BlackBerry KEY2 LE in 2021 - Atomic Red Edition! By TechOdyssey

Hey everybody welcome back to tech odyssey. So today, I'm here to take a look at the blackberry, mobile key2le in 2021. This is actually the youngest or most recent of the blackberry devices, particularly blackberry mobile android device, running android 8.1. It's got a snapdragon 636 processors in it four gigs of ram a four and a half inch 1080p screen and a headphone jack. But most notably it's got the fantastic physical keyboard on it, which this one is actually my favorite out of all the blackberry mobile devices. So there's actually a lot of really positive things that I have to say about this phone, and it's probably my most enjoyable as far as a typing experience for the blackberry mobile devices, and we're going to dive in and take a look at it.

But before we do, I do want to say if this is your first time stopping by the channel. I appreciate you being here if you enjoy the video please hit the like and the subscribe button and the little notification bell. If you want updates when new videos come out now, let's take a look at the blackberry, ke2 LE. So I actually have two of these here in my hands right now I have the slate colored one, and then I also have the atomic red now one interesting thing about these phones. There were three different colors for this one, there's the slate color, which was 449, and then you could pay an additional fifty dollar premium for 4.99 and get the atomic red, or also the champagne color, pretty neat it's made out of polycarbonate, which means it's not metal. The frame the body of the phone is actually made out of basically a really hard reinforced plastic, and I don't have a lot of heartburn about that.

It really doesn't bother me too much. The only thing that I don't like about it is because of the plastic properties of the body. The paint that's on here actually will come off quite easily. So if you keep it in a case for a long time, you could really sit here with your fingernail. If you tried decently enough, and could scratch some of it all- I actually had an atomic red version before I got rid of it a while back, because I had another one as well.

So I've got my slate gray one, and I actually this one, a friend of mine who didn't want to be named. Let me borrow it, so I could show it off in this video as well. He also let me borrow the red key2, which I totally love, and maybe one day I can get from him, they're very expensive, the key to the red ones they're, like 1100 bucks on ebay, it's absolutely ridiculous, but yeah. I think that they did a pretty good job with this phone and the only real complaint that I have about it is that it was too late had they launched with this like if this came out instead of the key one or if this came out, maybe a little earlier than the key2. I think that maybe there would be a different conversation whenever it comes to blackberry, mobile, whose licensing agreement ended august 2020.

Furthermore, I think they did a perfect job with this, like there were some quality control issues, some things that hurt the reputation of the key one straight out of the gate, most notably the screens falling off, and then the ke2, I think, was largely a good phone, but a lot of people were really kind of gun shy about it because it was so expensive and the mainstream people didn't really want to go out and buy it. Of course, us diehard blackberry fans very much like the key too other than the space bar issues. Well, this one they took a little different approach. The keyboard is not as big or as spaced out as the key two here on the key2le, but the key press on this. I actually like the best.

It's got a very, very kind of flat keyboard. It doesn't have a long key press, it doesn't feel spongy. Furthermore, it does feel very firm even after using it for all of this time. The ergonomics on this phone, although they're not too much different from the ke2, it looked very much like it's basically the same screen, the same design in very many ways, but this one it just felt like a blackberry to me, like I really enjoyed carrying this one without the case on it. If you look back at a lot of the older blackberries, they weren't necessarily made all out of metal.

They had kind of a plastic or a reinforced, polycarbonate or kind of that feel to it. It felt less like we were going to break it, and the ke2 always felt like a little more on the fragile side to me like I always would not use it without a screen protector and a case on it. This one just feels like it's made to be used this way straight out of the box and there's actually two different storage configurations: either a 32 gig or a 64 gig. I happen to have the 64 gig, but they both have four gigabytes of ram, and then they've got the dual camera setup on the back. So it's got two cameras on the back, just like on the key2, but this one not quite the same.

This one's got a 13 megapixel and a 5 phase, detection autofocus, it's actually capable of taking portrait shots and, if you're out in ideal lighting conditions, it doesn't take terrible photos. If you have less than ideal lighting conditions and especially low light, it looks like a potato with colors. It does not take good low light photos at all, and then you've got an 8 megapixel on the front. You can still use these very much so for Google Duo use them for Zoom meetings. This is a very, very business professional productivity, productivity-centric phone.

This to me felt very much like a no-frills blackberry, but it did everything that it needed to really well, and you wouldn't think there was that much of a performance increase looking at the snapdragon 625. That was in the key one versus the 636, that's in here, but it does feel snappier. It feels like it can handle android, 8.1 and all the different software and features in here better than the key one did so. I like that they bumped it up a little in that department and I think that it shows, even though it's not an out of this world performance increase, so one notable performance increase on the key2le versus the key2. The fingerprint sensor built into the space bar.

The space bar is a little smaller, but it's much more firm, and it didn't have all the reliability issues that the ke2 one did. So I liked that it also doesn't have the capacitive keyboard, so you can't sit here and swipe and move the screen and control it with the keyboard. I actually don't mind that, and I was glad that they dropped the price down on it. The problem is, is yes, blackberry fans went out and bought these phones, but they just couldn't get the traction for non-blackberry users. So I felt, like the price point was much better on here, and I don't really use the capacitive keyboard stuff, so I actually like paying less, and I think that this film is very much worth it.

I like having a flagship blackberry too and, albeit the ke2, wasn't exactly flagship caliber. It was very, very upper and mid-tier, and it performed very well but being able to get a very much value price blackberry. That does everything you need it to plus you can still use it today. It's got android 8.1, which does feel dated because I'm so used to using phones with android, 11 now or even android 10. Had this got the swipe gesture support, I would have been like ecstatic.

