BlackBerry KEYone review: the keyboard comeback? By High Tech Traveler

Not too long ago, it wasn't uncommon to see a smartphone with a full QWERTY keyboard. In fact, people refuse to be a dominant feature, which has become all too uncommon these days in 2017, we only have one notable Android smartphone with keyboard the new BlackBerry key one, a modern Android smartphone, which brings back BlackBerry's iconic keyboard as an Android smartphone. The key one is a bit of an oddball: it sports, a mid-range Qualcomm, Snapdragon 625 chip, a 16 20 by 1080p IPS LCD and its 3505 William hour battery. Despite selling for five hundred and fifty dollars, the phone's performance isn't anywhere near the top flagship devices from 2017. What you're paying for is the BlackBerry name, the physical keyboard and incredible battery life, as you'd expect. The BlackBerry is accompanied by a design, that's different from anything else on the market.

If you want a phone that looks and feels like a tool, this is it. It has a metal frame, a soft touch rubber panel on the back for a secure and comfortable grip, a large metal ring around the camera and, of course, BlackBerry's signature, corded keyboard up front. It's solid and heavy for most other smartphones. These days feel light and pretty fragile. That being said, the key one is still elegant with the style which will fit in perfectly on a desk in a corporate boardroom, and when you consider the keyboard, that's exactly the clientele that the key one is geared towards people who don't need the frills and flashy design of flagship phones.

This one is meant for people who just want to get work done. The keyboard may look similar to the BlackBerry keyboards of old, but it does have a few hidden tricks. The space key doubles as a fingerprint scanner, and the whole keyboard is capacitive as well. Turning it into a huge trackpad, you can swipe your finger on it to scroll through content, use it to navigate through text messages that you've typed and even select autocomplete suggestions, and if that wasn't enough, you can assign app shortcuts to nearly every key on the keyboard as well from a concept standpoint. The keyboard sounds pretty amazing, but I have issues with the spacing of the keys.

It's just too cramped. My typing style I was a huge fan of the original g1 and even owned the g2, but the keyboards on those phones could stretch the full height of the device, giving you a lot more room to work with, but that's not to say that the keyboard is bad. It's just not for me. If you were used to the BlackBerry keyboard in the past, you'll likely feel right at home with the key one in hand. For me, the most exciting thing about this phone is the battery life.

Coupling the Snapdragon 625 processor was a 3505 William hour battery was an incredible decision. The phone has just enough power to work on documents, blasting out emails and playing occasional games, but it's low power consumption allows the massive battery to keep the phone running for hours on end as much as I tried, I was unable to kill the battery in a single day, even going fifteen hours off the charger with more than six hours of screen on time, and if you treat it well, you can actually take this to two full days without needing a charge. The four to three aspect- ratio of the screen looks a little out of place since sixteen by nine displays are the norm and 18 by 9 is becoming more common, but it works perfectly fine. It's bright enough to be used outdoors and viewing angles aren't bad either. Just don't expect the best experience if you're planning on watching back video from time to time.

The software package of the key one is a little different from what you get on most Android devices, mainly because BlackBerry has crammed in a suite of security and productivity apps, which they claim make the phone a lot more secure than other Android devices. The device is encrypted by default, so you shouldn't have to worry about someone snooping on your content, but that's really not an issue that most other Android phones have and then there's a blackberry hub, which merges all your emails call logs and text messages into a unified view. It's supposed to make you more productive, but I found it just to be a cluttered mess. Now you might not have expected this, but this phone also comes with a decent camera. On the back- and it's not just for stamping pictures as those corporate events or holiday parties, the phone has the same camera as the Google Pixel, with an F 2.0 lens. You don't get Google's fancy HDR plus mode, but the shots are pretty amazing when you're taking pictures in daylight, and you get some decent low-light shots as well.

As long as you have a steady hand, I have a gallery of full resolution shots linked in the description. If you want to take a peek well, the camera is pretty decent in the end, there's really only two reasons why you should consider buying the BlackBerry key one. If battery life is your number one smartphone priority or if you used to use the BlackBerry device and have been longing for an Android smartphone with a proper keyboard. If neither of those describes you'll be better served by pretty much any other Android smartphone in the 500 to $600 range. Let me know what your take is on the BlackBerry key one in the comments.

Is this smartphone exactly what you've been waiting for, or do you think that BlackBerry needs to revamp its strategy? If it really wants to get back into the smartphone game, if you enjoyed this video I'd really appreciate a thumbs up. You can follow me on Twitter at Nick, M gray, and make sure you subscribe to the channel as well. Thanks for watching.

Source : High Tech Traveler