The deal allows the company to design, manufacture and sell BlackBerry-branded smartphones that operate using the technology firm’s security software.
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BlackBerry released the official specifications of KeyOne on its website – and it seems impressive.
The body is made of a strong aluminum frame but has a soft, textured back combined with a 4.5-inch impact-resistant touchscreen display. Plus, BlackBerry has added its own security features features, making the phone secure compared to any other Android device. This device was rumoured to be the Blackberry Mercury but now, it will be heading to retail as the Blackberry KEYone. But it’s the physical keyboard that will most attract your attention. It’s a 1620 x 1080 resolution display which gives about 434 pixels per inch. Not only do you get to enjoy what many would say is a more satisfying typing experience, but entire keyboard functions as a large capacitive trackpad, that you can swipe up and down or left or right on to navigate around the interface. Holding down the keys trigger shortcuts, and you can have up to 52 of them programmed. It will sport a 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and run on Android 7.1 Nougat with BlackBerry’s security-related tweaks. It will hold 32GB of memory, but you can also expand that with a 2TB, hot-swappable microSD card. The phone draws control from a 3,505mAh battery which ought to keep going an entire day on a sole charge.
BlackBerry hasn’t announced US carrier availability for the BlackBerry KeyOne, although Verizon is at least one of the major four USA carriers expected to offer the smartphone to its customers. We’ve already seen the beginnings of this with the DTEK line, but the KeyOne looks like the last “BlackBerry” BlackBerry phone. And for when you have to take a video conference on the go, it includes an 8MP front camera with fixed focus and 84-degree wide angle lens. BlackBerry wants to bring that back, though, with the BlackBerry KeyOne, a brand new smartphone that differentiates itself from the crowd with its physical thumbboard under a touchscreen. The app will also monitor BlackBerry’s integrated apps, such as contacts, location or text messages.
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TCL Communication is now taking pre-orders for the device, which will become available from April 2017. Priced at $549, the KEYone is arguably expensive, especially since similarly-specced rivals exist far below its price range. Proudly standing with a physical keyboard in the sea of glass slabs that is the smartphone market, the KEYone is arguably one of the most unique devices today.
