Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Titan Pocket Review: The Closest Thing To A BlackBerry You’ll Get In 2021 (So Far)”.
This video is sponsored by mediatek, usually these days, if i’m showing you a phone with a full qwerty keyboard on this channel odds, are it’s in a throwback video like in my wind phones were fun series not today, but don’t confuse scarcity with the lack of interest. Truth is that the last time i did a video on phones like this over a million people watched it so, whether you’re a blackberry, holdout, a nostalgic, rubbernecker or just here for something weird settle in for a look at the new qwerty keyboard, communicator in town, the Titan pocket my review device came in about a week ago from unihertz the same shanghai-based manufacturer that brought us such curiosities as the minuscule jelly, the super small atom and the totally not so tiny titan. That’S what unihertz does creates specialty smartphones for niche audiences and sells them for what i think are fairly reasonable prices. Some compromises come along with that which i’ll touch on, but for once, crowdfunding isn’t one of my concerns. The titan pocket is launching on kickstarter, but unihertz has used that platform to launch all five of its prior smartphone models, and none of them ended up being vaporware. I’M just happy.
Companies like this exist for those of us who really do appreciate something different, even when that something different is something that’s also quite familiar. Yup, like its direct predecessor, the titan pocket, is a blackberry clone in everything, but the name, but this one has been scaled back from mega passport proportions to something a little closer to a blackberry classic that spent all of quarantine in the gym. Make no mistake: it’s beefy at 216 grams and as thick as a closed galaxy fold 2, but it’s much more pocketable than the first titan and more ergonomic as well, with a slight hourglass shape that places the two keys per side right under the fingers.
The reddest of those buttons is my favorite, because it’s fully customizable, if you’re like me, you’ll set one click to summon google assistant, two clicks to take a screenshot and you can press and hold it to spark up the flashlight. And if you’re not like me, you can do whatever you want same goes for these 26 letter keys, each one of which can be set to launch not just one but two apps, depending on whether you short press or press and hold. And if you don’t want to do any pressing at all, the keyboard also pulls double duty as a capacitive trackpad, so you can scroll without obscuring the screen now. The last time i talked about these blatant blackberry rip-offs.
My tone was a lot more flabbergasted, but look the sad fact is that if you want a qwerty candy bar phone in 2021, this is the closest thing to a blackberry you’re going to get so why not go whole hog right? Why not, indeed see while unihertz absolutely nailed the physical tactility of typing on a blackberry with these keys, it also immediately undermined that win by placing the modifier keys up at the top of the keyboard. Again, if you don’t get how huge a miss that is, look down at your computer keyboard and try imagining your shift, control and alt keys way up in the function row it messes with your muscle memory. Every time you use the keyboard and that’s compounded by the decision to nest the spacebar between the v and b keys down here. The result is a phone that more often than not just reminds me how much i miss my old ke2 in asking some industry friends about this bizarre decision. The most common speculation is that unihertz is doing this to avoid litigation from blackberry. But if that’s the case, i wish unihertz would just license the old ip to build a proper new blackberry like texas-based onward mobility is trying to do easier said than done. I know, but a guy can dream now. If you can get used to that keyboard.
The titan pocket has other throwbacks in store that the target customer will absolutely love up top a good old-fashioned ir transmitter, so the phone can serve as a remote control right next to a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack that also services an fm radio tuner. The home button doubles up too, as a fingerprint sensor and next to that sits, physical back and multitasking keys. Don’T worry! This is android 11, so you can use gestures for those if you prefer, but it’s great, that you have the option of preserving the tactility of the keyboard, even with system functions and finally, there’s also a three color notification led here for all those who miss the Old blackberry spark you’re never going to get the same level of blackberry security that came along with it, but well it’s something anyway. Camera samples, pricing and my final thoughts on the titan pocket.
After this soon, i hope to be spending a little less time at home until then deciding what to watch as a family continues to be a challenge. So my sponsor mediatech sent over something to preserve the piece. This vizio smart tv fit right in on my bedroom. Dresser and yeah i’ll have to bump up my artwork to clear it. But you know what i’m fine with that, because this tv has integrated wifi and chromecast built right in so i don’t need to buy another dongle to stream video from my phone and because sometimes i’m too lazy. I mean tired to choose what i want to watch.
Pluto tv is pre-loaded, so it can do the discovering for me, mediatek also sent over this chair box just kidding it’s a jbl, 5.1 soundbar and subwoofer, which gives my movies the floor shaken sound. That makes me glad my only downstairs. Neighbor is my roommate. These weren’t just sent by mediatech they’re, made possible by it because, as the world’s number one connectivity provider mediatech powers, 70 of smart tvs globally, thanks to mediatek for sponsoring this video. Now one thing you never bought a blackberry for was its camera and that’s a tradition. The titan pocket continues.
We don’t have to spend a lot of time on this. The cameras are not good. The detail is not sharp.
The color is not right. The low light is not clean. The dynamic range is not there.
This camera is useful for scanning documents or qr codes and taking photos of flowers at high noon. Don’T trust it with your baby’s first steps photos or even random cat snaps. It’S also not the most highly specced phone around with its helio p70 chipset first announced way back in 2018, but i don’t think you’ll notice that limitation, unless you try to use it for something absurd.
Like gaming, my thoughts about which are best summed up by commander data. Stop it stop. Stop! Stop! Stop stop yeah! That speakerphone is great, but keep it to calls gaming and media consumption are just not fun. On a 3.1 inch screen, even faving, a tweet can take a few scrolls if there’s an embedded image. Fortunately, unihertz does include a contingency for this in the form of mini mode, so you can force an instagram session in a pinch in between all the outlooking and todoist thing.
This thing is actually meant for and while a 4000mah battery is no longer the biggest thing around using this phone, the way it’s intended, i’ve never even seen the low battery screen. This could easily be a two day device between charges which eases the sting of the loss of wireless charging. Also absent from the titan pocket are the ip67 rating it’s 4runner enjoyed along with 5g and even the faster 4g bands, depending on your carrier, hat tipped to sasha segan at pc mag for pointing that out. But those sacrifices are familiar to boutique phone buyers and they helped make possible the titan pockets msrp 299, when it graduates from kickstarter in october. That’S a hundred bucks less than the launch price of the last qwerty blackberry i covered and 350 less than the price tag on the last blackberry worth buying. In my opinion, it’s amazing how effective that kind of discount can be and taken the sting out of a specialty, phone’s compromises, compromises which will certainly stop me from buying one, but none of which seem like a show stopper to the target buyer.
The person who truly needs the closest thing possible to a blackberry at least physically in 2021, the titan pocket is still crowdfunding at press time. With deliveries estimated for september. This review was made possible by a titan pocket review sample provided by unihertz, but, as always, the company had no editorial input into or early preview of this content. Nor did it provide compensation for its production until next time, thanks for watching and please, if you can get that vaccine, so we can all get back to staying mobile.
My friends, you .