BlackBerry seems to be moving forward with its vision of making Android phones secure enough for use within enterprise networks. The company’s new DTEK60 takes this vision a step further by offering killer looks, excellent build quality and a top notch user experience.
BlackBerry has stopped making phone hardware and hence the company has tied up with TCL to make the hardware necessary in bringing the DTEK60 to the market. DTEK60 is the second device in the DTEK series of Android smartphones.
The smartphone has been designed to offer enterprises and organizations with full access to the Android ecosystem, at the same time offering security features BlackBerry devices has always been known for. The phone also comes with BlackBerry’s very own DTEK control panel that lets you customize the security features of the device to an optimum level.
In terms of design, the BlackBerry DTEK60 is an all glass and metal affair, with the soft-finish metal frame sandwiched between two layers of glass. This time around, BlackBerry opted not to replace the glass with a grippy plastic at the back, unlike what we saw in the DTEK50. That decision makes the DTEK60 look like a premium smartphone.
The DTEK60 is also the first phone from BlackBerry that offers a fingerprint sensor finally. Apart from unlocking the phone, the fingerprint sensor also allows you to access the Password Keeper and making purchases – including Android Pay. You can add up to five fingerprints which are fully encrypted for maximum security.
The DTEK60 also comes with BlackBerry’s Intelligent Keyboard that provides word suggestions as you type and includes up to three languages. The keyboard lets you flick them into place for faster conversations. BlackBerry Hub is also included, which is like a unified inbox that consolidates all of your messages in one place – whether it is email, calendar, social or phone calls.
You will also find a customizable BlackBerry Convenience Key on the right edge of the device. The key lets you quickly access your most used applications, though we found the feature to be a bit gimmicky.
The DTEK60 comes in with a gorgeous 5.5-inch Quad HD display. The display itself is protected by a scratch-resistant glass and also features an oleophobic coating that protects the display from smudges and fingerprints.
Under the hood, the phone runs on a 2.15GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor and packs in 4GB of RAM. In terms of storage capacity, the DTEK60 offers 32GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded by up to 2TB using the microSD card slot. Not that a 2TB microSD card is readily available as yet, but we commend the “future-ready” thinking of BlackBerry.
When you turn the phone around, you come face to face with a 21-megapixel auto-focus camera. You also get an 8-megapixel front facing camera for all your selfie needs. The rear camera also features Phase Detection Auto Focus and accompanies a dual-tone LED flash.
Images and videos shot using the DTEK60 was quite good – but generally under good lighting conditions. Under low-light conditions we did end up with a couple of shots that were noisy and blurry. In terms of battery, the DTEK60 packs a 3000 mAh battery – on a single charge, we were able to clock around a day’s worth of battery life, which is quite normal for flagship phones. The DTEK60 also supports Quick Charge 3.0 and hence, the battery can be topped up in a jiffy.
In terms of performance, the DTEK60 was quite good. We did not experience any performance lags either. At a price tag of AED 1999, the BlackBerry DTEK60 offers a sweet spot package for enterprises looking for an affordable and secure mobility solution to offer to their employees.
[highlight color=”yellow”]Price: AED 1999[/highlight]
