BlackBerry Key2 Review By Alex Hong

Hey there, Alex here. The BlackBerry Key2 makes very little financial sense. It has a small passable looking screen, mid range processor, middling camera, and lacks features that one would normally associate with flagship devices. Water resistance? Nope. Stereo speakers? Nah. But yet, this is a phone that costs as much, or more than some flagship devices in the market today.

So what exactly is so special about the Key2? The short answer, keyboard. Because as I’ve mentioned, specifications wise, there’s nothing really spectacular about the phone. In fact, it’s actually really underwhelming for the price you’re paying. Well, except for the design of the phone. There’s just something about this form factor that really tugs at my sense of nostalgia.

I love the matte keyboard finishing, the more angular design, the grippy textured back cover, and the way it feels in my hand. This is a really nice keyboard to type on once I got my muscle memory back. There’s just something really satisfying about pressing physical buttons. It also supports touch gestures as well, so you can use it for selecting predictive text, moving the cursor around, deleting words, or just scrolling through things. Even the spacebar doubles as a fingerprint sensor as well.

Each of the 26 letters of the alphabet can be customised to launch apps as well for both a short or long press. This makes it extremely quick to launch apps, and it is why you don’t really see that many app icons on my homescreen. On the bottom right corner, there is actually a new button that lets you use that shortcuts feature even while in apps. This is hands down, the fastest way to switch between apps on any phone I’ve used. You can switch from one app to another instantly without needing to look for it.

But it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. I can still type way faster on a virtual keyboard, and the ability to do swipe typing means that it’s way easier for one-handed use. So it eventually got a little tiring for me. Not to mention, features like the text selection, and the button to let you switch apps, both requires the use of both hands. The keyboard taking up a third of the space on the front also means that multimedia experience is not that great.

When watching a video, the effective screen size is just slightly bigger than an iPhone SE. The outdoor visibility is also pretty underwhelming. The speaker quality is pretty mediocre too. It’s really loud, but sounds quite tinny. Also, don’t bother trying to play games in landscape, it’s just not an enjoyable experience.

So this is where we have to talk about the target audience for this phone. Folks who values productivity above all else, and still want a phone with a physical keyboard. For those folks, these are probably not deal breakers. While you can easily get a cheaper phone with a Snapdragon 845 chipset, the Snapdragon 660 in the Key2 is adequate enough for most productivity apps. I do see some minor stutters every now and then, but nothing major.

It’s also pretty power efficient. So with a 3,500mAh battery, I’m seeing like 40% battery left at the end of the day, which is pretty great. But that might be because I’m using the phone a lot lesser for multimedia content. Nonetheless, better battery life is always good. BlackBerry’s enhancements on Android are also mainly focused on productivity and security.

Like the BlackBerry Hub which aggregates communication services in a single location, quick access to important information, monthly security patches, and the Dtek security suite which monitors the phone for security threats. These are not exactly features that would get regular consumers excited, but I personally do like the additional customisation options and features that BlackBerry has added on top of Android. As I’ve mentioned in the beginning, the camera is pretty average, and performs more like a mid-range phone. It’s able to take decent looking shots for the most part, but again, I have seen cheaper phones with better cameras. I’ve uploaded everything I took with the phone in a link below, so you can see for yourself whether the camera is good enough for your needs.

At this point of the review, you can probably tell how I feel about the BlackBerry Key2. Despite my relatively positive experience with the Key2, this is a phone that I can only really recommend to folks who really wants a physical keyboard or a BlackBerry. Either for nostalgia sake, or that they just like that BlackBerry experience. For everyone else, it’s just a little too expensive and too limiting for what it is. To me, just because it’s meant to be a productivity phone, doesn’t mean that they can charge flagship level prices and dish out mid range hardware in return.

Especially when there are so many good options out there. If the specifications were better, or it has a lower price tag, it would have been a more compelling option. People talk about the Apple tax, about how you’re just paying more for the brand. Well, it’s probably even worse for BlackBerry. But if you’re still planning to get one after seeing this review, I totally understand, and you’ll probably love the phone nonetheless.

Afterall, you’re looking someone who chose to pay more for a Bold 9900 over an iPhone 4S all those years ago. Thanks for watching my review of the BlackBerry Key2. If you’ve enjoyed it, feel free to leave a like and subscribe to my channel. Thanks again, and see you guys on the next one.

Source : Alex Hong