The BlackBerry KEYone, which was first unveiled as BlackBerry Mercury at CES 2017, has been announced at an event held in Barcelona, Spain.
The BlackBerry KEYone is the last smartphone that has been designed by BlackBerry, and, all the smartphones that will be launched in the future will be manufactured by TCL. Well, BlackBerry already made this announcement last September. While the KEYone isn’t the first BlackBerry smartphone to run Android, it certainly is the first smartphone to come with a fingerprint scanner embedded in the space bar of its physical keyboard.
The BlackBerry KEYone runs Android 7.1 Nougat and comes with a physical QWERTY keyboard. However, this isn’t just another physical keyboard. It can be used as a touchpad as it supports touch gestures. It can also be programmed with 52 customizable shortcuts. For example, you can press F to open Facebook or W to open WhatsApp.
As we are talking about BlackBerry here, it’s not just about the physical keyboard, but, security as well. It’s good to see the BlackBerry KEYone running Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. The device also comes with DTEK security suite for added security and privacy. Also, BlackBerry has made it clear that the KEYone will keep receiving monthly Android security patches.
BlackBerry KEYone specifications:
- CPU: 2.0 GHz Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor
- RAM: 3 GB
- GPU: Adreno 506
- Operating System: Android 7.1 Nougat
- Display: 4.5-inch display with 1620 x 1080 pixel resolution, 3:2 aspect ratio and Gorilla Glass 4
- Rear Camera: 12 MP Sony IMX378 with PDAF and dual-tone LED flash
- Front Camera: 8 MP
- Internal Storage: 32 GB
- External Storage: Expandable up to 2 Terabytes via microSD card
- Connectivity: 4G LTE, GPS, Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, FM Radio, NFC
- Other: Fingerprint Scanner on spacebar, DTEK security suite
- Battery: 3505 mAh (0 to 50% in 36 minutes)
BlackBerry KEYone Price and Availability:
- Price: $549, €599, £499 (depending on the market)
- Availability: To be available from April
