BlackBerry KEYone the android powered smartphone was launched on Saturday, ahead of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Do you miss the physical keyboard on your phone? Maybe your Dad does.
BlackBerry was known for its qwerty keyboards ever since I have heard of it. BlackBerry was the second name for security. But Android ruined it all for them. Now they are back with their iconic Qwerty keyboard design in an Android-powered smartphone and it can be called the most secure Android device.
BlackBerry KEYone will be the “Last phone designed and engineered in-house by BlackBerry.” The Canadian Company announced its decision to end smartphone design and production, and instead license the brand to partners such as TCL.
BlackBerry KEYone Specs and Features
The smartphone sports a 4.5-inch full-HD (1620×1080 pixels) IPS display with a pixel density of 433ppi – the company touts the screen is ‘impact-resistant in nature’. The phone is crafted in an aluminum frame. The all-new BlackBerry KEYone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core SoC clocked at 2GHz, coupled with 3GB of RAM and an Adreno 506 GPU.
KEYone has a 12-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX378 sensor – the same acclaimed sensor as the one on the Google Pixel – that has 1.55-micron pixels. There is a 8-megapixel camera at the front with wide angle lens.
BlackBerry KEYone offers 32GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). The new KEYone comes with standard set of connectivity options, including 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a USB Type-C port. It runs on a 3505mAh battery that’s said to give all-day battery life and support QuickCharge 3.0 with a ‘Boost’ charging feature that gives 50 percent charge in “roughly 36 minutes.”
The smartphone runs Android 7.1 Nougat software with the company’s numerous productivity and security optimizations such as the BlackBerry Hub and DETK security monitoring app.
BlackBerry KEYone’s Keyboard
BlackBerry is touting KEYone’s Smart Keyboard, which has a fingerprint sensor on the spacebar as well as capacitive touch on the entire keyboard for scrolling. You can ‘Flick’ predictions using the BlackBerry KEYone keyboard, and also assign shortcuts to keys (such as press B for browser) for use with a press or a long-press.
