The Blackberry KEYone was unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2017 today by smartphone manufacturer TCL Communications.
The new smartphone runs on Android 7.1 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform with the Qualcomm Adreno 506 GPU. It will be available globally beginning April and priced around US$549.
The manufacturers have positioned the new phone as Distinctly Different. The new Blackberry is built in an anodised aluminium frame and textured black. It features a 4.5 inch display with a 1620 x 1080 resolution and 434 PPI 3:2 aspect ratio and Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
It comes with both a touch display and a physical keyboard. Now that’s how a Blackberry phone should always be, in my opinion.
The Smart Keyboard responds to touch gestures mimicking the heritage of the BlackBerry trackpad for easy web browsing, reading emails and writing messages with flick typing. You can programme the Smart Keyboard to launch up to 52 customisable shortcuts. Press “I” for inbox or “M” to access maps.
The Keyboard space bar is incorporated with a fingerprint sensor for added functionality and security.
Besides being enabled with Android, the BlackBerry KEYone comes loaded with BlackBerry Hub so your messages are consolidated in one place including emails, text and messages from any social media account. Manage multiple email accounts without switching between apps with support for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Microsoft Exchange accounts and other IMAP and POP3 email providers.
The KEYone has a 3,505 mAh battery which you can charge fast with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology. You can charge up to 50% of your battery in around 36 minutes. Blackberry Boost can turbo charge your battery to get you the most charge with the limited time you have.
The camera on the KEYone is 12MP on the rear camera using Sony’s IMX378 camera sensor. The front camera with fixed focus and 84 degree wide angle lens takes 8MP photos.
