BlackBerry KEYone review: A niche device for business users clamoring for physical keys

now we have been down this direction before. BlackBerry touts its latest smartphone as the device customers are begging it to make, and then the tool indirectly falls flat.

the latest try to reinvigorate the BlackBerry model is the KEYone, an Android powered smartphone running BlackBerry’s custom tool, with a physical keyboard.

alternatively, there’s something completely different concerning the KEYone than its previous smartphones. The KEYone is designed and manufactured through TCL verbal exchange, no longer BlackBerry. the brand new method is a component of the Canadian company’s new licensing effort, where BlackBerry offers device to its hardware companions. The hardware partners are in control of the instrument from design to advertising and marketing.

TCL conversation is very best known for its Alcatel line of funds-friendly smartphones that walk the line of affordability and performance.

TCL used that same approach, to a point, over to the BlackBerry KEYone. even if it is no longer the most reasonably priced smartphone priced at $ 549, £499, or $ 199 CAD on a two-year contract. To be fair, it is priced decrease than BlackBerry’s earlier smartphones.

performance wise, the KEYone is not the quickest software available, but with a few tweaks to its settings, it gets the job performed. And the battery lifestyles, man, the battery life is what I used to love about BlackBerry smartphones.

specs

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size: 5.87 x 2.eighty five x .37 inches
Keyboard: 35 key touch-enabled backlit keyboard with fingerprint sensor
show: 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080) 434 PPI liquid crystal display
Storage: 32 GB with microSD toughen as much as 2 TB
memory: 3 GB RAM
Battery: 3,505 milliamp-hour
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 625
digital camera: Rear-going through 12-megapixel. entrance-going through eight-megapixel.
running machine: Android 7.1
Connectivity: USB-C, NFC, Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth

Design

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The design of the KEYone has grown on me. to start with, i believed the top bezel simply above the display with the entrance-going through camera, speaker grille, and proximity sensor used to be, smartly, unsightly. it can be grown on me, on the other hand. most likely if the highest bezel have been black and looked extra like an extension of the display, it wouldn’t appear so misplaced.

On the left aspect of the telephone is the ability button, with the best aspect internet hosting a quantity rocker and a devoted shortcut key. that you would be able to assign a devoted activity to the button, akin to a shortcut to an app or open the e-mail compose monitor with a press.

i might randomly push the button and launch the digicam app (my assigned shortcut) when making an attempt to adjust the amount or selecting up the phone. i think if I were to make use of a KEYone as my personal device, i would prove disabling the shortcut button for that reason. Its placement makes it too simple to set off.

the bottom of the telephone is house to a USB-C port for quick charging. the highest of the phone is where you can discover a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

unlike the BlackBerry PRIV, the KEYone does not feel high-heavy when typing on it. After a couple of days of trying to modify back to a physical keyboard, i assumed it did – I even advised a coworker it suffered from the same downside – but with more use, I’ve changed my mind.

The KEYone is smartly balanced for the usage of the touchscreen and typing on the keyboard without feeling like you’ll drop it at any moment.

it is time to ditch the Hub

When BlackBerry launched its BlackBerry 10 working system, the corporate took a different technique to how a device and its user handle notifications. as an alternative of tapping and swiping between a couple of apps to view an electronic mail, a textual content message, a fb message, and so on, the BlackBerry Hub used to be your one stop keep.

With the gradual dying of BlackBerry 10 and a brand new focal point on porting over the identical expertise to the Android platform, the Hub’s reliability and efficiency have suffered.

What used to be as soon as a handy guide a rough method for viewing and interacting with notifications, now slows the telephone down. When trying out the KEYone, i’d obtain an alert for a new e mail or message, wake the instrument, and then have to attend — for a short second — for the notification to seem on the monitor.

The extend is rarely a subject matter when using the Gmail app, or a dedicated e-mail app for that subject.

halfway thru my time with the KEYone, I was once complaining in regards to the Hub’s efficiency to a pal who up except not too long ago was once an avid BlackBerry person. He instructed I utterly disable the Hub to support the KEYone’s overall efficiency.

when I did that, the instrument carried out consistent with what i might expect from a tool with a mid-range processor. Apps open sooner, and all notifications were existing the moment I woke the KEYone’s show.

if you find yourself having efficiency issues with the KEYone, specifically relating to notifications, it’s time you ditch the Hub.

do not get me flawed, the rest of BlackBerry’s software – such because the Calendar app to the Contacts app – are neatly accomplished. The Hub, nonetheless, isn’t what it used to be.

The keyboard is a trackpad, the trackpad is the keyboard

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through some distance my favorite facet of the BlackBerry KEYone is the bodily keyboard. up to now, when switching again to a smartphone with a physical keyboard, I’ve struggled to make the adjustment. A bodily keyboard requires precision in comparison with the mishmash of typing on a digital keyboard that leverages tool to resolve your intent.

With the KEYone, the keys are reasonably totally different from the normal BlackBerry keyboard that I needless to say. i will be able to’t pinpoint if the slope of the keys isn’t as drastic, or if the keys are slightly larger, I simply feel as if the keyboard has changed, moderately, and for the simpler.

there isn’t any query about it: i love typing on the KEYone.

As has been the case with BlackBerry gadgets for the previous few years, the keyboard once once more doubles as a trackpad. Swipe in any course across the keys will scroll and navigate via a record or web page without forcing you to stretch your thumb to the screen above it.

It took a couple of days of forcing myself to make use of the trackpad as an alternative of the display, after which it changed into 2nd nature.

A fingerprint sensor is discovered beneath the distance bar on the KEYone, as a substitute of the again of the instrument as many Android makers are doing. the location feels and acts similar to a dedicated house button.

Two lights on the gap bar turn on when the fingerprint sensor is activated. the first time I registered my thumbprint with the sensor, I had concerns with my thumb no longer getting known. when you consider that deleting the scan and repeating the registration course of, I’ve had a far better expertise.

Battery life, other remarkable small print

I was ready to get two days of use from the KEYone. that’s two full days while not having to cost a smartphone that I used a minimum of I typically do. e-mail, facebook, Slack, WhatsApp, SMS, Twitter… you identify it, and i more than likely used it on the KEYone, and nonetheless experienced stellar battery life.

The camera on the KEYone used to be constant in capturing quality pictures in neatly-lit environments, however as is usually the case with smartphone cameras, it struggled in low light.

will have to you purchase one?

the reply is somewhat easy. If battery existence and a bodily keyboard are two stuff you look for in a smartphone, the KEYone is for you.

That market section, although, is shrinking. business users have moved far from keyboard devices, opting for full-screen Android and iOS phones as an alternative. possibly which is a good thing, although. With the market flooded through phones that every one seem to be and work in a similar fashion, ceaselessly with battery lifestyles taking a hit to energy the greater shows, perhaps the KEYone is a tool which is making a timely entrance.

on the other hand, that’s what BlackBerry, its lovers, and tech pundits have been saying for years and it can be by no means rather worked.