BlackBerry Priv review: Privilege granted

Benchmarks

When it comes to benchmark performance, the BlackBerry Priv is far from a record-setter, but with a Snapdragon 808 SoC and 3GB of RAM, it is quite adequately specc'd to compete with the current generation of flagship devices. It is slightly disappointing that the OEM didn't go with a top-of-the-line chip, like the Snapdragon 810, like one would naturally expect considering the price tag, but the 808 still offers ample power for even the most advanced productivity tasks currently achievable with Android. Plus, more often than not, true performance comes down to proper implementation and utilization.

Two ARM Cortex-57 cores, clocked at 1.8GHz and additional four Cortex-A53 ones, working a 1.44 GHz, should provide plenty of power to go around, despite being slightly under-clocked. However, the Priv doesn't exactly shine in the performance department.

BlackBerry has undoubtedly done a spectacular job, as far as a first attempt at Android goes and, as already mentioned, all the features you would expect are there with an extra touch of BlackBerry innovation mixed in. However, optimization is really lacking down to the point where some parts of the GUI and a few apps, like the camera, tend to freeze up quite often.

Benchmark scores on the Priv are quite low and we know that the Snapdragon 808 is capable of a lot more. We also have the data to prove it, as the LG G4, Moto X Style and Nexus 5X happen to use the same silicon with noticeable better results.

Naturally, we made sure to include the above in our test charts. As for the rest of the competition, we made sure to pick out a few other phones with roughly the same display size. These include the Sony Xperia Z5, iPhone 6s, Huawei Mate S, and the Huawei P8. The rest of our picks are popular devices that fall within the BlackBerry Priv budget. Some of them, like the Z5 Premium and the 6s plus do cost a bit more, but if you are willing to sink so much cash into a phone, these shouldn't really be out of budget either.

First up, we have the raw CPU performance test with GeekBench 3, which should be straight-forward enough. Like we mentioned, the Snapdragon 808 inside the Priv has more than enough horsepower to breeze through computing tasks, just like the LG G4 and the Moto X Style or the Pure Edition. Sadly, that is not the case. We see the Priv underperform quite a bit and it is an observable pattern throughout all the benchmark results. We often find the Priv below the Huawei Mate S and P8, which are both equipped with notoriously under-performing HiSilicon chips. BlackBerry definitely has a lot of work on its plate, if it is going to bring the Priv up to code.

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  5215
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  5158
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  5124
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  5095
• OnePlus 2
  4429
• Apple iPhone 6s
  4427
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  4413
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  4194
• Sony Xperia Z5
  4017
• LG Nexus 5X
  3527
• LG G4 (final)
  3522
• Huawei Mate S
  3475
• Moto X Pure Edition
  3433
• Huawei P8
  3380
• BlackBerry Priv
  2963

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which also takes into account RAM and GPU performance. Here we see pretty much the same arrangement. The BlackBerry Priv did manage to best the Mate S, but not by much. Other than that, Galaxies dominate the top chart again and you can clearly see that the performance difference is quite noticeable.

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  70053
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  69465
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  69396
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  68324
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  62652
• Apple iPhone 6s
  59074
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  58582
• LG Nexus 5X
  51948
• Huawei P8
  50876
• Moto X Pure Edition
  50629
• Sony Xperia Z5
  50611
• LG G4 (final)
  48693
• OnePlus 2
  47207
• BlackBerry Priv
  45725
• Huawei Mate S
  44393

Moving on to Basemark OS II, which is a truly all-round benchmark. Here we see the hexa-core setup of the Snapdragon 808 finally shine, at least in single-core tests, where the phone outperformed the Huawei's, as well as the OnePlus 2, both of which do use octa-core processors.

But sadly, that is just one ray of hope and it quickly fades away when we examine the milti-core performance. It is underwhelming to say the least and factoring in the poor overall score, we can only come to one conclusion - the Priv suffers severely from poor optimization. Hopefully, this can and will be fixed with timely software updates, but in the current state, the Snapdragon 808 in the Priv is highly underutilized, which is a real shame.

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2073
• Moto X Pure Edition
  2016
• OnePlus 2
  1942
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  1852
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  1833
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  1826
• Sony Xperia Z5
  1825
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  1769
• BlackBerry Priv
  1704
• Huawei P8
  1056
• Huawei Mate S
  981

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3585
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  3567
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  3497
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  3458
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3372
• Sony Xperia Z5
  3089
• Moto X Pure Edition
  2508
• BlackBerry Priv
  2271
• Huawei P8
  2111
• OnePlus 2
  2047
• Huawei Mate S
  1605

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  18653
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  16986
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  16856
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  16291
• Huawei P8
  14046
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  12882
• Huawei Mate S
  12085
• OnePlus 2
  10799
• Moto X Pure Edition
  9132
• Sony Xperia Z5
  8148
• BlackBerry Priv
  7602

And if you hoped that the Priv could at least redeem itself in the graphics department, well, it's not the case. The Adreno 418 inside the Snapdragon 808 is no pixel-pushing monster, but it is still a capable platform for some casual gaming and light GPU tasks. The LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition both manage to hit a good 34 frames on the GFX 2.7 test and the LG Nexus 5x with its Android 6.0 firmware, pushes the envelope even further and can squeeze out 37 frames.

