RIM BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 Pro Reviews

It’s hard to imagine the Porsche Design P’9981 convincing the everyman: its severe styling is too divisive, BlackBerry 7 OS questionable, and general specifications uncompetitive in places. Then again, the everyman isn’t the limited edition BlackBerry’s target audience. Like Vertu and “luxury” editions of other manufacturers’ phones, the appeal of the P’9981 is more about who hasn’t got it than who wants it. $2,350 is a ridiculous amount of money for a smartphone. A quarter of that gets you an iPhone 4S or a Galaxy Nexus, either of which outclass the P’9981 on functionality, usability and – many would argue – style. However, just as Porsche Design borrowed the Dynasty shoulderpads, the P’9981 is the cellular equivalent of Alexis Carrington: brash and unforgivingly blunt, an unapologetic backhanded slap to the face of anybody who thinks their mainstream handset makes them special. The rest of us will continue to buy iPhones, and Android phones, perhaps even some Windows Phones, and wait to see whether RIM can relaunch itself in Q4 with BlackBerry 10. The biggest problem with the P’9981 isn’t its love-it-or-hate-it design, or its mediocre camera, or even its insane price tag: it’s the fact that it highlights just how tired BlackBerry 7 is. In the end, even $2,350-worth of metal and leather and Porsche branding can’t hide that.

In case it wasn’t clear from the foregoing, this phone has excited a deep level of antipathy in me. BlackBerry 7 was an uncompetitive OS the moment it launched and hasn’t aged well since then. The one thing that RIM really got right with the Bold 9900 was actually its design, which was attractive, contemporary, ergonomic, and durable. So now we’re being graced with a device that tries to fix the good parts and rehashes the bad with impunity. The P‘9981 simply doesn’t have a reason to exist. It fails to improve on anything about the Bold, introduces issues of its own, and — wait for it — costs around $2,000. I’ve intentionally kept the price out of this review in order to give this phone a fair hearing, but its presentation of dated software and so-so hardware leaves the verdict unequivocal. Whatever Porsche Design was trying to achieve with its first smartphone, it failed.

It might sound like we've been rather harsh here, but there's no escaping the fact that the P'9981, Porsche Design or not, it still a BlackBerry at its core. Where it excels with communication features, it lacks with entertainment refinement. Whilst the app offering is there, it isn't anything like as exciting as you'll get on Apple or Android. You couldn't say the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 was good value for money, but then you couldn't say that about a Porsche either. A VW Beetle will get you from A to B comfortably and effectively, but people still go out and buy the Porsche Cayman. But this is a little like buying your Cayman with a 1.2-litre Beetle engine: it has the looks and it will get you there, but not like a Porsche should. We can't say the P'9981 is any worse than the Bold 9900 in terms of performance. It has the same positives and the same negatives. Together they offer the best performance in the current BlackBerry portfolio, if that's the phone you're after. With a price of €1475 (£1234) it will never be deemed good value for money, but then what Porsche is?

The P'9981 isn't going to change the world. It won't fight hunger or cure diseases. Yet to the general population, that's exactly what it's expected to do for a whopping $2,350 sticker price. The first Porsche Design smartphone will be a screaming deal to anyone who has way too much money to burn and just happens to crave a "fashionable" BlackBerry. For the rest of us, we see this for what it truly is: a BlackBerry Bold 9900 in a fancy Halloween costume.