‘Distinctly Different’ BlackBerry KEYone now Official

BlackBerry unveiled their new Android powered smartphone BlackBerry KEYone at the Mobile World Congress, kicking off the event in style. We did get to see the prototype of the device at the CES last month but didn’t know much about the specs and the details of the device. With BlackBerry KEYone the company has focused on ‘Strength, Speed, Security‘ and bringing the best of what BlackBerry represents back in this smartphone. At the event the new BlackBerry was dubbed as ‘Berry with a full QWERTY keyboard and the largest ever battery in a BlackBerry’.

Let’s have a look at the specs of BlackBerry KEYone and see how the company has conceptualized the modern BlackBerry. The BlackBerry KEYone features a 4.5-inch IPS 1620 x 1080 resolution display. Under the hood the smartphone is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 , which provides up tp 2 times more processing power and 4X times faster charging as it supports Quick Charge 3.0. The device will have a 3GB RAM and 32GB of native storage that can be extended via the micro SDcard.

In terms of the camera specs, the smartphone sports a 12MP main camera with a Sony IMX378 sensor which is capable of creating 4K content and it is the same sensor that is found in Google Pixel smartphone, along with an 8MP front facing camera. BlackBerry KEYone runs Android 7.1 Nougat and the company has worked on adding security at every layer of the development, making it the most secured Android smartphone. In addition, it is powered by a 3505mAh battery, which is the biggest in any Blackberry device. The Boost feature Turbo Charges the battery and the Quick Charge 3.0, charges your smartphone uptp 50% in 36 minutes as it puts the device in battery saving mode while it charges.

The QWERTY Keyboard is the major highlight of this smartphone and BlackBerry is banking on this and their secure platform to appeal to the consumers. The QWERTY keyboard can be customized as every key can be assigned a different command, if you want to open up Facebook, customize the F key for that and just press it to fire the app. In addition, you can also use the keyboard for scrolling, swiping and doodling. The fingerprint scanner is also embedded in the space bar key, making it the only modern smartphone out there to have this feature.

Secure smartphones was the mantra at the announcement and BlackBerry ensured that the company takes security very seriously. For the purpose they will be pushing monthly security updates. In addition, it will come with a DTEK application in which one can customize the security settings and see how much one wants to share. BlackBerry Hub will work as your communication center, as it will bring all of your messages, emails, social media features together at one place.

The ‘Distinctly Different, Distinctly BlackBerry’, BlackBerry KEYone will be available globally starting from April. In the USA, it will retail at $549, in the UK it will go for £499 and in the rest of the Europe it will sell at €599.