BlackBerry Porsche Design P’9981

“The P'9981 isn't going to change the world. It won't fight hunger or cure diseases. Yet to the general population, that's exactly what it's expected to do for a whopping $2,350 sticker price. The first Porsche Design smartphone will be a screaming deal to anyone who has way too much money to burn and just happens to crave a fashionable BlackBerry. For the rest of us, we see this for what it truly is: a BlackBerry Bold 9900 in a fancy Halloween costume.”

“In case it wasn’t clear from the foregoing, this phone has excited a deep level of antipathy in me. BlackBerry 7 was an uncompetitive OS the moment it launched and hasn’t aged well since then. The one thing that RIM really got right with the Bold 9900 was actually its design, which was attractive, contemporary, ergonomic, and durable. So now we’re being graced with a device that tries to fix the good parts and rehashes the bad with impunity. The P‘9981 simply doesn’t have a reason to exist. It fails to improve on anything about the Bold, introduces issues of its own, and — wait for it — costs around $2,000. I’ve intentionally kept the price out of this review in order to give this phone a fair hearing, but its presentation of dated software and so-so hardware leaves the verdict unequivocal. Whatever Porsche Design was trying to achieve with its first smartphone, it failed.”

“The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9881 is clearly an overpriced fashion handset that does little to truly justify its £1275 price. However, there is a charm to its build and styling that does make it stand out from the crowd. Moreover, the keyboard is superb and there are some nice extras included in the box. Ultimately, though, it’s the BlackBerry part of the partnership that lets it down. While BlackBerry OS 7.0 is a vast improvement over previous iterations, it still trails much of the competition for both core features and availability of apps. An almost justifiable indulgence for BlackBerry users but a far from sensible purchase for the rest of us.”

“It might sound like we've been rather harsh here, but there's no escaping the fact that the P'9981, Porsche Design or not, it still a BlackBerry at its core. Where it excels with communication features, it lacks with entertainment refinement. Whilst the app offering is there, it isn't anything like as exciting as you'll get on Apple or Android. You couldn't say the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 was good value for money, but then you couldn't say that about a Porsche either. A VW Beetle will get you from A to B comfortably and effectively, but people still go out and buy the Porsche Cayman. But this is a little like buying your Cayman with a 1.2-litre Beetle engine: it has the looks and it will get you there, but not like a Porsche should.”