I wish that it had, but it does have the capacitive menu buttons down here which are built into the screen. So you've got the home button, the menu button and the back button that you can press there, and I feel like the OS pairs pretty well with the productivity features on the blackberry. However, again it had, it got android 9, android 10 got the swipe gestures. It would have very much felt a lot more like the blackberry, 10 experience that people love so much so that's I wish it would have got that and that's one reason: I'm really looking forward to the new blackberry coming out from OFNI mobility that they're bringing to market because we're going to finally get that experience. So I'm really hoping that they do something that kind of looks like a blackberry, 10 overlays, at least if they can get an icon pack in there and incorporate some old features, especially like if they do hold on to the hub.

I'm excited about that. But if you want to use one of these today and if you're using one as a stop gap until the new blackberry comes out, I think that you'll be perfectly fine. This one still very much enjoyable and even ideal in many situations for using social media. If you like to do that or typing or productivity. One of the reasons I really like still using blackberries is because I like to type a lot of social media stuff from it, because you get the precision and the accuracy of the keyboard.

You may not think that it's an issue until you lose autocorrect when you're on instagram, and you're trying to type out hashtags, and it looks nothing like what you're trying to actually type, so there's still some perfect reasons for this. Also, of course, you've got the shortcut keys. You can press for the short press or the long press, and then you've got the speed key, which will allow you to use your shortcut keys inside an app which is really cool to just switch back and forth from one app to the other, while you're using them, and then the programmable convenience key on the side, which works out great for Google Assistant for pulling up the camera for launching boom beach. Some of the things that I like to do all the time. So this is still a very, very good phone and I think that it's something that, if you're looking to pick up a new blackberry if you're looking to move on from blackberry 10, if you're trying to get rid of the PRI- and you want something that'll last you longer and still have a more modern and robust feel to it still a very good option, and I think that it holds up really well in 2021, where it doesn't hold up.

So well is the security update. So the last security update I got for mine was November 5th of 2020. That we got a couple of updates in it. The last couple of months of 2020. Actually, the ke2 has still been getting them, which is still amazing to me, and it's also weird to me that this one does not, because this is technically newer than the key2.

So I thought that both of them kind of had this parallel track, where they would both get them. That just isn't the case, so I wish they did. It did not it's still relatively secure, but I think that they're really just trying to keep the key2 limping along until the new blackberry gets here from onward mobility. So you're not going to see any more security patches on this very likely, but the fact that they held on until the end of november 2020, I'm still happy enough with that and that's better than a lot of other phones in recent memory from some other manufacturers have gotten. So it's not the end of the world, but it's definitely not ideal, especially from a security-centric company where, yes, we want the latest and greatest most secure phones.

That's one of the reasons why we use a blackberry, so 000 William battery four gigabytes of ram. I feel like this is a pretty well-balanced phone. It still does whatever you need it to quite well, and you can still access all your banking apps, your social media, your communication, stuff, open your PDFs. It's not the fastest thing on the block. Furthermore, it certainly doesn't have flagship specs in it, but for low, mid-tier level, specs hanging around in the 2021 parking lot.

Furthermore, it's going to get you a lot farther a lot better than so many of the other older blackberries, and it's still a fairly enjoyable experience. If you still want to use one and of course the fingerprint sensor built into the space bar is nice, it's very convenient. I love having that on the front. I like that, it's not on the back. Furthermore, I like it's not built into the screen, but there are some other things missing like there's.

No facial recognition on the phone, but you know some people, don't actually care for that. So you know, depending on what camp you're in it may or may not be a problem as far as availability, people are selling these for a lot of money, and they're trying to pawn them off as key twos. So if you buy one one bay or Amazon, pay very much attention to what you're actually getting, particularly in eBay, because they're trying especially to sell these atomic red ones, they're trying to pawn them off as actually red key twos, and they're charging a lot of money for them and a lot of these people. I think don't necessarily know what they have their hand in their hands, so be careful. I wouldn't pay more than 400 bucks for one of these things because they were 449 brand new.

The new one is right around the corner. If you can get one for 200 or 300 bucks, ideally less than 300 bucks, it's something! That's still going to last you at least another year or two no problem. If you want to take the wait and see approach- or maybe if you don't want to upgrade to the new blackberry whenever it comes out, so this is still very viable if you're still using one. Definitely you can hang on to it and keep using it, and I don't think that you're going to be missing out on a lot, because getting rid of it means no physical keyboard if you can't find a keyboard replacement. So that's about all.

I have taken a look at the blackberry ke2 LE in 2021. I still like it. Furthermore, I still enjoy it. Furthermore, I still actually prefer using this one over the ke2 in many circumstances, especially for the typing experience. This has my most favorite typing experience and most favorite keyboard out of the blackberry mobile devices.

So this is still my go-to, my slate one. If I want to use a blackberry device nowadays, especially in android one. So that's all I've got in this. Video really wanted to just take an opportunity to talk about the phone, some pros some cons how well it still holds up in 2021 and especially with the know, the new one right on the horizon a couple of months down the road, ideally because it's supposed to come out in the first half of 2021 we're already into 2021. So you know hopefully that'll be here sometime in the next couple of months now.

That's all I've got if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them down. In the comment section, I will get back with you if you enjoyed the video, please hit the like and the subscribe button and the little notification bell if you want updates when new videos come out and as always thanks for being here, I appreciate you watching, and I'll see you guys next time.

Source : TechOdyssey