The BlackBerry I never had

I lived by the period when BlackBerry telephones had been extremely common however to at the present time remorse that I by no means obtained to be part of the craze. They had been the factor to have and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) had change into a standing image of types amongst my friends. That’s the place the dialog was – in case you weren’t on BBM, you had been lacking out.

I needed a BlackBerry so badly, however when the time got here for me to select up my first smartphone, the craze had largely handed, partially as a result of Apple’s iMessage had began taking on the place of defacto messaging platform for the in-crowd, whereas BBM barely held on amongst those that had been caught with BlackBerry telephones. I opted to select up an Android cellphone as an alternative (the iPhone wasn’t a consideration, not that I might have afforded one anyway).

Due to this, I by no means had the core Canadian expertise of click-clacking away on a BlackBerry keyboard. To be clear, I’ve tried BlackBerry keyboards quite a few occasions, however messing round with one for a couple of minutes is a far cry from it being a key level of interplay along with your smartphone. I’ve all the time thought I’d take pleasure in utilizing one in every of these keyboards, however after spending time with the Unihertz Titan Slim, I now not consider that’s the case.

Unihertz supplied me a Titan Slim to check out and I jumped on the likelihood once I noticed the bodily keyboard. Nothing else actually mattered to me – not the digital camera, not the dearth of 5G (not that Canadian carriers have made 5G compelling in any approach), not the middling show. And searching again now, if having a bodily keyboard is basically essential to you, then the Titan Slim may simply be the cellphone for you.

Specs

The Titan Slim (left) is an absolute unit.

Tappity tapping on that board

It seems I actually don’t like bodily keyboards on smartphones. This isn’t a knock towards Unihertz or the Titan Slim, as a result of it’s not that the keyboard is unhealthy. As an alternative, I discovered it surprisingly onerous to adapt my muscle reminiscence to a keyboard that’s surprisingly totally different from what I’m used to.

A part of that’s the structure, little issues just like the spacebar sitting between the ‘V’ and ‘B’ keys, or having varied punctuation marks hidden behind verbose keyboard instructions. I missed the interval and comma keys proper subsequent to the spacebar. Greater than that, I’ve come to understand the assorted “clever” options obtainable in digital keyboards, like autocorrect and swipe typing. The Pixel collection’ wonderful Assistant Voice Typing has additionally turned me into a giant voice-to-text person.

The very first thing I seen with the Titan Slim is the distinct lack of those options. Autocorrect continues to be there, nevertheless it feels odd transitioning between the bodily keyboard and the display screen to utilize it, to not point out my penchant for fat-fingering the row of navigation keys between the keyboard and the suggestion bar. Talking of, digital keyboards have a level of predicting what you meant to sort even when your fingers miss the mark, which has given me a false sense of my very own accuracy when typing on my cellphone.

The Titan Slim made it abundantly clear that my thumbs don’t have any clue the place any secret is and my messages turned riddled with typos. This resulted in my slowing down to ensure I used to be getting the correct keys, cratering my typing velocity.

To be clear, I don’t suppose the keyboard is unhealthy. The Titan Slim simply doesn’t characteristic a number of of the comforts I’ve come to depend on, which made it troublesome for me to adapt. For anybody within the reverse boat, who wrestle with digital keyboards and doesn’t depend on these intelligence options, the dearth of them on the Titan Slim shouldn’t make a lot distinction.

Scroll assistant received my coronary heart, regardless of points

Whereas I’ll not have loved typing on a bodily keyboard, there have been some keyboard-related options I actually loved. ‘Scroll assistant’ was among the many finest of those even with obvious imperfections.

Scroll assistant turns the Titan Slim’s bodily keyboard into a big touchpad, enabling customers to scroll by apps by swiping on the keyboard quite than the display screen. Within the grand scheme of issues, scroll assistant isn’t a game-changer, nevertheless it’s good to have a solution to navigate with out blocking the display screen with a finger, particularly on a cellphone just like the Titan Slim that has a smaller show to make room for a keyboard.

The characteristic contains some considerate additions. The Titan Slim will mechanically flip off the scroll assistant when the battery falls beneath 5 p.c. Customers may also force-enable scroll assistant on a per-app foundation if it doesn’t work in some instances, one thing you’ll must do lots as a result of, no less than in my testing, it was a complete toss-up if scroll assistant would work. When it does work, it really works pretty nicely, though the scrolling has some quirks. For instance, whereas scrolling down is all the time clean, scrolling up feels janky, which I believe is expounded to the angle of the keys.

Furthermore, it’d be good if scroll assistant expanded to cowl some widespread navigation gestures. For instance, swiping left or proper on the keyboard might set off the again gesture, or switching between feeds in apps like Twitter. As is, swapping between swiping on the keyboard to swiping on the display screen to return (or urgent the again button) felt jarring.

