14 DAY TRIAL // TCL Communications announced the BlackBerry KEYone during this year’s biggest tech event, the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and today, the company officially launched the smartphone in Europe. BlackBerry KEYone is now available for purchase at Selfridges in London, for £499.
Selfridges isn’t the only place where UK consumers can get their hands on the new BlackBerry smartphone, as the device is also listed at Vodafone UK, while Carphone Warehouse stores from across the country will make the phone available starting May 5.
Local retailer Clove also listed the KEYone on its website, but first stock is expected to arrive in the week commencing May 22. After today’s release in the UK, BlackBerry KEYone will surely be made available in other European countries, as well as markets across the Middle East and Africa. The KEYone will arrive in the US and Canada on May 31, and it will be made available at multiple carriers, including Sprint.
Physical QWERTY keyboard with assignable actions to keys
BlackBerry’s KEYone stands out with its physical QWERTY keyboard, reminiscent of previous BlackBerry flagships. Users have the option to assign various actions to each key, to easily open a specific app or pull up data from their phones.
Moreover, the phone packs power specs behind its 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with 1620 x 1080 pixel resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio. The screen is impact resistant and the phone’s design features a soft-grip textured back panel. It runs Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC clocked at 2.0GHz, coupled with Adreno 506 graphics processing unit.
RAM capacity inside the latest BlackBerry smartphone reaches 3GB, while internal storage is 32GB with the option to expand to 2TB using a microSD. KEYone comes with a 12MP Sony IMX378 sensor on the back, with the capacity to record 4k videos.
Front camera capacity is 8MP and the smartphone draws power from a 3,505mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0. It runs Android 7.1 Nougat out of the box and comes with BlackBerry Hub pre-installed. The fingerprint sensor is built into the space bar on the keyboard.