Shortcuts are pretty awesome, they’re basically 1×1 icons you apply to the screen to give you quick actions. The app drawer splits in to three sections: Apps, widgets and shortcuts. The Launcher itself is where it’s at though. The keys are nice and big, and well-separated by virtual frets running across the screen, mimicking the metal frets found on BlackBerry phones. Once you get used to it, it can be really quick, but it takes a little time to become familiar. You can use Swype-like gestures to type if you like, or type as normal and select predicted words by swiping up on the letter where the predictions pop up. Turning to the keyboard, this is an Android based version of the keyboard launched in BlackBerry 10 OS a couple of years ago. However, I did get the most important stuff: BlackBerry Launcher, keyboard and calendar. I rooted my phone and attempted to install them, but sadly failed. There were many apps I couldn’t get to work, like the BlackBerry HUB, Camera and Contacts apps, among others. It’s worth noting, I’m using a Nexus 6 running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop to test these, and you might experience entirely different issues to me depending on which phone you use. If you do decide to go with it, you’ll need to be sure you’ve gone in to your security settings to allow apps from any source to be installed. There are risks attached to downloading stuff from non-official sources, so be sure to take that in to account before attempting this, as we can’t take responsibility if your phone starts playing up. Instead, you’ll need to download some APKs from this XDA Developers forum.

Obviously, you’re not going to be able to just download BlackBerry’s keyboard, launcher and other apps from the Play Store. Thankfully, by downloading BlackBerry’s launcher and other custom software, you can find out, without spending several hundred dollars on a phone…

Everyone is curious to get a glimpse of what it’s like using the first Android-powered BlackBerry.

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