First Impressions – BlackBerry Motion Smart Phone

A box arrived from BlackBerry Canada yesterday, and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of the contents. I knew the BlackBerry Motion and the BlackBerry KEYone were launched in 2017, and that BlackBerry was planning on sending me one for review. Outside of that, however, I didn’t know what to expect. My last foray into the BlackBerry world was with the BlackBerry Classic, which I used almost exclusively for business purposes. At that time, I was rocking two cellphones: one for work, one for my personal use. The system worked, but handling two phones at once was always an issue. When I opened up the BlackBerry Motion and began the setup process, I had high hopes that this could be the device that combines but my work life and personal life, into one device.

My early impressions – about 12 hours of use – are really great, from the screen display, to the long lasting battery life, to the ability to play the most graphically demanding games. For the price of around $600 unlocked, there is a lot of really great features packed into this phone. For those working in fast paced work environments, the BlackBerry brand has always provided outstanding multitasking services, the BlackBerry Hub, and of course, the top of the line security. While they might not be the sexiest phones on the market – or at least, not until this year – it was, and for many it still is, the business phone of choice. With the Motion – which runs the Android operating system – these two worlds collide in one fantastic piece of equipment.

We are a gaming website first, and a tech website second, so obviously my first trip upon loading it up was to the Google Play store to see what games I could download. $30 dollars later, I had some of the most graphically demanding titles currently available on Android devices; as I had seen in many reviews of the BlackBerry Motion, I fired up Asphalt 8: Airborne, the most technically and graphically demanding game available on the Google Play store. I was floored. The BlackBerry Motion handled the game almost flawlessly. Sure, there were a few hiccups when moving between loading screens, but the graphical output was rivaling most, more expensive, smart phones currently available.

Netflix and YouTube really showed off the quality of the screen that BlackBerry put into this device. With the capability to display at 1080p, I could not notice a difference between this device, and other more expensive cellphones I’ve looked at over the past year. Pictures also look great on the device, however using the camera itself in low light is not ideal as it seems be definitely lacking in this department.

Of course, a BlackBerry phone wouldn’t have the stamp of the company without the fantastic BlackBerry Hub, which is integrated well into the Android operating system and is one of the best features of any cell phone company. Using the hub to quickly take stock of all your social media and email channels is fantastic, allowing me to quickly see what’s coming in, what needs to be dealt with, and what I can deal with later. It’s a fantastic tool to manage multitasking, and it makes sure you never miss anything that you might have coming up in your personal or work calendar.

Early on, the BlackBerry Motion is impressing me more than I ever thought it would. Teaming up with Google to put Android on the phones was a brilliant move, but I’m glad the company retained the better features of the BlackBerry interface, namely the high standard of security and the BlackBerry Hub. Coming at roughly half the cost of some of its competitors, I honestly believe you get more bang for your buck out of this phone than you would with the latest from other companies. Sure, the camera could be better and the processor a bit faster when loading apps, but at half the cost, it is something you can shrug off.

We will have more soon on the BlackBerry Motion, so stay tuned! Follow my journey with the phone over on Twitter!