BlackBerry Porsche hands-on17 January 2012
Melding style and business, for those with loaded wallets
The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone just landed on our doorstep, resulting in much emotional confusion. Our instincts tell us we shouldn't like it - only balding bankers with tiny man parts actually own a Porsche, and this handset costs a whopping £1275 (Unsurprisingly it's a Harrods exclusive).
However, while some of our fellow office patrons weren't too impressed, we have to admit we like the sleek silver boxy design. The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981's body is suitably solid and hefty, crafted from a single piece of stainless steel. But at 11.3mm thick it's slimmer than the BlackBerry Bold 9790, and the 155g weight won't strain your biceps. We love the leather rear, which keeps the phone firmly in even the slickest of palms.
Porsche and RIM designed the P'9981 together, and the result definitely has retro appeal. We were surprised to see the Porsche branding limited to the company's name at the top of the device, with no hint of a startled horse anywhere. It's a good decision we reckon, as flashing the Porsche badge would likely have pushed this handset into tacky territory.
More contentious is the keyboard, which features an oddly flat design compared to other 'Berrys. That means no raised keys to give you proper tactile feedback when typing, which BlackBerry lovers may dislike. Our first impressions are positive however, and we'll be thoroughly testing it out and letting you know our feelings in our full review.
As well as the keyboard, the BlackBerry desktop has also changed. Porsche has done over the icons, giving them a consistent, premium appearance, but the OS keeps the same familiar layout. The apps shortcuts can be hidden away as usual, or stretched over one to three rows.
The BlackBerry Porsche is powered by a 1.2GHz processor and features 768MB of RAM, as well as 8GB of internal storage and a 5MP camera. These are similar specs to the BlackBerry Bold Touch 9900, which currently retails for around £450 - so you better really like that design to go for the Porsche.
Check back soon for our full review, and leave us a comment telling us if you'd slap down over a grand for this branded beauty.
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