The days of BlackBerry phones, with their signature QWERTY keyboards, are mostly history now. BlackBerry stopped making those, though there is news that a 5G BlackBerry phone is on the way. Still, if you took a look at the Unihertz Titan, you would see the resemblance it bears to the popular BlackBerry Passport, a phone that I owned and loved. As a matter of fact, I love it till now, though it no longer serves me.
Unihertz, a small-time Chinese smartphone maker has slapped a squarish screen on top of a horizontal hardware QWERTY keyboard and made the phone rugged, so that unlike the Passport, it fits not only in the boardroom and executive lounges, but serves well outdoors if and when you need to be out and about. It is IP67-rated water-resistant, dustproof and shockproof, so splashes of water, specs of dust, and a little rough-handling are no trouble for the Titan to handle.
Unihertz Titan Specs
Unihertz Titan packs a square 4.6-inch, 1432×1436 pixels display, 6 GB of RAM, 128 GB of built-in storage, and a massive 6000 mAh battery, so your inner road warrior can fully express itself without worrying about running out of power. It is powered by an unnamed 2.0 GH octa-core processor. Because this is 2021, there is a fingerprint scanner, and Face Unlock as well.
The Titan is a dual-SIM, 4G LTE device, and runs Android 10 out of the box. It has a 16-megapixel rear camera, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera in front. Its weight comes to a hefty 303 g though, but that is understandable, seeing that it is a rugged smartphone and is built like a tank to withstand the kind of shelling that ordinary smartphones cannot endure.
Unihertz has positioned itself as the brand that makes the smartphones that no other manufacturer wants to dabble into – tiny smartphones like Unihertz Atom, Jelly Pro, Jelly 2, and the like, and QWERTY smartphones like Unihertz Titan and Titan Pocket. Because it services minority mobile users, the brand is not likely to show up on a chart of the world’s top smartphone brands, but it is providing a valuable service.
Its unique position also means that if you want an Unihertz smartphone, you must be ready to make some compromises. You will not likely get the most cutting edge features and specs. Not the latest and most powerful chipsets, not the highest screen refresh rates and touch sampling, not the best cameras, and not the fastest charging.
It will be nice to see Unihertz devices get timely Android software updates, though, even if not more than two major updates. That would be the clincher for me. That is one extra value that the company can deliver to its products to make them stand out. Imagine the Unihertz Titan getting Android 11 and Android 12.
I like the value proposition of the Unihertz Titan. I like the focus of the manufacturer. There are small subsets of mobile users who do not want a touchscreen slab and still prefer a hardware QWERTY keyboard for typing (and especially because of shortcuts), as well as those who do not want the massive 6.5 to 7-inched behemoths that the rest of the world has embraced. Unihertz tweets makes smartphones for these minority groups.
How Much Does Unihertz Titan Cost?
The Titan is available in one colour only – Space Black. It costs $400 only, and you can order yours here. Disclosure: MobilityArena earns a commission if you order through this link.
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