Blackberry Style Review

BlackBerry Style Overview

There has always been a cozy little nook in our hearts for BlackBerry phones, thanks to their unconventional way of approaching wireless communication. In the past, RIM has struggled with buggy software architecture, poor cameras, and exceedingly sluggish and inept Internet browsers. But, we could always rely on BlackBerry phones when it came to call quality, battery life, messaging, and Brick Breaker. What if we told you that RIM threw most of the interface-plaguing bugs into quarantine with BlackBerry 6 OS and equipped their higher-end phones with much better cameras?




Say hello to the BlackBerry Style, Sprint's first BlackBerry 6 phone. The BlackBerry Style not only rocks the revamped BlackBerry 6 OS and a 5-megapixel camera with flash, but the phone features a clamshell design with full QWERTY keyboard and external display for quick notification browsing. But the best part about the BlackBerry Style is that it's the quickest BlackBerry phone we've had the pleasure of testing to date. So if you belong to the BlackBerry fanclub, you'll want to take heed to this review. The BlackBerry Style is one of the reasons to surpass the Android and iLife Lands.

BlackBerry Style Design

The BlackBerry Style is a fat little clamshell of a phone, but it's still ergonomically welcoming. Edges are rounded, construction is solid, and the phone flips up conveniently to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The keys are a bit on the microscopic side and would be best suited for elves, but after a few practice sessions, we were able to adapt to the miniature interface. The BlackBerry Style retains the old-school Call and End/Power buttons, as long as the Menu and Back buttons, and you can bet your boots the Style flaunts the trademarked embedded flashing LED notification light above the external LCD.

Now the BlackBerry Style has two LCDs—the external LCD is QVGA (240x320 pixels) while the internal LCD screen is HVGA (360x400 pixels). We will say that while these screens are not the largest or most defined displays on the market, they are highly practical. The external screen displays notifications that can be scrolled through via the volume controls, and it displays the date, time, network statuses, battery life, and network signal strength. Most simple actions can be achieved without even opening up the phone.

The BlackBerry Style also has a Camera button that can be assigned as a shortcut button, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a naked USB port. The good news is that the 32GB capacity MicroSD card slot can be accessed without even having to take the back of the phone off, and the phone comes equipped with an 8GB card out of the box. For a steering wheel, the BlackBerry Style utilizes an optical track pad button, which we just saw on the T-Mobile G2. We will say that the Style's optical track button was more responsive than the BlackBerry Curve 3G's, though we still longed for the optical track ball. One nifty thing about the BlackBerry Style is that it has fantastically loud speakers, so it was like carrying around a little boombox when we played Grandmaster Flash or Queen.

BlackBerry Style Software and Interface

Cue the drumroll and strike up the fanfare—it's time for BlackBerry 6! If you've ever used a BlackBerry before, you know that they are prone to browsing lag and utilize rather antiquated menu systems. We can safely say that our navigation experience throughout the BlackBerry Style was just as quick as decent high-end Android phones. On the home screen, there's even an Android-like popup menu that encompasses All (applications), Favorites, Media, Download, and Frequent. So we had the ability to select applications based on those particular columns.

Up top, we could click on our Connections menu, which governed Mobile Network, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Alarm settings. Our home screen contained a notification bar that streamed our text messages, facebook and twitter updates, and call activity. There's also a universal search and call profile settings embedded in that same task bar. We will say that although the optical track pad rifles through options, sometimes it's a bit overzealous and tends to fly over an intended selection, so you'll have to throttle back its sensitivity or grow accustomed to its hyper behavior. This was particularly frustrating when we attempted to take a picture, as one minute thumb movement, and we'd shift over to Flash settings or GPS, forcing us to lose the shot.

But let's get back to the organizational evolution that has unfolded on the BlackBerry Style. Our Options menu has been drastically cleaned up and proves itself more intuitive. Setting up a Wi-Fi connection was a snap compared to old BlackBerry practices, and it was much easier to stay in the social loop with the BlackBerry Style's Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter applications, which are major improvements over the old BlackBerry versions. Messaging was great too, utilizing side-scroll menus to attach a picture, video, location, audio file, contact, voice note, or appointment. We could text with multiple contacts, and speaking of contacts—the amount of contact information we could assign to a contact was highly impressive.

Now unfortunately, our Internet browsing wasn't a major upgrade. We found browsing to be slower than any Android phone or the iPhone by a long shot, and YouTube videos never appeared when they should have. On the bright side, YouTube rocked, giving us full search capability and great quality videos. Music was excellent, for the BlackBerry Style allowed us to transfer our MP3s and it sourced album art for a good portion of the artists—not all. We got BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry Maps, BlackBerry App World, Enterprise email, and the Sprint usuals. The BlackBerry Style also came with a Podcast application that gave us access to numerous free podcasts.

BlackBerry 6 might not be the OS to end all OS platforms, but it's one hell of a step in the right direction for BlackBerry, and it renews our love for RIM's unconventional fleet of phones.

BlackBerry Style Call Quality/Battery Life

As was expected, the BlackBerry Style was a great performer in the call quality arena, giving us crystal clear audio with minimal to no background noise. BlackBerrys are at the top of the totem pole in this department, so it was no surprise to us that the BlackBerry Style sounded great in nearly any environment. Battery life was also very good, lasting throughout the entire day and into the next after a full testing. Rest assured, we can always count on BlackBerry when it comes to voice quality and battery life.

BlackBerry Style Image/Video Quality

Although the BlackBerry Style is not capable of recording 720p HD video, the phone surprised us in the digital imaging department. Since the BlackBerry Style has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, we tested it side-by-side with the T-Mobile G2. What we found was that the BlackBerry Style exhibited crisper detail in bright light, and showed more sensitivity in low light. For instance, our "Low Light Gang" without the flash image still has recognizable characters, yet the T-Mobile G2 was incapable of exposing anything but dark pixels.

For the first time, we have a BlackBerry that rivals the best smartphones on the market when it comes to snapping. And the standard-definition VGA video looked better than the T-Mobile G2's 720p video. Wowzers! Go BlackBerry! One of the best parts was the BlackBerry Style's revamped camera interface, equipped with Auto Focus, various scene modes, the ability to use the flash as a video light, and GPS geotagging. There was even a slideshow feature. Though as we stated earlier, the optical track pad makes it difficult to shoot without inadvertently selecting another option. Other than that, the BlackBerry Style was a great phone to shoot with.

BlackBerry Style Final Answer

It's fast, well organized, packed with useful applications and features, specializes in premiere voice quality and ace battery life, flaunts one of the best cameras on the market, and folds down to fit in your Levis snugly. The BlackBerry Style was much more than we bargained for, and we're exceedingly excited about the phone's recent upgrades. BlackBerry 6 is a relief after years of buggy software architecture, and the BlackBerry Style appeals to the burgeoning eruption of social and media content.

We didn't like the browsing experience—that could use some major tweaking, and the optical track pad was a hindrance at times, but overall, the BlackBerry Style is a winner. Coming from the recently-reviewed BlackBerry Curve 3G, the BlackBerry Style was a totally different phone, and one we would actually consider. If you're a Sprint customer and BlackBerry fan, the BlackBerry Style should not be overlooked at any cost.

Price and Availability

The BlackBerry Style for Sprint is available now for $100 with a new two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate.