I've just spent three weeks with the BlackBerry Motion. I'm not someone who has used BlackBerry devices much in the past, whether Android-based or otherwise, so this was my first true foray into the territory of one of the most iconic smartphone brands ever.

But although everyone still knows who BlackBerry is, it's fair to say that the company doesn't have the same clout it once did, having been left behind in the smartphone race, it has since struggled to close the distance.

Moving to the Android platform has been a big step to addressing this and in drawing BlackBerry back into the limelight, as software was a big obstacle. Adopting Android has allowed BlackBerry to focus on hardware and adding in its own productivity and security suites to the Android recipe.

The BlackBerry Motion is the firm's latest Android handset, running on Android Nougat it's a full-size display device with touch-only input; there's no physical keyboard here like the flagship BlackBerry KEYone.

So what was this debut experience like? What did I make of the BlackBerry Motion as a brand new user? Read on to find out...

BlackBerry Motion Review: Design & Display

As I mentioned in my first look hands-on with the BlackBerry Motion, I’m very torn on its design.

On the whole, I absolutely love it to bits, but there’s one area where it trips up, and, knowing what the market’s like and what people seem to buy when it comes to phone aesthetics, I can see it being a bit of a stumbling block for many eyeing up the handset as a possible purchase.

So what is that stumbling block specifically? It’s the back panel.

It’s subjective, of course, but personally I think it’s dull and ugly, and I suspect given the number of metal and glass devices on the market in a range of lovely colours there are a lot of consumers who will feel the same. But I’ll come back to all that in a moment.

I want to detour and focus on the positives of the design for a moment, because there are a ton of them here. Indeed, for me, something like 97% of the BlackBerry Motion’s design is top-tier brilliance. That remaining 3% is largely the back panel, so I feel it’s important to emphasise that on the whole this is a superb phone in terms of design and build.

The frame is crafted from brushed metal and has a really solid, high-quality feel in the hand; it has heft without being too heavy, and is nicely balanced.

Aesthetically it’s very pleasing to look at thanks to the neatly bevelled edges of the frame and the way the top edge curves smoothly over from the front into a clean-looking top section of the rear panel, which houses the camera. This is a very minimalist, quasi-industrial look overall with punched and machined details and lots of tidy, angular, symmetrical geometry - offset nicely by that one curved accent at the top.

The front fascia is reinforced DragonTrail glass and the metal buttons are of high quality with a nice solid feedback. I think the frame design is fantastic. The phone also has a really reassuringly robust and premium feel when you handle it that is quite unique.

There’s absolutely zero creaking, flexing, or rattling as it seems as though everything has been precision engineered for a perfect fit.

There’s something very familiar about the premium quality of the finish, it reminds me of something I can’t quite place, about the nearest I can come to it is if you’ve ever picked up and handled a really high-quality, precision-engineered DSLR camera or other professional-tier equipment in the same vein.

The back panel does actually contribute to this in terms of feel - it is a high quality soft-touch synthetic material, which is not only nice to handle and reinforces the high-quality vibe, but also has a number of practical benefits.

It’s grippy, for one thing, both in the hand and when placed on surfaces, but also the matte finish means that unlike most of the glass-backed competition it doesn’t show up fingerprints. It's also durable in terms of knocks and scrapes. At this point it’s also worth mentioning this is the first BlackBerry phone with IP67 water resistance, meaning it’s safe to take near the bath, sink, or pool.

So now we come back round to the negative bit. There’s no two ways about it, the synthetic back insert is horribly coloured and textured. It is simply ugly. It does, in my view, detract considerably from the many positive aspects of the exterior design, and the other positive aspects of the phone in general.

On balance, I don’t feel it’s enough to be a deal breaker, at least not for me, I could understand how others might feel it is for them, however. I think in that sense it’s a faux pas on BlackBerry’s part because it runs the risk of alienating a good chunk of consumers who otherwise might buy one without hesitation.

But even though I can look past it and love the phone anyway, it is a bit of a shame. It didn’t need to be this way. The BlackBerry Motion would look 10 times better if the back panel was a solid colour, even a flat grey or black would have been better than this zig-zag grey and black dual-tone effect.

The phone would have been enhanced considerably by a few other options for the more adventurous to complement the otherwise sleek design; a deep red, a navy blue, or a soft gold or copper. If I were to actually buy and own this phone, I’d be half tempted to take it somewhere and have the back panel spray-painted in some durable permanent finish.

As a result, the BlackBerry Motion feels a bit like a “so-close-and-yet-so-far” in terms of exterior design. It’s a wonderful design on the whole - which I still find myself ogling every now and then even after weeks of familiarity - but the back panel finish is like a moustache on the Mona Lisa. I can live with it, as it happens, but I wish I didn’t have to and it would be much easier to recommend in a heartbeat if it weren’t for this glaring visual detriment.

Leaving things on a positive note, the display is excellent; a real pleasure to look at.

It's a 5.5in IPS LCD panel with a 1920x1080p Full HD resolution at 403ppi. At this scale this is a nicely crisp and sharp display and the IPS tech in use here is clearly of high quality, as the white purity, colour, and contrast are all top notch.

Black depth is VERY good for LCD, it's still not as deep as OLED but it doesn't have that washy greyness typical of many other LCD offerings.

Brightness is also great and the screen functions very well in bright sunlight, being quite readable. I'm also a big fan of BlackBerry's adaptive brightness settings which make the screen easier on the eyes after the sun goes down.

BlackBerry Motion Review: Battery Life

For a phone with a medium-sized bodyshell and 1080p display, and a relatively mid-power-level chipset, the BlackBerry Motion has a sizeable battery cell embedded within; rated at 4,000mAh. That’s a lot of juice for a couple of major components that aren’t going to be as thirsty as what’s aboard most of the competition these days.

In my video testing I ran the BlackBerry Motion from full 100% charge with a two-hour film (Sherlock Holmes; 128 minutes), with Wi-Fi and data enabled and the screen on full brightness. As the credits rolled the handset displayed a battery charge of 87%. Yup, it had only discharged 13%.

That’s pretty amazing. I’ve only encountered one other phone I’ve tested personally that matches that kind of battery efficiency to date, and that was also a phone from this year; Samsung’s Galaxy S8+ (though I strongly suspect the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 are in the same territory).

The BlackBerry Motion’s battery performance also translates nicely into day-to-day use as well, in fact I’d be tempted to go as far as to say it is slightly better than the Galaxy S8+ in this regard.

Because one of the key talking points around the phone is its alleged superior battery life, I went to the bother of pushing the BlackBerry Motion a little harder than I usually do with review phones in terms of calls, texts, social media, navigation, apps, YouTube videos, messaging, and web browsing. Normally I’d expect even phones with large batteries to suffer under these circumstances, but not so with the BlackBerry Motion. It simply kept going.

Most evenings when going to bed and putting the handset on charge it would be around 50%. It was rare for it to get as low as 30% and I think on one occasion where I’d ran it for a good two days hard with no charging it got as low as around 15%. Two day use on a single charge, even when running moderate to high usage is pretty standard for the BlackBerry Motion, which is impressive to say the least. And it never once left me surprised and stranded with no battery charge when I needed it. I don’t think I’ve had such reliable battery life on a handset since the days of feature phones.

Charging speed was also quite quick, and I rather enjoyed a nifty little visual feature when you plug the handset into the Type-C USB charger; it’ll show a coloured bar (changing from red for low charge, through to orange, yellow, and eventually green for higher levels of charge) starting at the bottom of the display and moving up the side towards the top; this will show the charge level at a handy glance rather than having to get in close and inspect the percentage. You can toggle this off in the settings if you're not a fan though.

If you want a reliable smartphone that can really go the distance, then look no further. For me the BlackBerry Motion redefines what is possible in smartphone battery life, which is a sentence I never thought I’d say.

BlackBerry Motion Review: Specs, Hardware & Connectivity

• OS/Software: Android 7.1.1 Nougat
• Display: 5.5in, 1920x1080  IPS LCD @403ppi 
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, Octa-core 2GHz
• GPU: Adreno 506 GPU
• RAM:4GB
• Storage: 32GB
• Expansion: microSD up to 2TB
• Rear Camera: 12MP (1.55 micron) f/2.0, phase-detection autofocus, dual-tone dual-LED flash, HDR, 4K video @30fps
• Front Camera: 8MP f/2.2, 1.12-micron pixels, Selfie flash, 1080p video @30fps
• Battery: 4000mAh non-removable, Quick Charge 3.0
• Connectivity: USB Type-C, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC, GPS, GLONASS
• Other: IP67 Water resistance, DTEK security suite, FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption, Android For Work, Google Play for Work
• Dimensions: 155.7 mm x 75.4 mm x 8.13 mm
• Weight: 167g

As you can see, the BlackBery Motion is pretty well-equipped here with both Type-C USB and 3.5mm headphone ports for wired connections, as well as a full suite of wireless protocols including Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth.

Onboard storage could be controversial - for me 32GB is actually a bit of an upgrade from my usual daily driver but I can certainly understand that power users may find it a bit lacking and be looking for a 64GB option. You do have 2TB of microSD support though.

BlackBerry Motion Review: Software & Performance

The BlackBerry Motion runs Android 7.1 Nougat out the box, and it’s in a largely stock configuration. I say largely because BlackBerry has definitely left its mark here with a few UI tweaks and features.

But even if you’re an Android purist, don’t let that deter you - BlackBerry has clearly gone to extensive lengths to keep faith with Google’s vision for Android here in terms of the aesthetic, but also the optimisation.

At times it genuinely felt like I was using an officially sanctioned Google Nexus handset or similar.

Pretty much every change that BlackBerry has made is via the inclusion of embedded application suites designed to offer typical BlackBerry levels of security or productivity - that is, really high levels.

On the face of it that statement might set off alarm bells, conjuring images of a handset that’s more secure and work-friendly, but maybe more trouble than it’s worth as a result. Nothing could be further from the truth, however.

Importantly, it hasn’t been done in a way that is stifling or oppressive in terms of how you interact with the phone. You’re not continuously bombarded with pop-ups, permissions and warnings, and can largely just get on with things unhindered.

This stuff is very neatly and efficiently implemented; it doesn’t get in the way or clutter things up, and what you’re looking at most of the time is largely indistinguishable from the stock Google platform.

Of all the BlackBerry added features I found myself interacting with the BlackBerry Hub the most. There are two main ways you can interact with the Hub, however, two faces if you will; one is great, the other not so much.

The BlackBerry Hub acts as a handy way of aggregating your various user accounts, text and instant messages, email accounts, and social media platforms.

It tends to be somewhat variable in function from app to app; at the very least you can see and read notifications from pretty much everything here if you wish (customisation is pretty extensive and you can carefully curate and control what notifications you get for which apps, and whether or not they come via the hub, the app itself, or both).

Often with dedicated messaging apps like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and Instagram, tapping on a message or notification will jump you to that app without keeping you in the hub. For a lot of other stuff though, including most types of email account and text messages, you can read and respond to everything from inside the hub, which is very handy as it means less app hopping on the whole (even if it’s not eliminated completely).

The Hub is accessed via the phone’s default messaging app, but you can assign the handset’s dedicated function key to bring it up as well (the function key can be assigned to a number of different tasks, such as launching the camera, if you prefer). The interface is nice and simple, and you can tap in the top left corner to select an overall Hub view of everything, or drill down into specific categories such as individual email accounts or messaging.

The Hub’s other face, the one I’m not so fond of, is a sort of Homescreen overlay that swipes in from the right if you grab a little tab that juts out from that side of the screen. The problem with this is that in the messages section, unlike the other interface it pretty much just shows your emails; no text messages, no Facebook chat, nothing. I guess this might be preferable from a productivity sense, but I did like having everything in one place via the other screen, so this feels like a diluted variation by comparison.

On a final note, I’ll address the performance. When it comes to navigating your way around the interface, and even multitasking a heavy app load, the BlackBerry Motion doesn’t miss a beat.

Sure, the processor may not be the biggest, shiniest, turbo-charged unit available right now but it has enough clout to deal with most tasks admirably and BlackBerry has evidently gone to great lengths to optimise everything to perfection. It just glides.

The only thing to bear in mind about a CPU setup like this is that it’s not designed with high-end gaming in mind and it simply won’t keep up with the flashiest of titles, more so going forward as well. This doesn’t bother me one iota, as I’m not a big fan of mobile gaming, and even the games I do like aren’t graphically taxing.

If you’re a hardcore mobile gamer and you want console like performance, look elsewhere, for everyone else this is a very capable device in all the ways that count.

BlackBerry Motion Review: Camera

The BlackBerry Motion’s camera is a bit of a mixed bag. I didn’t like it much at first, but I’ve come to realise over my time with it that it’s not as bad as I first thought. It is actually capable of some decent shots (plus it has 4K video support).

It’s a 12MP setup with an f/2.0 aperture. Shooting results are essentially a bit hit and miss. In optimum conditions, ie: well-lit outdoors, it can do very nicely, but otherwise things aren’t that great. The autofocus is very temperamental and it’s easy to end up with blurring, noise, washed out colours and overexposure in less-than-ideal conditions, and don’t even think about low-light shooting.

It’s simply not as good as what we’ve seen on many rival devices, and we’ve seen BlackBerry do a much better job with the camera on the BlackBerry KEYone.

But, that is a flagship device with a price tag to match, while the BlackBerry Motion is presented as a more affordable option; something, somewhere on the handset, has to give, and photography hardware is pretty costly.

So I can’t really hold it against BlackBerry for opting for a relatively middle-road-ish sensor on the BlackBerry Motion.

High-end photography is not really what this phone is all about, and to be clear the imaging is not awful, it is certainly passable enough for the many, many users who just want something that works but doesn’t need to be flawless or pro quality.

But if you’re used to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S7/S8, the newer model iPhones, the HTC U11, or Google’s Pixel 2, then the difference is going to stand out.

Simply put, if you’re looking for a stellar smartphone camera experience then this is not the phone for you, sadly.

BlackBerry Motion Review: Verdict

I’ve managed to identify a handful of things about the BlackBerry Motion during this review which could be considered negatives; the camera could be better, the back panel design tarnishes an otherwise superb aesthetic and build, and for those who are into very high-performance gaming and other similarly intensive tasks, the BlackBerry Motion lacks top-level grunt in the CPU department.

I try my best to be honest and call things as I see them, which is why I haven’t glossed over these issues and have instead highlighted them.

But here’s the thing about all of these points; I simply don’t care. I still love using this phone.

It is by far one of the best mobile experiences I have had in a long time in terms of overall satisfaction in daily use.

Unlike a lot of other smartphones which are flashier or have fancier camera hardware, the BlackBerry Motion has managed to make itself a genuinely useful boon in terms of my day-to-day organisation and an effortless joy to use.

I can’t remember the last time I used a phone where I found myself stopping to think “wow, that actually just made my life a lot easier”, or “that was really easy and simple to do”, but there have been those moments with the BlackBerry Motion. It’s refreshing.

It is quick, responsive, tidy, well-organised, visually clean both externally and in the software UI, and it’s incredibly reliable, both in terms of performance of running speed and operation, and in terms of the battery life, which is quite simply stunning.

There’s no fluff, everything has a purpose and is useful, and has been very carefully tailored and tuned to work just right, easily, efficiently, and reliably every time. This is kind of what smartphones really should be like.

The fact that my only two real gripes are that I’ve seen better cameras and the back panel finish isn’t great shows you just how good the package is overall.