The BlackBerry KEYone will now be available in a new black color variant, and this limited edition smartphone will expand the company’s smartphone portfolio, TCL said at Berlin’s IFA conference. According to TCL, this new edition will be launched in several key markets globally, including Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe.
BlackBerry KEYone is a success
The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition was launched exclusively in India during the first week of August. Now it is being expanded to other regions. The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition will first be released next month in the U.K. (£549), Japan (¥79,800), Canada (C$799), France and Germany (€649), and the UAE and Saudi Arabia (2,299 AED). Other markets in Europe, Asia and Latin America will get the handset later this year.
The BlackBerry KEYone has seen great success, and demand for the device is also high around the world, claims BlackBerry’s senior vice president and general manager of Mobility Solutions, Alex Thurber. Further, Thurber congratulated TCL for bringing their second device to the market for sale quickly and expressed confidence that the device will meet the expectations of fans and buyers when it comes to performance and trusted security.
According to TCL’s global general manager for communications for the BlackBerry Mobile brand, Alain Lejeune, the global launch of the KEYone “has far exceeded our expectations. We’re excited to follow our initial launch with the all-new BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition that delivers on our promise to expand our BlackBerry smartphone portfolio in 2017, while laying the groundwork for another addition to our lineup later this year.”
It must be noted that in the U.K., Carphone Warehouse is already taking pre-orders for the Black Edition, but shipments are not expected to start until September 13, notes Android Headlines. In Australia, the handset will be available sometime later this year.
Meanwhile, starting today, AT&T is exclusively offering the space black BlackBerry KEYOne at a price of $16.67. The offer will last for the next 30 days. In the U.S., AT&T and Sprint are the only carriers offering KEYOne (also available unlocked through Amazon and Best Buy).
Specs of the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition
The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition will come with the same specifications as the regular edition, but with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. The original version had 3GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage. The device has a 4.5-inch display with Gorilla Glass 4 protection and a screen resolution of 1080 x 1620. The handset is powered by a Snapdragon 625 SoC and comes with an octa-core CPU clocked at 2GHz and an Adreno 506 GPU as well.
No other smartphone has a better physical QWERTY keyboard than the KEYOne, which offers up to 52 shortcut keys. There is a fingerprint scanner as well embedded inside the space bar. The powerful 3,505mAh battery, paired with the energy conserving nature of the chipset, allows the phone to run for a long time.
Android security updates are delivered to the device monthly, and there is a unique DTEK privacy-monitoring app as well. The device comes pre-installed with Android 7.1 Nougat with BlackBerry’s skin on top. The rear camera is 12 megapixels, while the front camera is 8 megapixels.
