Benchmarks

When it comes to benchmark performance, the BlackBerry Priv is far from a record-setter, but with a Snapdragon 808 SoC and 3GB of RAM, it is quite adequately specc'd to compete with the current generation of flagship devices.  It is slightly disappointing that the OEM didn't go with a top-of-the-line chip, like the Snapdragon 810, like one would naturally expect considering the price tag, but the 808 still offers ample power for even the most advanced productivity tasks currently achievable with Android.  Plus, more often than not, true performance comes down to proper implementation and utilization. 

Two ARM Cortex-57 cores, clocked at 1.8GHz and additional four Cortex-A53 ones, working a 1.44 GHz, should provide plenty of power to go around, despite being slightly under-clocked.  However, the Priv doesn't exactly shine in the performance department. 

BlackBerry has undoubtedly done a spectacular job, as far as a first attempt at Android goes and, as already mentioned, all the features you would expect are there with an extra touch of BlackBerry innovation mixed in.  However, optimization is really lacking down to the point where some parts of the GUI and a few apps, like the camera, tend to freeze up quite often. 

Benchmark scores on the Priv are quite low and we know that the Snapdragon 808 is capable of a lot more.  We also have the data to prove it, as the LG G4, Moto X Style and Nexus 5X happen to use the same silicon with noticeable better results. 

Naturally, we made sure to include the above in our test charts.  As for the rest of the competition, we made sure to pick out a few other phones with roughly the same display size.  These include the Sony Xperia Z5, iPhone 6s, Huawei Mate S, and the Huawei P8.  The rest of our picks are popular devices that fall within the BlackBerry Priv budget.  Some of them, like the Z5 Premium and the 6s plus do cost a bit more, but if you are willing to sink so much cash into a phone, these shouldn't really be out of budget either. 

First up, we have the raw CPU performance test with GeekBench 3, which should be straight-forward enough.  Like we mentioned, the Snapdragon 808 inside the Priv has more than enough horsepower to breeze through computing tasks, just like the LG G4 and the Moto X Style or the Pure Edition.  Sadly, that is not the case.  We see the Priv underperform quite a bit and it is an observable pattern throughout all the benchmark results.  We often find the Priv below the Huawei Mate S and P8, which are both equipped with notoriously under-performing HiSilicon chips.  BlackBerry definitely has a lot of work on its plate, if it is going to bring the Priv up to code. 

GeekBench 3

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S65215

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+5158

Samsung Galaxy Note55124

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge5095

OnePlus 24429

Apple iPhone 6s4427

Apple iPhone 6s Plus4413

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium4194

Sony Xperia Z54017

LG Nexus 5X3527

LG G4 (final)3522

Huawei Mate S3475

Moto X Pure Edition3433

Huawei P83380

BlackBerry Priv2963

AnTuTu is a compound benchmark, which also takes into account RAM and GPU performance.  Here we see pretty much the same arrangement.  The BlackBerry Priv did manage to best the Mate S, but not by much.  Other than that, Galaxies dominate the top chart again and you can clearly see that the performance difference is quite noticeable. 

AnTuTu 5

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge70053

Samsung Galaxy Note569465

Samsung Galaxy S669396

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+68324

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium62652

Apple iPhone 6s59074

Apple iPhone 6s Plus58582

LG Nexus 5X51948

Huawei P850876

Moto X Pure Edition50629

Sony Xperia Z550611

LG G4 (final)48693

OnePlus 247207

BlackBerry Priv45725

Huawei Mate S44393

Moving on to Basemark OS II, which is a truly all-round benchmark.  Here we see the hexa-core setup of the Snapdragon 808 finally shine, at least in single-core tests, where the phone outperformed the Huawei's, as well as the OnePlus 2, both of which do use octa-core processors. 

But sadly, that is just one ray of hope and it quickly fades away when we examine the milti-core performance.  It is underwhelming to say the least and factoring in the poor overall score, we can only come to one conclusion - the Priv suffers severely from poor optimization.  Hopefully, this can and will be fixed with timely software updates, but in the current state, the Snapdragon 808 in the Priv is highly underutilized, which is a real shame. 

Basemark OS II

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium2073

Moto X Pure Edition2016

OnePlus 21942

Samsung Galaxy Note51852

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+1833

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge1826

Sony Xperia Z51825

Samsung Galaxy S61769

BlackBerry Priv1704

Huawei P81056

Huawei Mate S981

Basemark OS II (single-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy Note53585

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+3567

Samsung Galaxy S63497

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium3458

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge3372

Sony Xperia Z53089

Moto X Pure Edition2508

BlackBerry Priv2271

Huawei P82111

OnePlus 22047

Huawei Mate S1605

Basemark OS II (multi-core)

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy Note518653

Samsung Galaxy S616986

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge16856

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+16291

Huawei P814046

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium12882

Huawei Mate S12085

OnePlus 210799

Moto X Pure Edition9132

Sony Xperia Z58148

BlackBerry Priv7602

And if you hoped that the Priv could at least redeem itself in the graphics department, well, it's not the case.  The Adreno 418 inside the Snapdragon 808 is no pixel-pushing monster, but it is still a capable platform for some casual gaming and light GPU tasks.  The LG G4 and Moto X Pure Edition both manage to hit a good 34 frames on the GFX 2.7 test and the LG Nexus 5x with its Android 6.0 firmware, pushes the envelope even further and can squeeze out 37 frames. 

