14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry announced the KEYone smartphone earlier this year and the company has just announced that the device has gone on sale in the US, at Amazon and Best Buy. The new BlackBerry KEYone comes with a price of $549.99.
BlackBerry is offering the KEYone in two unlocked variants for the US market, one that’s optimized for GSM networks like AT&T and T-Mobile, while the other is a CDMA model optimized for Verizon. Amazon is offering the CDMA variant in the US. Sprint and other US carriers are expected to announce availability this summer.
"This is an extremely exciting and humbling moment as we introduce a new BlackBerry smartphone to customers here in the U.S. with the launch of our BlackBerry KEYone," said Steve Cistulli, President and General Manager for TCL Communication, North America.
The KEYone is also available in Canada and the UK
BlackBerry showcased the KEYone during CES this year and fully revealed the smartphone during the biggest tech event of 2017, MWC. The device does come with some premium specs and ensures that the BlackBerry brand continues to live in the highly competitive smartphone market.
BlackBerry KEYone comes with 3GB of RAM and a 3,505mAh battery, while internal memory reaches 32GB, with the option to expand to 2TB using a microSD card. Moreover, the smartphone features a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1620 x 1080 pixel resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio.
It runs an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC clocked at 2.0Ghz coupled with a 64-bit Adreno 506 graphics processing unit. On its back, it has a 12MP Sony IMX378 sensor with 4k recording, while the front panel accommodates an 8MP camera with 1080p video.
The phone features Quick Charge 3.0 and runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box. The KEYone’s most exciting feature is the physical QWERTY keyboard which brings back one of the most iconic features on a BlackBerry phone. The space bar doubles as a fingerprint sensor allowing users to unlock the phone easily.