In a world before the likes of Apple, Samsung & Huawei ruled the mobile market in the business district of capital cities like London you would see the Blackberry as the phone of choice for many business-focused individuals. This phone offered a screen with a physical keyboard combo so you could get business done. 

 

Fast forward to the present day and the company Blackberry are still massive in the security space but the phones are no more or so we thought… 

 

In this review, we recently got contacted by Unihertz to review the Titan Slim which is very similar to the Key2 you could even go as far as saying identical. 

 

 

 

                                                          Blackberry Key2

                                                   Unihertz Titan Slim

 

Who is Unihertz?

 

Unihertz is a team of designers and engineers who believe there should be different types of smartphones for different demographics.  Since 2017 they have launched 8 Kickstarter campaigns and are supported by over 30,000 backers around the world. The Jelly Pro was the first and raised over 1.2 million USD. They have since released 2 new devices each year with the latest being the Titan Slim.  

 

First Impressions

 

The Titan Slim has a QWERTY keyboard just like the Blackberry of old. However, including this physical keyboard means the keys are tiny and you will also notice adding the keyboard does reduce the screen size. This phone has the business user in mind, however, it’s not for anyone wanting to view videos or gaming.

The phone has a 48MP rear camera and an 8MP front-facing sensor but more on that later. The phone is missing 5G connectivity but if you want a trip down memory lane then this phone could be for you. Let’s take a deeper dive into what this phone can do and if it’s worth that £289 price tag.

8MP front-facing camera

48MP rear camera with flash

The Spec

 

  • CPU: MediaTek Helio P70
  • GPU: Mali-G72 MP3
  • RAM: 6GB LPDDR4X
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Screen: 4.2 ” IPS TFT
  • Resolution: 1280 x 768
  • SIM: Dual Nano SIM (No MicroSD)
  • Weight: 360g
  • Dimensions: 146.8 x 67.6 x 12.7 mm
  • Rear cameras:  48MP Samsung S5KGM1 sensor
  • Front camera: 8MP Samsung S5K4H7 sensor
  • OS: Android 12
  • Battery: 4100mAh

 

Design

 

The phone design has been brought back from 2018 as like I said it’s basically a copy of the Blackberry Key2 model. The phone size is 15x 7cm (HxW). The phone does come with rounded edges and a TPU bumper for protection and a pre-installed screen protector. The screen protector has floors it covers the access to the dual sim card slots so the protector has to be removed to access the slots.  We are a little unsure why they included two slots when you can now use a single frame that could hold two sims or a sim and memory card combo. 

When you start looking around the body of the phone you will notice the power button and volume buttons on the right and then on the left a button you can set for what you feel is best. 

The stand-out feature is the QWERTY keyboard which has 4 rows of keys. The keyboard also offers shifted options. If you need to insert numbers or symbols they are displayed on the screen just above the keyboard which makes it much easier to press than the actual keys. If you have large fingers avoid this phone! 

On the rear of the phone, Unihertz keeps things simple with just that single 48MP sensor with flash. You will also notice on the front of the phone it also has a camera in the shape of that 8MP more on the camera set-up and performance later. 

Battery Life

 

The battery life on this phone is fairly respectable coming in at 4100mAh this phone should provide you with at least two days of use even for the heaviest of users someone who is an average user will get even more battery life.  

 

When it’s time to charge the phone you will notice Unihertz does not provide you with a complete charger only a USB-C cable. This is hardly a game changer as I have loads of chargers for USB-C around the house so charging was never an issue.  Unfortunately, this phone is not compatible with wireless charging so make sure you keep a USB-C cable on hand. 

Under the Bonnet (Hardware)

 

The Unihertz Titan Slim uses a Mediatek SoC which provides a decent platform for an Andriod phone. The Titan slim was built around the MediaTek Helio P70 which is ideal for everyday use but not suitable for the gamer in the house.

 

In addition to the main chip you also have 256GB of storage plus 6GB of RAM without the option of a MicroSD card for extra storage however, when using this phone over the last few weeks I could not see you reaching that level of internal storage.   

 

The Display

 

The display is very much reduced by the QWERTY keyboard the IPS display is 4.2 inches corner to corner with a resolution of only 1280 x 768. The GPU is not the standard meaning steaming videos will only deliver 480p resolution which is very poor. Oddly enough when filming a video you can capture it in 1080p but can’t display it in that quality. 

 

Performance 

 

When running a series of benchmark tests such as PCMark & PassMark we found the results to be fairly respectable and the Helio P70 provides a decent level of performance. The Benchmark results are on par with devices with the snapdragon 480. 

 

This phone is ideal for someone who wants to keep things simple with the use of Andriod 11 but no information if you can upgrade. This phone is ideal for someone who does not need interactive 3D graphics or mobile gaming from their phone.  Where this phone shines is with the internal storage and massive battery life helped by the phone’s modest spec.

