14 DAY TRIAL // After a long wait, today BlackBerry has finally pulled the veil of the BlackBerry Classic at an event in New York.
The handset is being touted as a “Classic” device for a particularly good reason – it brings forth the famous physical QWERTY keyboard Blackberry smartphones are known for.
Looking at it, your mind is probably going to conjure up images of the company’s former glory days when the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Curve handsets were the golden boys du-jour.
BlackBerry Classic has just been launched
Anyway, the phone has already been made available for pre-order, but BlackBerry held an event in New York to make the Classic official the right way.
The new handset is smaller than the Passport that Blackberry introduced earlier this year, so using it with one hand won’t be problematic.
With the Classic, BlackBerry is hoping to get its loyal fans out of hiding and into the sunlight, or to be more exact, into its own stores, buying the new smartphone.
To this end, the phone comes equipped with all traditional keyboard shortcuts you are probably accustomed to if you used a BlackBerry handset before.
The Classic arrives with a tiny (compared to today’s standard) 3.5-inch touchscreen and draws power from a pretty outdated dual-core Qualcomm processor fitted with 2GB of RAM.
Surely, the Classic won’t be a match for today’s monstrous powerhouses, but it’s enough for browsing your emails while you’re having coffee. Mobile gaming is probably out of the question, due to processor quality and the small screen size.
In the photography department, the Classic comes with an 8MP camera that lives on the back of the phone, plus a 2MP unit sitting on the front.
The device runs on BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS, which comes bundled with productivity tools like Hub, Assistant, and Blend. But the system can also run Android apps which can be accessed through the Amazon App Store that comes pre-installed on the device.
BlackBerry old-timers will also be glad to know that the BrickBreaker game, which was offered on older handsets coming from the company, is also available on the Classic.
BlackBerry Classic has a hefty battery cycle
The build running on the handset offers battery optimization features allowing the phone to last up to 22 hours of continuous usage, which apparently is 50% longer than what the BlackBerry Bold used to offer.
As we mentioned before, the BlackBerry Classic is already available for pre-order from the mother website and Amazon. The unlocked version sells for $450 / €361.
Blackberry classic is also offered with a bunch of accessories including a Leather pocket, Soft shell and Leather swivel holster.