Together with the scroll assistant, the Titan Slim contains a number of different options nestled away in a Settings menu labelled ‘Clever help.’ This features a community supervisor that lets customers block apps from accessing the web by Wi-Fi or knowledge, customizations for the LED notification gentle (welcome again, my beloved), configurable keyboard shortcuts, a QR code scanner, flip to mute and extra. There’s additionally a ‘Toolbox’ app loaded with little instruments like a compass, flashlight, bubble degree and even a plumb bob.

One other notable characteristic is the programmable ‘utility key.’ It’s a crimson key on the left facet of the machine, and customers can freely map a wide range of capabilities to it for lengthy, quick and double presses. I set it up as a solution to open my digital camera shortly or take a screenshot, however there are many different capabilities too.

These are all welcome additions, however none of those are must-haves for me. Others may disagree, however I’ve used smartphones for years with none of these issues and have been completely effective (although I do miss issues just like the notification gentle on fashionable smartphones).

All these options don’t save the Titan Slim from mediocrity

Regardless of jamming in all these options, it takes greater than useful options to make smartphone. As soon as once more, the Titan Slim’s standout characteristic is the bodily keyboard. If you happen to haven’t chosen to die on the bodily keyboard hill, this cellphone isn’t for you.

The Titan Slim’s efficiency isn’t nice. I didn’t anticipate groundbreaking efficiency, given the specs. After all, the cellphone continues to be loads usable, however commonplace cellphone duties like bouncing round apps, sending messages, looking the online and scrolling social media didn’t really feel as responsive as on different lower-spec telephones I’ve tried.

Though benchmarks aren’t the be-all and end-all with regards to measuring efficiency, they are often useful for comparisons. Unsurprisingly, the Titan Slim’s Helio P70 chip did not carry out in addition to different units in Geekbench 6, although it is value noting we had restricted funds units to match towards. The Pixel 6a is the closest by way of value, however advantages from having the identical chip as Google’s Pixel 6 and 6 Professional, arguably a ‘flagship’ CPU regardless of its personal underwhelming efficiency.

Once more, the Titan Slim was useable, however that is not a very excessive bar to cross. I will take gradual and dependable, however the Titan Slim did not meet that degree, both. I had some points with apps not fairly working as anticipated, together with Geekbench itself, which errored out and failed to finish the take a look at a number of occasions earlier than it will definitely labored.

Talking of issues not working, I had quite a few points with Wi-Fi on the Titan Slim. On my residence community, the Titan Slim would join for a couple of minutes after which act like there was no web connection, regardless of nonetheless being related to the Wi-Fi. I additionally tried connecting it to a hotspot from one other cellphone, however that didn’t work both. Information labored effective, nevertheless.

Maybe the most important disappointment for me was that the Titan Slim runs Android 11. Now, Android 11 isn’t that previous, however coming from a Pixel operating the newest model of Android coupled with different niceties like Materials You, the Titan Slim’s Android 11 feels positively historic.

I might forgive the usage of Android 11, nevertheless it does go away me involved with the cellphone’s longevity. Even when Unihertz adheres to a prolonged and rigorous improve schedule, it’s nonetheless beginning off two releases behind.

However what in regards to the 48-megapixel digital camera?

Don’t let the numbers idiot you – the Titan Slim’s cameras aren’t good. Neither the 48-megapixel rear digital camera or the 8-megapixel entrance digital camera take good pictures. Essentially the most egregious points are the velocity of captures and, for the rear digital camera, the bizarre, splotchy marks.

The Titan Slim’s bizarre, splotchy digital camera.

The rear digital camera has these weird, unusual marks/splotches that seem in pictures and within the viewfinder when taking an image. A lot to my shock, they’re not tremendous seen in some photos — someway, I missed the splotches within the first few footage I snapped however trying again at them, I could make them out. You may see the splotches clearly within the beneath picture I snapped of a beige wall.

There are two distinguished white splotches within the higher half of the picture and two smaller white splotches in direction of the underside, in addition to a bizarre blue splotch that runs a loop from the highest proper nook down the left facet and again to the underside proper nook – the blue discolouration is most seen towards the underside of the image. It virtually seems to be like some form of liquid stain, however the Titan Slim I examined hasn’t touched any liquid whereas beneath my care. Wiping down the digital camera lens additionally made no distinction.

Although the splotches and discolouration are irritating, I’ll give Unihertz the advantage of the doubt and assume I obtained a bum unit. It’s additionally removed from the one subject current. As talked about up high, the digital camera is gradual – not gradual to open, however gradual to seize. Far too many footage got here out blurry as a result of I moved the cellphone nicely after I assumed it had completed capturing the picture.

Even once I managed to seize a picture that’s half respectable, it doesn’t measure as much as different choices. And positive, perhaps it’s not solely honest to match a cellphone just like the Titan Slim to a high-end smartphone just like the Pixel 7 with a well-regarded digital camera, however even the Pixel 6a — a funds cellphone nearer in value to the Titan Slim and arguably worse digital camera {hardware} (12-megapixels to the Slim’s 48-megapixels, amongst different issues) — blows the Titan Slim away.