It was with the growth of Android that BlackBerry had a great fall in sales and was in such a position that it could not catch up with its existing BB OS. Finally, better late than never they released their high end device known as Priv which was again a let down because of its software experience , high price and other issues.
Later last year they released the DTEK 50, DTEK 60 which was a rebranded Alcatel and TCL device which was a better product.
At CES Blackberry teased their addition to the Android lineup another device which had no name back then, no listing of specs and was codenamed MERCURY. This device was available to some Youtubers or bloggers at CES for a brief hands- on but none had any idea of specs.
Today, just before the start of the MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS , Blackberry along with TCL did launch the MERCURY Code named device as KEYone. This device has great resemblance to the Priv because of retaining their iconic and eye catching QWERTY Keyboard. Although, the slide is gone like the Priv had, but the device seems solid.
Every key has an option to include a shortcut, like you can assign the B button to open Browser, C for camera directly and so on. The placing of the fingerprint sensor on the spacebar was a smart move by Blackberry.
The back, home and recent tasks buttons are on-screen.
As it has retained the Qwerty keyboard, all of its original features like scrolling via the keyboard, swiping, etc. remain present.
The device has a unibody construction with a soft leather back which adds grip and will be good to hold.
The camera lens do not seem to protude much and hence keeping it on a surface with its back will not be an issue.
Taking a closer look at the internals, this device has:
Later last year they released the DTEK 50, DTEK 60 which was a rebranded Alcatel and TCL device which was a better product.
At CES Blackberry teased their addition to the Android lineup another device which had no name back then, no listing of specs and was codenamed MERCURY. This device was available to some Youtubers or bloggers at CES for a brief hands- on but none had any idea of specs.
Today, just before the start of the MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS , Blackberry along with TCL did launch the MERCURY Code named device as KEYone. This device has great resemblance to the Priv because of retaining their iconic and eye catching QWERTY Keyboard. Although, the slide is gone like the Priv had, but the device seems solid.
Every key has an option to include a shortcut, like you can assign the B button to open Browser, C for camera directly and so on. The placing of the fingerprint sensor on the spacebar was a smart move by Blackberry.
The back, home and recent tasks buttons are on-screen.
As it has retained the Qwerty keyboard, all of its original features like scrolling via the keyboard, swiping, etc. remain present.
The device has a unibody construction with a soft leather back which adds grip and will be good to hold.
The camera lens do not seem to protude much and hence keeping it on a surface with its back will not be an issue.
Taking a closer look at the internals, this device has:
- 4.5 inch 1620 × 1080 IPS LCD display with 433 ppi. The screen has 3:2 aspect ratio which is quite uncommon with smartphones.
- It is powered by the Snapdragon 625 chipset with 8 cores clocked at 2.0 Ghz and has adreno 506 as gpu.
- 3 GB RAM and 32 GB internal memory which is expandable via sd card of upto 2TB.
- 3505 mAh battery which the company claims can be charged upto 50% in 36min. It supports quick charge 3.0
- 12 MP rear camera with 1.55 micron pixel size with Sony IMX378 sensor capable of 4K video recording at 30FPS. It has Phase Detection Auto Focus (PDAF) and EIS.
- The front has 8 MP camera with 1.125 micron pixel size and f/2.2. It is capable of 1080p recording and has 84 degree field of view.
- It has NFC support, dual wifi band support, Bluetooth 4.2. The device will be preloaded with Android 7.1 and comes with Blackberry's latest security features.
The device is priced at $ 549 which is quite expensive , but this collaboration of TCL and Blackberry seems promising.
Blackberry will start shipping of the KEYone by April and it will be interesting to see the figures in its sales. This device is more focussed on business related folks and government officials who need a secure device with blackberry's security features.
Do stay tuned to THE SERIOUS GEEK for more coverage on the tech related stuff happening in the MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS.