The device, which is produced by Chinese-manufacturer TCL and was formerly known as the Mercury, is distinctly BlackBerry.

For starters, it incorporates the beloved physical hardware keyboard. While some may find it a bit anachronistic, it remains one of the most comfortable ways to type out a long email or document on a mobile phone.

And as we’ve seen with previous BlackBerry devices, the keyboard itself can be used as a navigation device, allowing users to traverse through the phone by swiping. This functionality debuted on the BlackBerry Passport, way back in 2014.

On the KEYone, the physical keyboard has been turbo-charged, allowing you to use each key as a shortcut, assigning keys to apps and actions. By short- or long-pressing the letter ‘u’, for example, you can launch Uber.

As is expected these days, the full details for the device were leaked slightly before the event, and while respectable, are unlikely to set anyone’s world on fire. As expected, there’s a 4.5-inch touchscreen with a 1620 x 1080-pixel resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio.

Moving on to the camera, its rear-shooter is a 12MP Sony IMX378, which supports 4K video at 30FPS, and has an f/2.0 lens. Its selfie camera is a perfectly decent 8MP affair.

At the bottom of the device, there’s a USB-C port for charging. The gorgeous and slender aluminum design also incorporates a headphone jack, the usual volume rocker and power key, plus a function key that can be configured as required.

The KEYone also boasts a textured back cover, which TCL promises will improve your grip on the device.

As has been the case with previous devices, the KEYone runs a relatively untouched version of Android Nougat 7.1, complimented by BlackBerry’s security and productivity software, like the BlackBerry Hub and DTEK.

Powering it is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core chip, backed up with 3GB of RAM, and a gigantic 3,505mAh battery. This supports Quick Charge 3.0, and is accompanied with something called Boost, which further speeds up the charging process by putting it into battery saving mode. It comes with 32GB of internal storage, which can be expanded with a microSD card.

The KEYone is a distinct and gorgeous device. As BlackBerry focuses more on its major profit centers – namely software and services – it’s nice to know that the current licensor to the BlackBerry name hasn’t forgotten its roots, and can produce a device that makes us drool.

The device will be available from April, 2017, and will be priced at €599 in Europe, £499 in the UK, and $549 in the US.

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Source: Thenextweb

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The company used to be the biggest and most important smartphone maker in the world. But it has said that it will now stop designing them itself, instead outsourcing that development to partners.

It brings to an end months of speculation about what BlackBerry would do with its smartphone business, which has been gradually overtaken by companies like Apple and Samsung.

It had tried other options, like using Google’s Android operating system in phones that it built itself. But that doesn’t appear to have worked.

“The company plans to end all internal hardware development and will outsource that function to partners,” CEO John Chen said in a statement.

Closing down the part of its business that makes phones will help the company save on capital, it said. Instead, it will have other companies design and build them, removing the need for that investment.

BlackBerry hopes that it can instead revive itself by focusing on software, a focus that it says is now “taking hold”.

The BlackBerry was once a cultural phenomenon – inspiring the “CrackBerry” idea of people glued to their work email and communications. It also made its way into people’s personal lives, with BlackBerry Messenger becoming a central part of people’s communications in the mid-2000s.

But it didn’t see the rise of more sophisticated, touch screen smartphones like those made by Samsung and Apple. Sales gradually died off and, despite frenzied attempts to catch up, it never recovered.

As such, it joins Nokia as a once iconic brand now consigned to history. BlackBerry’s death happened perhaps more gradually – going from being second in the phone market behind Nokia in 2009, when it controlled 20 per cent of the market, to much less than 1 per cent now.

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Source: Independent

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