BlackBerry DTEK60 review

Just when we thought the flagship smartphone onslaught was over for another year, BlackBerry has jumped in before 2016 wraps up with its own new top-end handset in the shape of the Blackberry DTEK60. 

The bigger, more powerful and pricier sibling to the DTEK50, this new phone has the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, LG G5 and iPhone 7 Plus firmly in its sights. 

A quick glance at the spec sheet and BlackBerry is off to a strong start, with the DTEK60 boasting a 5.5-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 820 processor, 4GB of RAM, 21MP rear camera, 8MP front snapper and a 3,000mAh battery. 

That’s comfortably up there with the best phones of the year, and with a price tag of just £475 / $499 (around AU$650) it undercuts most of its key rivals. 

It’s available to buy now from the BlackBerry website in the US, UK and Canada, and the DTEK60 will be coming to other markets very soon. 

At its heart the DTEK60 takes up BlackBerry's “world’s most secure smartphones” mantra, with the firm's trio of Android devices (the Priv, DTEK50 and DTEK60) featuring additional security from the ground up including a secure bootloader, full disk encryption and the DTEK App.

What does it all mean? In short, the DTEK60 will keep all your information safe and secure, give you granular control over your applications, and will automatically detect threats and protect against them.  

While BlackBerry's devices are still very much skewed towards the enterprise market, it’s also trying to appeal to consumers who want full access to the Android ecosystem, but don’t want to sacrifice security and productivity. 

The phone itself boasts a machined aluminum frame, and a toughened glass front and rear – similar in a way to the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, as the glass on the front curves ever so slightly at its edges. The screen doesn’t curve with it, but it makes for an easier, more comfortable hold. 

At 153.99 x 75.4 x 6.99mm the DTEK60 is taller and wider than the S7 Edge, but thinner, meaning it still nestles into the palm reasonably well.

It's smart and slick, but we found that it didn't feel as premium as we'd hoped in the hand. The glass rear can feel a little like plastic – it's a trait we also noticed on Samsung's devices, but on the DTEK60 it's a little more pronounced.

The additional lips above and below the display house speakers, but it's not the most aesthetically pleasing style decision. It's similar to the design of the DTEK50 – which is no surprise, as both phones were built by TCL, the firm behind the Alcatel handset brand.

At 165g the DTEK60 is also heavier than rival 5.5-inch handsets (Galaxy S7 Edge, OnePlus 3, Huawei P9 Plus), which could become taxing during extended use. 

While one-handed operation is just about possible, you’ll want to employ both mitts when it comes to tapping out emails. The power/lock key is rather annoyingly located on the top-left side of the phone, while a centralized ‘convenience key’ sits in the middle of the right side – a position we’d expect the power button to be instead. 

The convenience key can be programmed to launch a specific task or action, giving you quick access to your favorite features.

That can make reaching the power/lock key a bit of a stretch, but the responsive fingerprint scanner on the rear at least makes unlocking easier. 

A USB-C port resides on the base of the handset, while a 3.5mm audio jack sits up top, allowing you to plug in headphones. 

BlackBerry fans will also be pleased to learn that the iconic notification LED makes an appearance alongside the 8MP front-facing selfie camera.

The screen, with its 2560 x 1440 resolution, is crisp and clear, although it lacks the color vibrancy of rival AMOLED offerings, with things looking a little more muted – holding the DTEK60 up alongside the OnePlus 3 and Galaxy S7 Edge it isn’t as bright.

Other phones aside, though, the screen is still excellent, and will be great for gaming and movies.

On screen you’ll find Android 6.0.1. It may not be the latest Android 7 Nougat offering, but BlackBerry keeps its skin to a minimum, and is focused on turning around monthly security patches from Google in 24 hours, so the hope is that it’ll be upgraded to Nougat soon. 

It wasn’t quite as quick under the finger as we were expecting, but the DTEK60 was still setting up and downloading updates as we were using it, so it will hopefully become more fluid once it’s over those initial processes – performance should be decent with the Snapdragon 820 chip and 4GB of RAM at its heart. 

There's just the one model available, with 32GB of internal storage (of which around 22GB is available to you out of the box), but a microSD slot enables you to build on that by 2TB.

The 21MP camera on the back of the DTEK60 is difficult to miss, thanks to its sizable volcanic bump. Place the phone down and it sits at a jaunty angle – and we’re worried about just how exposed the camera is.

During our brief time snapping on the DTEK60 it looked to be a solid shooter, with a manual mode in the camera app if you want to tweak things such as white balance, shutter speed and exposure levels.

BlackBerry is promising a solid battery performance from the DTEK60, with a 3,000mAh power pack crammed inside its slender frame; we’ll reserve judgement on that for our full review, but we hope it lives up to the claim.

Early verdict

The BlackBerry DTEK60 has a solid spec list, a design that's premium if a little uninspiring, and a clean Android interface with some useful additions. 

We just wonder if it’s come a little late to the party, with all its major rivals already established in the market.

The price point will help though, and the draw of a super-secure smartphone with decent specs will likely attract a few admiring glances.