The BlackBerry Priv, on the other hand, was only capable of producing 27fps on the same test, which is a lot less than what the Nexus is capable of, despite having the same identical hardware.  And mind you, we are talking about offscreen rendering, so the display cannot be blamed in any way. 

This is a major example of poor implementation and underutilization yet again.  And while, you would have trouble spotting the missing frames while working with the GUI, gaming is another thing and it is a shame that the Priv can't even hit the pivotal 30fps.  Then again, perhaps it wasn't meant to be a gaming device. 

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

Apple iPhone 6s79.8

Apple iPhone 6s Plus79.6

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge59

Samsung Galaxy S659

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium57

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+56

Samsung Galaxy Note556

Sony Xperia Z549

OnePlus 248

LG Nexus 5X37

LG G4 (final)34

Moto X Pure Edition34

BlackBerry Priv27

Huawei P810

Huawei Mate S10

GFX 2.7 T-Rex (onscreen)

Higher is better

Apple iPhone 6s Plus59.6

Apple iPhone 6s59.6

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium51

Sony Xperia Z549

OnePlus 246.7

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge39

Samsung Galaxy S638

LG Nexus 5X38

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+37

Samsung Galaxy Note529

LG G4 (final)25

Moto X Pure Edition24

BlackBerry Priv19

Huawei Mate S11

Huawei P810.7

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

Apple iPhone 6s Plus39.5

Apple iPhone 6s39.5

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge26

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium26

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+25

Sony Xperia Z524

Samsung Galaxy S624

OnePlus 222

Samsung Galaxy Note521

LG Nexus 5X16

LG G4 (final)15

Moto X Pure Edition15

BlackBerry Priv12

Huawei P85.4

Huawei Mate S5.4

GFX 3.0 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

Apple iPhone 6s53.6

Apple iPhone 6s Plus38.6

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium27

Sony Xperia Z525

OnePlus 222

LG Nexus 5X17

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge15

Samsung Galaxy Note515

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+15

Samsung Galaxy S614

LG G4 (final)9.4

Moto X Pure Edition9.3

BlackBerry Priv7.6

Huawei Mate S5.8

Huawei P85.7

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z518

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium18

OnePlus 216

Samsung Galaxy Note515

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+15

LG Nexus 5X11

Moto X Pure Edition10

LG G4 (final)9.9

BlackBerry Priv7.8

Huawei P83.4

Huawei Mate S3

GFX 3.1 Manhattan (onscreen)

Higher is better

Sony Xperia Z519

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium19

OnePlus 216

LG Nexus 5X11

Samsung Galaxy Note56.7

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+6.6

LG G4 (final)5.6

Moto X Pure Edition5.6

BlackBerry Priv5.4

Huawei P84.3

Huawei Mate S3.4

The BlackBerry Priv ships with the Chrome browser by default, which is definitely a good thing.  Google's mobile solution offers clear-cut performance and stability advantages over most any other proprietary browser we have experienced and it is generally a good idea to stick with it, expecially in BlackBerry's situation of just adopting Android. 

Still, like every other aspect of the OS, Chrome suffers from the overall bad optimization. 

Kraken 1.1

Lower is better

Apple iPhone 6s Plus1731

Apple iPhone 6s1737

Samsung Galaxy Note53702

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+3767

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge3989

Samsung Galaxy S64154

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium4226

LG Nexus 5X4575

LG G4 (final)4639

Sony Xperia Z55635

BlackBerry Priv6761

OnePlus 26808

Moto X Pure Edition6910

Huawei P811867

Huawei Mate S12919

BrowserMark 2.1

Higher is better

Samsung Galaxy S62718

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge2702

Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+2591

Samsung Galaxy Note52324

Sony Xperia Z5 Premium2305

Sony Xperia Z52303

LG Nexus 5X2241

Moto X Pure Edition2132

OnePlus 22055

LG G4 (final)1992

BlackBerry Priv1683

Huawei Mate S817

Huawei P8764

Like the old saying goes - "Never judge a book by its covers".  It is definitely true when it comes to the BlackBerry's first big dip in the Android realm, but sadly, the connotation is slightly different.  The legendary Canadian OEM has definitely put a lot of effort into adapting the OS to its needs and bringing over all of the essentials of its own secure ecosystem and that has actually worked out quite well, even better than we expected. 

However, underneath the slick GUI the Priv is hiding some pretty major optimization issues.  We know it's a first try and do sympathize with BlackBerry and the process it is going through, but we can't exactly give up on our expectations of flagship-grade performance to meet the flagship price. 

Overall, if it is power you are after, you can most-certainly do better than the Priv and even spend far less.  However, it's not like there is a better Android Lollipop device with a slide out keyboard out there, or a more capable BlackBerry enterprise communication device, so it all depends on how you look at things.  But more on that later.