The BlackBerry Priv, on the other hand, was only capable of producing 27fps on the same test, which is a lot less than what the Nexus is capable of, despite having the same identical hardware. And mind you, we are talking about offscreen rendering, so the display cannot be blamed in any way.

This is a major example of poor implementation and underutilization yet again. And while, you would have trouble spotting the missing frames while working with the GUI, gaming is another thing and it is a shame that the Priv can't even hit the pivotal 30fps. Then again, perhaps it wasn't meant to be a gaming device.

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  79.8
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  79.6
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  59
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  59
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  57
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  56
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  56
• Sony Xperia Z5
  49
• OnePlus 2
  48
• LG Nexus 5X
  37
• LG G4 (final)
  34
• Moto X Pure Edition
  34
• BlackBerry Priv
  27
• Huawei P8
  10
• Huawei Mate S
  10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  59.6
• Apple iPhone 6s
  59.6
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  51
• Sony Xperia Z5
  49
• OnePlus 2
  46.7
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  39
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  38
• LG Nexus 5X
  38
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  37
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  29
• LG G4 (final)
  25
• Moto X Pure Edition
  24
• BlackBerry Priv
  19
• Huawei Mate S
  11
• Huawei P8
  10.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  39.5
• Apple iPhone 6s
  39.5
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  26
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  26
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  25
• Sony Xperia Z5
  24
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  24
• OnePlus 2
  22
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  21
• LG Nexus 5X
  16
• LG G4 (final)
  15
• Moto X Pure Edition
  15
• BlackBerry Priv
  12
• Huawei P8
  5.4
• Huawei Mate S
  5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Apple iPhone 6s
  53.6
• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  38.6
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  27
• Sony Xperia Z5
  25
• OnePlus 2
  22
• LG Nexus 5X
  17
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  15
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  14
• LG G4 (final)
  9.4
• Moto X Pure Edition
  9.3
• BlackBerry Priv
  7.6
• Huawei Mate S
  5.8
• Huawei P8
  5.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5
  18
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  18
• OnePlus 2
  16
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  15
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  15
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Moto X Pure Edition
  10
• LG G4 (final)
  9.9
• BlackBerry Priv
  7.8
• Huawei P8
  3.4
• Huawei Mate S
  3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

• Sony Xperia Z5
  19
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  19
• OnePlus 2
  16
• LG Nexus 5X
  11
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  6.7
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  6.6
• LG G4 (final)
  5.6
• Moto X Pure Edition
  5.6
• BlackBerry Priv
  5.4
• Huawei P8
  4.3
• Huawei Mate S
  3.4

The BlackBerry Priv ships with the Chrome browser by default, which is definitely a good thing. Google's mobile solution offers clear-cut performance and stability advantages over most any other proprietary browser we have experienced and it is generally a good idea to stick with it, expecially in BlackBerry's situation of just adopting Android.

Still, like every other aspect of the OS, Chrome suffers from the overall bad optimization.

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

• Apple iPhone 6s Plus
  1731
• Apple iPhone 6s
  1737
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  3702
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  3767
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  3989
• Samsung Galaxy S6
  4154
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  4226
• LG Nexus 5X
  4575
• LG G4 (final)
  4639
• Sony Xperia Z5
  5635
• BlackBerry Priv
  6761
• OnePlus 2
  6808
• Moto X Pure Edition
  6910
• Huawei P8
  11867
• Huawei Mate S
  12919

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

• Samsung Galaxy S6
  2718
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge
  2702
• Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+
  2591
• Samsung Galaxy Note5
  2324
• Sony Xperia Z5 Premium
  2305
• Sony Xperia Z5
  2303
• LG Nexus 5X
  2241
• Moto X Pure Edition
  2132
• OnePlus 2
  2055
• LG G4 (final)
  1992
• BlackBerry Priv
  1683
• Huawei Mate S
  817
• Huawei P8
  764

Like the old saying goes - "Never judge a book by its covers". It is definitely true when it comes to the BlackBerry's first big dip in the Android realm, but sadly, the connotation is slightly different. The legendary Canadian OEM has definitely put a lot of effort into adapting the OS to its needs and bringing over all of the essentials of its own secure ecosystem and that has actually worked out quite well, even better than we expected.

However, underneath the slick GUI the Priv is hiding some pretty major optimization issues. We know it's a first try and do sympathize with BlackBerry and the process it is going through, but we can't exactly give up on our expectations of flagship-grade performance to meet the flagship price.

Overall, if it is power you are after, you can most-certainly do better than the Priv and even spend far less. However, it's not like there is a better Android Lollipop device with a slide out keyboard out there, or a more capable BlackBerry enterprise communication device, so it all depends on how you look at things. But more on that later.