BlackBerry KEYone Special Edition: Hands-On With The "Vader Berry" By MrMobile [Michael Fisher]

(moody music) - Normally a new color and a minor spec bump are not newsworthy enough for a hands on video but this version of the Blackberry Keyone is noteworthy for more than new paint job. For one thing, it improves on the base model in two areas it was especially lacking. And for another, it's said to be assembled by an entirely different company. Generally speaking I'm not a huge fan of the murdered out look in my gadgets but I get how folks could dig this paint job. Now I've been told that the official name of this thing is the Limited-Edition Keyone Mercury Black Device by Blackberry made by Optiemus Infracon. But that's the most horribly convoluted name since the Sprint Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G touch.

So I've taken to calling it, the Vader-berry. This phone is basically a stealth fighter. It's not just the top and side rails but the keyboard frets and even the Blackberry logo have been totally blacked out. If this was made for North America, I'd want Blackberry to license some Star Wars branding from Disney and call this the Dark Side edition. But this model is not for US shores.

At least not yet. Instead, it's distributed by Optiemus Infracon for the India market with the design licensed by TCL and the whole arrangement falling under a licensing agreement from Blackberry itself. Now, it does get even more confusing than that, Optiemus told me the device is made in India, but the box says it's made in China. I'm sure there's probably a technical distinction between assembled and built that Optiemus is drawing to allow them to claim it's made in India, but I didn't get to the bottom of it by press time. As I said in the intro this isn't just the same device with a different paint job, dual Sim slots and the ability to use more than one carrier at a time and there's also an additional gig of ram and doubled on board storage to 64 gigs.

The benefits of additional storage are obvious and the extra ram might help those who juggle multiple apps at once. I say might, because after using the Vader-berry for about four days, I can't see a performance difference between old and new models. This isn't a surprise as everything else on the spec sheet is unchanged. What did surprise me is how close the two models are physically. The hand feel is identical and the principal staple of a Blackberry, that hardware keyboard, is also perfectly reproduced.

The end result is a Keyone, through and through, which in some ways has aged very well since launch. In particular the software has actually gotten speedier on my device since my review. Which I think is at least partially thanks to me finally uninstalling Snapchat. On the downside, there are the well publicized screen separation issues on some units. I haven't seen it on any of my three devices but it's still something you want to keep an eye on.

Especially given that the special edition model is coming from different origins, maybe. All that is to say that if you live in India and want one of these you'll be getting the full Keyone experience with all it's ups and downs. You can check out my review if you want to know what that whole story is. Rumor has it we'll see this model or a version of it hit other markets soon, but even if that comes to pass, I don't see myself jumping at the opportunity. My three gig 32 gig model, continues to serve me well enough that I'm not all that tempted by the Dark Side.

But even so, it's nice that Blackberry fans are being given yet another choice. Be sure to check out my Blackberry Keyone review for my full thoughts on that device and subscribe to Mr Mobile for more Mobiletech family videos landing every week on youtube. Until next time, thanks for watching. And stay mobile my friends.

Source : MrMobile [Michael Fisher]