BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition – IFA 2017
If you are a Ninja, Funeral Director, Goth, or all of the above, perhaps the silvery-ness of the BlackBerry KEYone was off-putting. Great news then noir fans, TCL Communication unveiled an all-new version today. Please welcome the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition.
With today’s announcement, TCL Communication’s BlackBerry Mobile brand is responding to their public. Smartphone fans asked for additional styling and performance options, so here you have it.
BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition
I love the design of the KEYone so it’s good to see that the hardware design remains. What you do get, however, is a real stealthy-looking matte black finish added to the device’s aluminium frame.
Under the hood has been given a tweak too. This new BlackBerry KEYone variant features 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. It still supports microSD expandable storage up to an additional 2TB.
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Spec
As a reminder, the KEYone sports a 4.5-inch touch display protected by impact and scratch resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
At the core of this new BlackBerry smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform with the Qualcomm Adreno 506 GPU.
This means you get a decent combination of battery life and usage, plus fast LTE speeds for super-fast file sharing.
Check out our BlackBerry KEYone review
Camera
The 12MP rear camera is packing the industry leading Sony IMX378 sensor (seen in such devices as the Google Pixel). So, sharp, crisp photos are easily captured in most light conditions.
The wide aperture lens with large 1.55?m pixels and dual-tone flash ensures your photos will have superior colour and clarity.
Keyboard
Of course, a BlackBerry isn’t a BlackBerry without a QWERTY board.
It took a little getting used to but the innovative Smart Keyboard is really handy. Not only is it good to type on, it also allows you to set up to 52 customisable shortcuts.
Other bits
It still runs on Android 7.1 Nougat until it gets an Oreo update.
The huge plus for me is its unmatched battery life. I can easily get through a full day and then some. When I do need to rejuice it, the Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology enables up to 50% charge in roughly 36 minutes.
Pre-loaded with DTEK by BlackBerry you get constant security monitoring and protection of your operating system and apps.
The BlackBerry KEYone will also receive regular monthly Android security updates, ensuring you have the safest and securest Android smartphone experience.
Words
Alain Lejeune, Global General Manager for TCL Communication’s BlackBerry Mobile brand said:
The global release of the BlackBerry KEYone from TCL Communication has far exceeded our expectations, with our re-imagined BlackBerry smartphone now available in more than 30 countries around the world; and more coming later this year. We’re excited to follow our initial launch with the all-new BlacKBerry KEYone Black Edition that delivers on our promise to expand our BlackBerry smartphone portfolio in 2017, while laying the groundwork for another addition to our lineup later this year.”
Alex Thurber, senior vice president and general manager of Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry added:
The demand and excitement for the BlackBerry KEYone across the globe has been fantastic. We congratulate TCL Communications for bringing to market their second device so quickly, and know it will provide the performance and trusted security people expect from the BlackBerry brand.”
Price and availability
The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition will go on-sale beginning in Q3 2017 initially in the UK at £549.
