BlackBerry KeyOne In 2021! (Still Worth Buying?) (Review) By Simple Alpaca

Welcome back everyone, let's go ahead and talk about the blackberry key one and see how this phone holds up in 2021. Now, first, what I can tell you is that there are some things about this phone that I love. There are some things about this phone, that kind of strike me more as a novelty, and obviously it's the keyboard on the front and, unfortunately, it seems like blackberry, isn't really going to be making any more phones, and it's kind of sad because had they just transitioned themselves properly, they probably would still be around. Now. There is a group of people who still like phones like these, which I totally you know get it like. I like phones, like this too.

I like phones, that you know kind of push boundaries and do different things, but I just really wish they would kind of switch away from maybe like this type of layout of their keyboards and go back to something like the blackberry PRI. Furthermore, I feel like they nailed it at that time. By having a slide-out keyboard, the phone itself was still perfect when it was, you know, still like shut down. So I think that was a great keyboard slash. You know smartphone layout now this thing, if you want to pick up this phone or some other phones, I'd recommend links will be down in the description below you can get them from there and help support the channel.

At the same time, now, looking on the front of this thing, had that 4.5 inch IPS panel- and it's actually looking pretty dated you know mostly because of the keyboard and the surrounding bezel- you know we've kind of came to this point where, with the phones like the galaxy s20, and you know, iPhone 12 Pro, these phones have very little bezel and I think the last thing people want nowadays is a keyboard along with a lot of bezels and that's kind of what this phone had now. It also had the capacitive keys, pretty much built onto the actual screen itself and that they were physical buttons and that's another thing that didn't really hold too well on this phone, mostly because we don't really use those buttons anymore. We switched over to gesture based designs for pretty much all phones at this point. So that's another thing that didn't really suit too well for this type of device. You had that front camera up top IR blaster, I guess, and that keyboard now I actually like this keyboard.

I think it's pretty cool. It was capacitive as well, so you could actually slide and go through and maneuver around your whole entire UI, strictly just by using the know, touchpad on the keyboard, which was really cool, and I think that's awesome. You also had a fingerprint sensor built into the keyboard as well, which I like, and again it's one of those things where I think it's cool, but it is also a kind of funny novelty. I don't think it's really held up that. Well, you know mostly because blackberry is not even making phones anymore.

It looks like, but I do miss you know, phones, kind of taking chances like this, and I still like it kind of you- have the charging port on the bottom and on the back, you have this kind of plastic matte texture to it, which is kind of like uh. I don't know how you the best way to describe it, but you still had a micro SD card slot on this phone too, which, as I mentioned before, is another pretty good thing about this phone, and I wish more phones had this type of capability. The fact that all these phones are taking away their you know little features that they had. I'm not really a humongous fan of it. Now, there's nothing we can do about it, but it would have been pretty cool.

Had a lot of phones that are coming out nowadays still maintain some sort of micros card slot. So I think that's pretty much mostly what I want to hit on the outside the single camera setup on the outside as well, but that really pretty much covers it up again. The main reason I think people bought this phone was mostly because of the keyboard and, as of now, that's kind of a dated feature for sure. So in terms of the outside, in terms of pretty much the body that really pretty much covers it up now hitting on the cameras, this thing did have that single 12 megapixel camera on the back, and it wasn't even that bad of a camera. You know it was a single sensor, and I'm not really too familiar with the blackberry OS and all that stuff, so take it as you will, but one thing I really did like about this specific software or this specific camera, for that matter is actually the ability of shooting 4k at 30 frames per second.

Now, at this point in 2017, a lot of phones could already shoot 4k videos. This was the same year that you know the iPhone x came out, but the iPhone 7s were already out at this time and pretty much we already had 4k and every single phone that came out, but still having that ability, I'm glad it didn't get stuck with 1080p. So I think, as long as we had that, that kind of you know future-proof this phone a little now. I think the sensor really wasn't that great. I think it's very, very average, especially nowadays I mean, even though it's a 12 megapixel sensor, some people may look at that and be like.

Oh, it's the same count as the iPhone 12. So that's pretty much the same camera. That is not the case. A lot of the improvements come with the software and I feel like blackberry, is really focusing in on young. You know professional people and trying to make their phone.

I don't know, maybe more alluded to that sense of trying to focus more on their email, clients and all that stuff, and I guess the camera really wasn't their phone. You know main focus at the time, but this camera is good. I guess it'll get the job done for the most part. It's definitely not amazing. It's not groundbreaking, and I don't think it's the best camera of 2017.

I'll probably give that either to the iPhone 10 or the Galaxy S8. But this camera is still good enough for the most part, I would assume so the front camera. You know single 8, megapixel sensor there 1080p at 30 frames on that camera and again, as I mentioned, it gets the job done. Is it the best camera in the world? Absolutely not. It's definitely not the best camera that you're either, but I think for a majority of people out there.

It gets the job done and I think that's how most he probably has going for it. So in terms of that that pretty much covers up the camera now hitting on the best and the worst thing about this phone simultaneously, the software is one of those things that I'm not really a huge fan of. Now it's actually pretty stock. It's almost completely stock android for the most part, which is something I like. I don't like having a bunch of random things coming up and a lot of bloatware.

This thing does, have you know blackberry's, you know built-in apps, but other than that. It's a pretty stock experience which I like now, unfortunately it did get. You know it only got like one or two versions of android, so it started off with android 7.1. It got all the way up to android 8.1, and it didn't go any further than that which is actually pretty sad, because I feel like this phone could probably still support. You know, maybe a couple more versions of android here and there it did kind of have kind of like a watered-down chipset at that time.

So it's not necessarily like the best performing phone of all time, but I think it's okay like if it got a couple more updates. I think that would have been awesome, but I think something that's even cooler than that is the fact that this phone has a 3 500 million power battery inside it, and I think that's a perfect size battery. You know we're seeing still 3 500 million powers to be a perfect size battery that people are still putting into their phones. So I think that is a perfect highlight of this phone. The battery life, I think, is perfect on this phone, but the software is a bit outdated.

The software is not even that bad because it's mostly stock android, which I love, but it is a little outdated, we're already getting our developer betas for android 12, so that's already many years outdated for the most recent version of software that this phone got so keep that in mind that, but that's pretty much how I would kind of sum up, this specific phone's best feature and probably the worst feature as well now, when they get off with the performance, this device had that Qualcomm snapdragon, 625 chipsets inside it an autocore, CPU and arena 506, GPU and three gigabytes of ram on the base model and then four gigabytes of ram on the top tier model. Now, in this specific case as well, I mean this is another case in point where I'll probably tell you that this phone's performance is actually not that bad. You know it's still actually a pretty decent performing device. Now, there are two different things. I want to say with that being said: one it's an older phone, so I'm comparing it to those phones that came out the same year and two because of this phone and the way it looks and the screen a lot of things.

I would end up normally doing on a phone like this end up being a little strange and what I mean by that is, if I'm playing a certain game or if I'm doing a certain thing on this device- and let's say I have to put it in landscape mode or even if I'm keeping it regular in portrait mode. There are issues when I'm using this specific device. If, if I'm trying to use a specific app that maybe has to take up the whole entire screen, it's okay, this phone can actually take up. You know it's not like the blackberry passport. With the know, square screen, this thing handles those type of apps fine, but sometimes it does get in the way the keyboard or the naval buttons.

Just because I'm trying to do something on the screen- and I can't really do it that well because the screen is almost like half the size of the phone itself and that does kind of become a problem. You know to be completely honest but the whole entire UI because, like I said it's stock android, it looks pretty good. It handles everything perfectly fine for the most part, if you start doing more intensive, you know heavier intensive games, obviously you're going to run into problems. The other big thing here is that a lot of apps may start to become unsupported on these older versions of android. So that's another pretty big thing to keep in mind, but I think for a majority of things, you're going to do on this phone you're, probably going to get an okay experience in this day and age.

You know comparatively to other devices that came out in 2017. When I look at the Galaxy S8, the note8, even like the iPhone 10, those phones hold up much better. The iPhone 10 holds up the best out of 2017 phones for sure, but I think this device, for the most part gets the job done and I wouldn't necessarily say it's a great performing phone, but I think it's an okay performing phone for a 2017 phone and 2021. So in terms of that, that pretty much covers that up and to kind of sum up this video and say answer the question: should you go and buy a blackberry key one in 2021? Well, this is what I'll tell you know. I think this phone in some ways is worth it.

You know, and in most ways it's probably not worth it to a lot of people. Now this phone isn't like the cheapest phone. You can buy it's still actually fairly expensive, which is kind of annoying. The main thing is this: blackberry is kind of defunct. Now you know I don't know if they're still making phones, they may be making a phone here and there, but they're not like the phone manufacturer they used to be so that's a humongous thing to keep in mind the biggest you know problem with this device.

In my opinion is probably the software and the lack of software thereof. You know it's not getting any more software updates, so I think that's a pretty big disadvantage that you're going to be getting on this phone. I think the performance is still pretty decent. You know it's okay, I don't want to make it sound like it's a highlight it's a very average performing phone. So keep that in mind.

I think the fact that it has the keyboard can either be a pro or a con for you. For me, it's probably more of a con, but it's not something that I would kind of like you know freak out about, but I don't really like how the screen is. Just you know, half the phone. I don't like that at all. I hate how the keyboard is always there, even if you don't need it and that's a pretty big disadvantage for this type of device.

While I get over it probably, but it is something that kind of annoys me and I feel like that's going to annoy a lot of people. I love the battery size in this thing. It's fairly big. I love having a micro SD cards on this phone too, but when I look at other phones that came on in 2017 phones like the note8, the s8 plus and even the iPhone 10, those phones are so much better in so many ways than this device that unless this one was being gifted to me or something I would probably want to pick up. You know iPhone 10 or a note, 8 or Galaxy S8 plus, or something like that over this device for sure.

So, in terms of everything that pretty much covers it up, if you guys want to pick up this phone or any other phones, I'd recommend the links are down below. Like I mentioned, you can get them from there and help support the channel at the same time hit the like button. If you guys enjoyed the video but definitely hit that subscribe button, every single subscriber that we get really discount so me so much you guys can hit that also check out the other links down in the description as well. My Twitter, my Instagram, my other channels. More importantly and everything else, I love every single one of you guys, hopefully I'll catch you guys in the next video peace out till then you.

Source : Simple Alpaca