTEK50 is BlackBerry’s thinnest smartphone to date, at just 7.4mm thick. Further design features include a MicroSD card slot that can expand the 16GB memory to a whopping 256GB, and the ‘Convenience Key’ that with the press of a button, allows you to gain quick access to your most-used applications, tasks, and more.
The DTEK50’s smart keyboard learns how you type and uses that information to increase your typing speed and accuracy. Through the BlackBerry Intelligent Keyboard software, it provides word suggestions in up to three languages of your choice and lets you flick them into place for faster conversations. While typing, you can also swipe horizontally from left to right to delete a previous word, and swipe vertically from top to bottom to toggle between letters, numbers, and characters.
Key Features
With security keys baked into the processor during manufacturing and full-disk encryption that’s enabled by default, the DTEK50 is an ideal business phone thanks to BlackBerry’s legendary security know-how. In fact, BlackBerry has taken a number of measures such as OS hardening to protect against rooting and to make it more difficult for attackers to target you, and with the featured DTEK app, you’ll be able to take a look into how secure your device is and how you can lock it up even further. The app monitors your OS and apps and informs you when your security could be at risk, as well as tips for improvement.
For a quick look, you can view the overall security rating of your device on a scale of excellent, fair or poor. Your applications will be tracked and you’ll be notified when an app’s doing something on your device without your knowledge, such as taking pictures or videos, turning your microphone on, sending a text message or accessing your contacts or location. You’ll also be given the option to manage your apps’ permissions from inside it, made possible by Android Marshmallow. Excluding the security touch-ups, Android Marshmallow remains relevantly un-tweaked and BlackBerry’s security software doesn’t affect the OS performance, remaining as fast as the new Moto G4. But better yet,
“BlackBerry has a record of being the quickest to deliver security patches. Other smartphone makers can take weeks, months, or even years to push out Android updates, during which time you’re vulnerable to already patched OS-related security threats.”
ensuring BlackBerry will stay committed to the security of your device, long after purchase. You’ll also be able to take advantage of BlackBerry’s hub, pulling together all your messaging and social media accounts such as Emails, Texts, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, into one convenient spot. Further hub features include: Custom Account Colors: Define account colors within the Hub settings to easily identify which account you’re sending from; Calendar Peek: Pull down within the Hub for a quick view of up to four of your upcoming calendar events, or jump straight to the calendar app and Swipe Actions: Quickly take action on messages within Hub by swiping left or right. You can also add custom gesture controls for actions including delete, snooze, flag/clear flag, file, mute, and mark read/unread.
More from the DTEK50:
- Pop-Up Widgets: View any app widget by swiping up or down across the icon on your home screen and get fast, private access to information you need, when you need it.
- BlackBerry Device Search: Quickly seek out files, apps, help, and more. You can also type an Instant Actions command in the search field to execute it.
- Instant Actions: Perform tasks quickly and efficiently, such as making a phone call, sending an email, sending a text message, playing music, or getting directions.
- Gesture Controls: With a swipe gesture, access up to three shortcuts from anywhere on your device – swipe to open an app, speed-dial a number, send a message, and more.
Specs
- 5.2″ Touchscreen
- Android 6.0 Marshmallow – view features here
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 chipset
- 13MP rear camera, 8MP front camera
- 16GB memory expandable up to 256GB via MicroSD card slot
- 3GB ram
- 2610 mAh battery
- NFC for Android Pay
- FM Radio
Overview
With a combination of BlackBerry’s renowned security, privacy and productivity features and Marshmallow giving you access to over a million Google Play apps and widgets, Google Now, and the ability to easily manage and stream from a wide range of smart devices – the DTEK50 is an ideal business phone. For more details on the DTEK50 or information on SIM free and pay monthly prices, please get in touch with your account manager via Email: sales@cmmtelecoms.co.uk or Phone: 01252 854352 – we are always more than happy to help.