blackberry classic q20 (white) unboxing + setup 🤍

hi there! today, I have a video of an unboxing of the BlackBerry Classic Q20 in white. I originally purchased this for £89.99 from the website Y2KPhones (as iirc there was a sale on this phone as the price reduced from £109.99). This is the 16GB model with 2GB RAM. The software is BlackBerry OS 10 (ver. 10.3.3.2163). This phone was originally released on December 17, 2014 and discontinued on July 15, 2016. To note, this was the last BlackBerry smartphone which included the physical keyboard.

The BlackBerry series is a nostalgic one for me; in December 2010 (when starting secondary school at 11), my parents purchased the BlackBerry Curve 8520 in black (which was the first smartphone I had). I also used the BlackBerry Curve 9360 in white; that phone was given to me by my mum in early/mid 2012 (as IIRC, I accidentally damaged the charging port on my 8520).
These phones used to be really popular; in the 2000's, celebrities, business owners and office workers would use the phone to text or send e-mails (as security features were deemed excellent). As a secondary school student in the 2010's, myself as-well as friends owned these phones and used BlackBerry Messenger frequently (which was the main instant messaging app for students back in the day).To note the Curve series was commonly used in my secondary (as it was the cheaper line in comparison to say the Bold line). I remember spending most of my time using BBM to contact friends and join groups, that and also browsing Twitter/Facebook. I also had memories of playing the preinstalled games of BrickBreaker and Word Mole (+ writing stories using DocsToGo). Unfortunately, BlackBerry was discontinued in the mid/late 2010's; I assume this was due to Apple taking over the smartphone market (as at least from personal experience in secondary school, iPhones became trendy from the mid 2010's).

This phone is a combination of the BlackBerry Bold (due to the physical keyboard style) and Curve (due to shape). There is a touchscreen included as-well as a scroller so you have two options for navigation. It was jarring to type on the keyboard (especially as it is quite small lol and it has been a while since I last used a BlackBerry which of course was 10+ years ago).
In terms of the phone's features and apps, I haven't tested much yet but IIRC, BlackBerry has shutdown their servers (therefore certain apps like BBM/BlackBerry World will no longer work). You can use Wi-Fi and browse the internet but it can be slow (then again, this phone was released in 2014).

I will probably try to see if I can install any apps at some point and perhaps do an overview/review of the phone to see if it is considered possible to use daily in 2024. That and another video testing the camera more; of course I will add this to my collection of rare phones (as for some reason I have become into collecting rare tech, it is just interesting to use haha).

well, I hope you enjoy this video! :)

also, lock/home screen wallpaper credits go to Japanese photographer 86ca86 (via X/Instagram).

tags: #blackberry #blackberryclassic #aestheticphone #vintagephone #aesthetictech