Blackberry’s latest physical keyboard-equipped flagship, the KEY2 is now available for Rs 42,990. Introduced originally a few weeks before, the second-generation smartphone is the company’s yet another attempt at retaining its existing customers by offering modern features with a classic QWERTY keyboard.
The presence of a physical keyboard also means the KEY2 misses out on the biggest 2018 trend which is 18:9 screens. On the KEY2, you’ll find a 4.5-inch 3:2 display with a resolution of 1620 x 1080 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. In addition, it’s powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chipset, 6GB of RAM, expandable storage, and a 3360mAh battery that does support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0.
As for the camera arrangement, the BlackBerry KEY2 has two 12-megapixel sensors on the rear and an 8-megapixel lens on the front. It comes preloaded with Android 8.1 with a handful of BlackBerry security tidbits. The phone is also compatible with two SIM cards, Bluetooth 5.0, and even comes with a standard headphone jack.
The phone maker also made a bunch of upgrades to the physical keyboard. For starters, there’s now a ‘Speed key’ which lets you launch specific apps by pressing the key and the configured letter together. The keys themselves are 20% bigger with the same footprint. The spacebar still houses the fingerprint sensor.
There’s only one color option available for now, Black. You can purchase the BlackBerry KEY2 on Amazon starting from this month’s 31st. Moreover, Reliance Jio customers can also avail a cashback of Rs 4,450.
Commenting further on the launch, Alex Thurber, SVP and GM of Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry, stated, “BlackBerry is excited to expand our partnership with Optiemus to bring more of the world’s most secure Android smartphones to customers in India. We have been perfecting our approach to mobile security for decades, and are excited that the BlackBerry KEY2 is being made locally in India by Optiemus, designed for security from the inside out with the iconic productivity features that BlackBerry smartphones are so well known for.”
BlackBerry KEY2 Specifications
- Dimensions: 151.4×71.8×8.5mm; Weight: 168g
- 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080 pixels) 3:2 display, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 14nm Octa-core Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs), Adreno 512 GPU
- 6GB RAM, 64/128GB internal storage, expandable up to 2TB with microSD
- Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Hybrid dual SIM, 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 5 LE, NFC, USB 3.0 Type-C
- Rear Camera: 12-megapixel primary f/1.8 lens, dual-tone LED Flash,1.14µm pixel size, Dual PDAF, 12-megapixel secondary f/2.6 sensor
- 8MP front-facing camera
- 3360mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0