advantages
- Solid security
- Useful productivity features
- Excellent battery
disadvantage
- Too weak CPU
- Expensive
- A physical keyboard isn’t for everyone
key specifications
- Evaluation Price: £499.00
- Snapdragon 625 CPU
- Physical smart keyboard
- 4.5 inch LCD touchscreen, 3:2 aspect ratio
- 3505mAh battery
- Android 7.1 Nougat operating system
- 12-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX378 camera sensor and 8-megapixel front camera
- USB Type C
What is the BlackBerry KEYone?
The KEYone is the latest handset from the former smartphone heavyweight BlackBerry. It aims to bring the classic BlackBerry keyboard experience to the old-school folks who remember the original Bold.
Coupled with the cutting-edge Android Nougat OS and the best battery life I’ve seen on a handset this year, the KEYone basically achieves that goal and is a solid choice for hardcore BlackBerry fans craving a decent work phone.
However, I’m not convinced the keyboard will be enough to win over the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy generations that grew up with touchscreen devices, especially given the KEYone’s rather high price point.
Related: The best smartphones
BlackBerry KEYone theme
The KEYone clearly feels like a classic BlackBerry phone straight out of the early 2000s. It combines design cues from the company’s first Android phone, the Priv, which featured a slide-out “smart” keyboard, and the newer DTEK60, a touchscreen-only phone.
The end result is a handset that looks a little like an outstretched BlackBerry Passport, with the keyboard sitting beneath a rectangular touchscreen. The aluminum chassis and textured back continue the KEYone’s retro feel, but will divide opinions.
When the duo showed the handset to a family friend’s teens, the duo’s reaction was a PG-13 “What the (fudge) is that?” But an elderly relative who’s spent most of her career smashing email on QWERTY Blackberry keyboards squealed with delight when I showed her the KEYone.
As far as typing goes, the KEYone’s keyboard is one of the best I’ve tested, with solid autocorrect and a nifty flick system that lets you quickly accept on-screen word suggestions. However, I am not convinced that younger buyers who grew up with touchscreens will be able to type faster. After a solid week with the KEYone, I still found using the physical keyboard a bit odd and found myself thinking more about what I was doing than I would have liked.
With prolonged use, I can see that it’s great for power users who need to edit lengthy documents on their phone. This is mainly because the backlit ‘smart’ keyboard has the same gesture touch technology as the Priv, allowing you to use it as a trackpad. The feature is a boon, giving you much more control over the cursor when selecting text.
The ability to program shortcuts into each key and a dedicated programmable “Action” key on the right side of the phone are other useful extras. The shortcuts are activated with either a short or long press and are great for people who want to quickly activate or launch regularly used applications and services. I put certain contacts on keyboard keys so I can call them quickly without having to go through my phone book, for example.
Despite BlackBerry’s retro looks, it also manages to load the KEYone with all the kit and connectivity you’d expect from a 2017 flagship.
The keyboard’s spacebar is equipped with a fingerprint scanner, which has proven reliable during my tests, and the use of a USB-C connector and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology ensures that it stands up to rivals in terms of data transfer and loading speeds can keep up.
Build quality is solid, although the textured back is a dirt magnet and the KEYone easily survived a chance encounter with a rampaging toddler with a penchant for chewing or throwing anything.
My only issue with the KEYone’s design is that the keyboard results in some pretty serious compromises for regular users who primarily use their phone for entertainment. The addition of the keyboard and all the clever tech inside means the KEYone is pretty chunky at 9.4mm and weighing 180g.
The dimensions aren’t terrible, especially since the keyboard means you’re using it with two hands 90% of the time, but the phone feels a lot more like a phablet despite only having a 4.5-inch screen.
The bigger issue is how the keyboard affects media consumption and gaming. Aside from the fact that the keyboard reduces the screen size, the way it sticks out of the bottom makes playing games that are generally designed to work in landscape mode a bit awkward.
BlackBerry KEYone – Ad
The 4.5-inch screen’s 3:2 aspect ratio is another small issue that makes some applications, and especially video content, look a bit odd.
Other than that, the screen is pretty good. The 1620 x 1080 resolution gives the display a crisp 434ppi (pixels per inch) density, ensuring text and icons look consistently sharp. The IPS panel also boasts reasonably clean whites, and while blacks aren’t as inky as on AMOLED phone screens like that of the Galaxy S8, they’re reasonably deep. Colors are pretty good too and don’t look too cool or overcooked.
The only slight downside is that the viewing angles aren’t quite as wide as I’d like on a phone in the KEYone’s price range, although that’s considering the fact that most people don’t use it for watching movies or TV shows want, this is a little quirk.
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Verified against respected industry benchmarks and real-world tests
Always has a SIM card installed
Tested with phone calls, games and popular apps