In case you haven’t heard, BlackBerry is very much alive and it has a new Android device, a follow up to the keyboard-equipped KEYone introduced last June. If you love BlackBerry, you have TCL to thank and if you love keyboard (seriously, who doesn’t, right?), you will dig newly announced KEY2. Before we get into he specs, there are a couple of things you need to know. Firstly, BlackBerry is marketing itself as having the proven smartphone security and secondly, it remains faithful to what it was when it first started out, a robust productivity tool.
In this modern era of smartphone race, everyone is going for eye-watering, huge-ass, edge-to-edge display, but KEY2 is here to try to win the hearts of professionals, but it ain’t going slug it out in the spec department (read: this ain’t no flagship!). It does, however, have a couple neat features, like a touch-sensitive, backlit keyboard, a space bar with integrated fingerprint sensor (cool!), the ability to scroll through pages by swiping the keyboard up and down, a programmable hard button, and insane 2 days battery life – granted by a 3,500 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. And oh, it is also the first dual camera BlackBerry smartphone.
The device runs off Android 8.1 Oreo, overlaid with BlackBerry UI and it is powered by Qualcomm SDM 660 chip (Kryo 260 octacore 2.2 GHz x 4 + 1.8GHz x 4, 64-bit), backed by 6 GB of RAM, 64 GB flash storage – expandable up to 256 GB via microSD card. As mentioned, it has a dual camera setup around the back – the first for BlackBerry. The dual camera comprises of two 12 MP cameras and the front is a lone 8 MP fixed focus item.
BlackBerry KEY2 is now available for pre-order through Amazon and Best Buy, priced at $649.99. So, physical keyboard lovers, rejoice – if you can live with 4.5-inch display, that is. Keep going for the spec summary after a few more looks and a promo video.
| OS |
| Android 8.1 Oreo |
| Chipset |
| Qualcomm SDM 660 Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform (Kryo 260 Octacore 2.2 GHz x 4 + 1.8GHz x 4, 64-bit) |
| GPU |
| Adreno 512 |
| Display |
| 4.5-inch IPS Touch LCD, 3:2 aspect ratio, 1,620 x 1,080 pixels, 433ppi, 24-bit color depth |
| Memory |
| 6 GB RAM 64 GB Storage, expandable up to 256 GB using microSD card |
| Network |
| Model BBF100-1 FDD-LTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32 (2100/1900/1800/1700/850/2600/900/700/700/700/850/800/850/700/1500) TD-LTE 38, 39,40, 41 (2600/1900/2300/2500) HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6, 8 (2100/1900/1700/850/900 MHz) Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) 3GPP release version: -2G: Rel8 -3G: Rel9 -LTE: Rel11 Model BBF100-2 FDD-LTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20, 28, 29, 30, 66 (2100/1900/1800/1700/850/2600/900/700/700/700/700/800/700/700/WCS/AWS-3) TD-LTE 38, 39, 40, 41 (2600/1900/2300/2500) HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6, 8 (2100/1900/1700/850/900 MHz) Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) 3GPP release version: -2G: Rel8 -3G: Rel9 -LTE: Rel11 Model BBF100-6 (Dual SIM version) FDD-LTE 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 19, 20, 26, 28, 32 (2100/1900/1800/1700/850/2600/900/700/700/700/850/800/850/700/1500) TD-LTE 38, 39, 40, 41 (2600/1900/2300/2500) HSPA+ 1, 2, 4, 5/6, 8 (2100/1900/1700/850/900 MHz) Quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) 3GPP release version: -2G: Rel8 -3G: Rel9 -LTE: Rel11 -Dual SIM mechanism: DSDS and both SIM can be standby on 4g |
| Camera |
| Rear - Main: Megapixels: 12 FoV: 79.3° Pixel Size: 1.28 µm Autofocus: Dual Phase Detect Auto Focus (Dual PDAF) Aperture: f1.8 Rear - Secondary: Megapixels: 12 Pixel Size: 1.0 µm Autofocus: Dual Phase Detect Auto Focus (Dual PDAF) Aperture: f2.6 Dual Tone LED Flash HDR, 4K video recording at 30 fps, Scan, Private Capture Front: Megapixels: 8 Pixel Size: - Autofocus: Fixed Focus Selfie Flash using LCD 1080p video recording at 30 fps |
| Battery |
| 3,500 mAh Compatible with USB Power Delivery 2.0 v1.2 & 9V2A 18W QC3.0 Chargers |
| Connectivity |
| Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, 2.4G/5G, Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy (LE), NFC, USB 3.0, Type-C, 4G Mobile Hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct |
| Sensors |
| Fingerprint (space bar), Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Proximity, Ambient Light, Hall Effect |
| Positioning |
| Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, OTDOA Pre-loaded with Google Maps |
| Audio/Video |
| Supported audio & video formats: 3GP, 3G2, AAC, AVI, ADTS, AWB, DIVX, FLAC, IMY, MID, MKV, MP3, MPEG-4, MXMF, OGG, OTA, RTTTL, RTX, WAV, WEBM, XMF Supported audio & video codes: MPEG-4, AAC+, AAC-LC, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, DivX, EVRC, FLAC, H.263, H.264, H265/HEVC, MIDI, MP3, OPUS, PCM, QCELP, VORBIS, VP8, VP9, Xvid, eAAC+ Supported image formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, WEBP |
| Dimension |
| 151.4 x 71.8 x 8.5 mm, 168g |
| Colors |
| Black, Silver |
| Others |
| Keyboard: Touch enabled 35 key backlit Physical Keyboard (QWERTY) with integrated fingerprint sensor Navigation: Touch screen, with touch sensitive keyboard Dedicated Keys: Volume Up/Down, Power Key (for Power On/Off), Customization BlackBerry Convenience Key (usable as Mute Key when on an active call ) Alerts & Notifications: Tone, Vibrate, On-screen or RGB LED indicator (some notification options are user configurable) |
Images courtesy of BlackBerry.
