BlackBerry has unveiled its new Android smartphone, the BlackBerry KEY2, at an event in the New York City. The smartphone’s detailed specifications and pricing were had already surfaced earlier, revealing most of its details prior to the official launch.
The newly announced BlackBerry KEY2 runs Android Oreo and it has a physical, backlit QWERTY keyboard. The handset is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset and comes packed with 6GB of RAM. Let’s check out the phone’s features, specifications, pricing, and availability.
BlackBerry KEY2: Price, Availability
The BlackBerry KEY2 is being offered in Black and Silver. It is priced at around $649 (Rs. 43,817) in the U.S, whereas in Europe, it will retail for €649 (Rs. 51,748). The handset will cost £579 (Rs. 52,480 approx.) in the UK and CAD 829 (Rs. 42,920) in Canada. It will begin shipping in these markets later this month. No information was revealed about its launch plans for the Indian market.
BlackBerry KEY2: Features
The BlackBerry KEY2 sports a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with Full HD+ resolution (1620 x 1080 pixels) and 3:2 aspect ratio. The screen has 433ppi pixel density and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection to prevent the display from scratches. The phone’s body is built using Series 7000 aluminium-alloy and textured diamond grip is used for a non-slip back design.
Similar to most other BlackBerry smartphones, the KEY2 offers physical QWERTY keyboard with backlight. The keys now can respond to touch gestures and they are 20% bigger compared to the BlackBerry KeyOne. The spacebar key has an embedded fingerprint sensor in it, similar to its predecessor. Apart from this, there’s a unique Speed Key which allows users to launch apps by pressing the key and the letter you assigned for that particular app.
Coming to the phone’s internal hardware, the BlackBerry KEY2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset with 2.2GHz octa-core CPU and Adreno 512 GPU. The smartphone comes packed with 6GB of RAM and 64GB or 128GB of storage. It even has a microSD card slot for storage expansion (up to 2TB). The phone runs Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box, which means that you can install any apps from the Google Play Store.
The imaging aspect of the BlackBerry KEY2 is handled by dual rear-facing cameras that consist of two 12-megapixel sensors. The primary 12MP sensor has f/1.8 aperture, 1.14µm pixel size, and 79.3-degree wide-angle lens. The 12MP secondary sensor ships with f/2.6 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, and 50-degree lens. The dual-camera offers dual-pixel phase detection autofocus and it is accompanied with a dual-tone LED flash. At the front, the smartphone has an 8MP camera with fixed focus lens and 1080p video recording.
The device comes packed with preloaded BlackBerry applications like BlackBerry Hub, DTEK, Password Keeper, and many more. Additionally, the smartphone’s stock apps are powered by Google. In terms of connectivity, the BlackBerry KEY2 offers dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, VoLTE, dual-band WiFi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS/GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.0 Type-C port, FM Radio, and a 3.5mm audio port. The smartphone is powered by a 3360mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
BlackBerry KEY2: Specifications
- Display: 4.5-inch IPS LCD display, 1620 x 1080 pixels resolution, 433 PPI pixel density, 3:2 aspect ratio, Corning Gorilla Glass 3
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 (octa-core 2.2GHz CPU + Adreno 512 GPU)
- Memory: 6GB RAM
- Storage: 64GB/128GB internal storage, microSD card slot (up to 2TB)
- Software: Android 8.1 Oreo
- Rear-facing camera: 12MP primary sensor, f/1.8 aperture, 1.14µm pixel size, 79.3-degree wide-angle lens, Dual-PDAF; 12MP secondary sensor, f/2.6 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, 50-degree lens, dual-tone LED Flash, 4K video recording
- Front-facing camera: 8MP, fixed-focus, 1080p video recording
- Extras: Fingerprint Sensor (in space bar key), Speed Key
- Dimensions: 151.4×71.8×8.5mm
- Weight: 168g
- Connectivity: Dual-SIM card slot, 4G LTE, VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n ac, Bluetooth 5.0 + LE, GPS/GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.0 Type-C port, FM Radio, 3.5mm audio port
- Battery: 3360mAh, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
