9 Things We Miss About BlackBerrys

BlackBerry was a great little movie about a beautiful Canadian marvel of technology. And you know what? There are plenty of things we miss about our BlackBerry smartphones.

The Battery Life

You could let a BlackBerry sit there for two whole days and not worry about it dying. You never really had to worry about finding an outlet for it in an airport or at a bar, and you certainly didn’t have to carry a backup battery or charging device around with you.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)

All you needed was an eight-digit PIN and you could chat with any other BlackBerry user instantly. No third-party apps, no fuss. And although not many people worried about encryption, BBM had that benefit, which made it popular with the IT community. They could hand BlackBerrys over to everyone in the office and not worry about compromised communications.

Timed Messages

Before Snapchat, you could send a timed message on BBM and, after the appointed time, it would disappear. Maybe there weren’t many real use cases for this feature, but it was nice to have nonetheless.

Security

Every email sent through a BlackBerry benefited from end-to-end encryption. The devices were super secure, and we’re annoyed that RIM’s focus on cybersecurity wasn’t picked up by other device manufacturers until much later.

They Were Indestructible

Back in the BlackBerry days, we didn’t need screen protectors. In fact, we could hurl the damn things against the wall and they’d probably be fine. BlackBerrys were dropped down stairs, landed on pavement, were abused by pets and toddlers alike and still worked fine. Meanwhile, the first generation of touch screens would shatter if you looked at them the wrong way.

The Return Button

If there’s one thing we always want with our devices, apps, websites, and more, it’s a return button. All we want is to be able to press a button a bunch of times when we get into trouble or navigate somewhere we don’t want to be, and get back to where we started.

The Simplicity

So much great technology (i.e., the classic iPod, the Sony Walkman, the Nokia 3210) is simple in terms of design. How do you use it? You just quickly figure it out because there aren’t many ways to get lost or screw up. We miss that kind of simplicity.

The Red Notification Light

There’s something charming about an actual light that lets you know when there’s an email awaiting your eyes. You could even change the light colour to let you know if different people emailed you. 

The Keyboard

A full keyboard on your mobile phone. Running your thumb over each key. The tactile pleasure of pressing each button. Yeah, we get it, touch screens are a technical marvel. But we miss an actual keyboard with actual keys. We remember banging out entire emails on that thing. Truly, the BlackBerry keyboard was a thing of beauty.