BlackBerry KeyOne: Keyboard-toting ‘Mercury’ gets full outing at MWC

Officials from both firms unvailed the KEYone in Barcelona in northeastern Spain ahead of the start on Monday of the four-day Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest annual phone expo.

TCL chief executive Nicolas Zibell said: “Impressively created to be distinctly different, the BlackBerry Keyone re-imagines how we communicate by offering unmatched productivity and the world’s most secure Android smartphone experience”. Below the front-facing camera is a 4.5-inch Full HD display with a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is a touchscreen, as expected. The device runs on the latest Android 7.1 OS and powered by the Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB storage. The Boost feature Turbo Charges the battery and the Quick Charge 3.0, charges your smartphone uptp 50% in 36 minutes as it puts the device in battery saving mode while it charges. The storage can be further expandable up to 2TB via a dedicated microSD card slot.

The BlackBerry KEYone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat out-of-the-box under the umbrella of BlackBerry launcher and its software suites such as the DTEK security.

The KeyOne’s keyboard lets you program keyboard shortcuts so that you can quickly jump to your favorite contacts or apps.

It is not just the typing that you can do with the QWERTY keyboard of the KEYone.

At the launch event today, TCL executives touted the KEYone as “the world’s most secure Android phone”.

Although a device that marks a new era for BlackBerry phones, the KEYOne will continue to grab attention for the same reason as its predecessors – that physical keyboard.

A QWERTY keyboard with a fingerprint sensor built into the spacebar. For example, you could press the B button to launch the browser. As for the front part, you get a decent 8MP unit that should do the magic when it comes to selfies and video calls.

TCL scored new brand-licensing deal in December with BlackBerry Ltd., which now focuses on making the security software that was another key factor underpinning the Canadian company’s phenomenal success in the pre-smartphone era. Finally, the KeyOne’s space bar doubles as a fingerprint reader. Even the keyboard can be used like a laptop trackpads for scrolling through the web pages or moving to the next photo in the gallery.

In addition to the DTEK app, BlackBerry Hub is also coming along with its Android operating system. From now on, TCL will design the phones in-house. That rear camera boasts 1.55-micron pixels, and Walpole says it uses the same sensor found in the Google Pixel.

As for the availability of the device, BlackBerry has said it will be available across the globe starting from April.

At the bottom of the device, there’s a USB-C port for charging. The BlackBerry KeyOne loses any cross-comparison done in store, and moreover, it fails by not having the distribution agreements with carriers that will get it in stores in the first place.