 

CAMERA REVIEW BY JAMES ROBERTSON MILLIGAN @LIFESIZEPHOTOGRAPHY 

Hello all and welcome to my first camera review of 2023 what a year it’s looking to be for phonetography and hopefully some great new devices shaking up the market, anyway let’s look at the here and now.
So, I was asked to take the Titan Slim for a test run and benchmark the camera for this rather nice-looking device. What is this camera punching…. well, to be honest, I can’t really tell you because there seem to be no actual specs listed anywhere apart from its 48MP rear-facing camera and an 8MP front-facing. The camera lens itself is a single rear with flash which sits flush with the phone with no surround, something like a silver decal would have made it look quite sweet, and a single front-facing just sits to the left of the middle. For the price point of this phone and where it’s situated I would have expected to have seen a dual or triple lens.
“Unihertz” the manufacturer of this device has put no real thought into this part of the phone, the camera is just there because… it’s just there.  The camera itself is very slow to use and suffers from a lot of lag scrolling through the camera options as well as having to be quite heavy-handed to select an option using the touch screen.
The options are quite simple and limited with this device considering there are other Android phones at a lower price point with more options and much easier to use, but more on this later in the review.
So what does this phone have in terms of camera options.
  • Timelapse
  • Video
  • Normal
  • Pro
So as you see it is very basic and simple so this might appeal to the older user or maybe a first phone for someone… so let’s take a look at the pictures, as always the photo’s that I take are normal everyday photos that are unedited and are shown in my reviews as the camera has taken them. So only 3 sections to look at and that is “normal”, “pro” and “Selfie”
Pro Mode: so in pro, all it gives you is the chance to do is change the aperture, exposure and white balance. so it’s quite basic in terms of fettling with the settings, so ISO will allow you to increase the light in the photo if conditions are dark or cloudy, White balance is basically a filter that will soften the light and your exposure will allow you lighten the camera or darken the camera dependent on your current light to allow you to get the true colours. The camera has zoom but only goes to 4.0 which again is quite shy as other camera phones will go to a 10-point zoom and beyond.
The first two pictures were taken at dusk turning up the exposure and selecting Twighlight so you would think the pictures would come out pretty good considering it is a 48mp camera… unfortunately on this occasion, the pictures come out very dark, lifeless and very flat…
Daylight photo’s using pro mode came out very sharp and clear but the camera just didn’t get the true light, sure on the camera the picture looks good, but it just didn’t hit the notes on the true tone of the colours in the sky.
Normal: so on normal mode I feel this worked a little better than the pro mode in terms of light and picture quality to the current conditions, again the pictures came out sharp clear and well-defined with no real letdown from the 48MP single lens and it handled things quite well.
Selfie: so the 8mp camera is quite strong in terms of picture quality so if you are on a night out or a day trip and you want to capture selfies along the way then this one holds up okay.
So this camera is a mixed bag, it is hard to give a conclusion as there are no specs to pit it against, so it’s good but it’s not so good,.. so let me explain the good points, the pictures themselves come out quite sharp and crisp as you would expect from a 48MP camera, in certain lights it won’t let you down it will be faithful but in darker situations, it’s going to be hit and miss.
The price point of this phone is quite rich so you would expect a great camera however they have missed out on a few features that could improve the photo experience such as wide-angle, portrait, night mode, and macro which other android phones have with a cheaper price tag. So I don’t know why they weren’t added to this phone as it’s kind of a given these days.
I personally think with those added in it would be a better experience. The last niggle is the ease of use, The camera is slow to open, and the settings aren’t a nice smooth swipe, you have to be quite heavy-fingered to select the setting and then wait for the camera to load on that setting. If you can see past the cons of this camera then it’s all good, but if your looking for a good camera that you can play around with and have some fun with then sadly this phone is not that and I would look at alternatives.
I rate this camera 2 out of 5, the low score is purely the lack of features for its price point and the slowness of the camera itself.

Verdict

 

The Unihertz Titan Slim is a phone you would purchase if you really miss the old days of blackberry phones and want that keyboard on your device.  The dual SIM cards are a helpful option if you wanted to keep business and personal use separate but why they did not just use a single SIM card slot that allows you to insert 2 SIMs is a little bit of a puzzling moment when it comes to this phone. 

Unfortunately, there are quite a few negatives when it comes to the Titan Slim first up the keyboard on the titan slim seems to have been designed with a toddler in mind as you need tiny fingers to use this phone every day. Another issue is the small display and 480P resolution this phone is not ideal if one of your priorities is watching Amazon Prime or Netflix you won’t enjoy the content on this phone that is for sure.  

 

The Camera does provide you with fairly sharp images but the lack of functions, lack of true colours and true tone really does let down the picture’s quality.

 

Overall, if you want a basic phone that looks like the Blackberry Key2 and having a physical keyboard is important then the Titan Slim with its long-life battery and large storage are both excellent reasons why to buy this phone. However, with the tiny keyboard, limited functionality and small display, the Titan Slim will show you why Blackberry is no longer part of the phone market.

 

 Product Rating

Design: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars

Battery Life: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars

Hardware: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars  

Performance: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars  

Camera: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars  

Value For Money: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars

  

Overall ranking: 2.8 out of 5.0 stars – 2.8-star rating  

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