BlackBerry KEYone Announced at MWC 2017

The Mobile World Congress is currently underway in Barcelona, Spain and the announcements are both a mix of old and new with many introducing new models and some releasing familiar revamps of old products or brands such as the new Nokia 3310. BlackBerry also made an appearance in the form of the new KEYone smartphone, made by TCL. The KEYone smartphone follows the usual BlackBerry tradition of having a QWERTY hardware keyboard, but this time gets the Android treatment.

This marks the first time that TCL has made a BlackBerry phone from the ground up and it’s design was developed in close collaboration with BlackBerry Limited. Inside is a Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 SoC, a 4.5” LCD display, 32GB storage, 3GB RAM and a USB-C connector for both power and data. It also has a 12 MP, f/2.0, phase detection autofocus, dual-LED (dual tone) flash main with an 8 MP secondary camera. The batteries are non-removable and has a 3505 mAh capacity.  It comes with Android 7.1 and is also pre-loaded with BlackBerry software including BlackBerry DTEK security software.

Like the Nokia 3310, the goal of the BlackBerry KEYone since its inception was to continue the Blackberry heritage and modernize the signature BlackBerry look, appealing to a new userbase without alienating fans of the original.The KEYone will arrive in April at around $549