After launching its first Android smartphone Aurora in the Indonesian market, now it seems like that the Canadian smartphone manufacturer Blackberry is all set to introduce its second Android offering, dubbed as the “BlackBerry KEYone” in the Indian tech market on Tuesday, August 1. The company has already started sending out the media invites for its upcoming premium smartphone launch event this week, which is scheduled to be held on Tuesday, August 1 in New Delhi, India. At the event, BlackBerry and its India partner Optiemus Infracom will be announcing the pricing details and availability of its premium smartphone, the BlackBerry KEYone. Optiemus Infracom is a diversified business group, which has the official permit to distribute and sell BlackBerry-branded smartphones countrywide.
BlackBerry Mobile India on Friday shared a teaser image about the BlackBerry’s latest Android smartphone launch event on its official social media accounts including Twitter and Instagram. The Tweet reads, “Something exciting is coming up soon! #DoMoreDifferent.” Though the press invite doesn’t reveal any clear information about the upcoming BlackBerry smartphone or which specific smartphone will be launched at the event, it is likely to be the BlackBerry’s 2nd Android smartphone, BlackBerry KEYone. If you don’t remember, the Canadian company launched their BlackBerry KEYOne (aka Mercury) smartphone at the World Mobile Congress (WMC 2017) event in Barcelona earlier this year. At the time of its International debut, BlackBerry used the same tagline “Do More Different” for the KEYone. So from this perspective, the BlackBerry KEYone India launch possibility matches as well.
Something exciting is coming up soon! #DoMoreDifferent pic.twitter.com/forikGvDsQ
— BlackBerry Mobile IN (@BBMobileIndia) July 29, 2017
It's time to #DoMoreDifferent pic.twitter.com/LvjNjYDqH3
— BlackBerry Mobile IN (@BBMobileIndia) July 29, 2017
BlackBerry has closed its hardware business but that doesn’t mean that it is out of it. The company now has TCL, the Chinese hardware maker company which has a global agreement with BlackBerry in Canada to produce handsets. TCL’s agreement holds the right to manufacture and sell BlackBerry smartphones in most of the world with the exception of a few countries in Asia.
Talking about its design, the BlackBerry KEYone sports an anodized aluminium frame with a soft touch textured back, giving it an overall premium outlook. The major highlights of the smartphone are its four-row BlackBerry QWERTY physical backlit keyboard with keys, some decent specifications with the great software, security and productivity suite from BlackBerry’s other devices and Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system. The BlackBerry KEYone also features a fingerprint sensor that is housed underneath the spacebar button.
Technically speaking, the BlackBerry KEYone comes equipped with a 4.5-inch full HD display with a screen resolution of 1620 x 1080 pixels and a scratch resistance glass coating on top. Under the hood, the device is powered by a 2.0GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor paired with Adreno 506 GPU to handle the graphics. In terms of memory, BlackBerry KEYone is backed up by a 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded up to 2TB via a microSD card slot. Talking about its software fronts, the BlackBerry KEYone runs Google’s latest Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system out-of-the-box. As we mentioned, the phone also features a front-mounted fingerprint scanner for biometric security.
For photography, BlackBerry KEYone features a 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX378 sensor, an f/2.0 aperture, 1.55μm pixel size, PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), dual-tone LED Flash and 4K video recording support. On the front, it has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with an f/2.2 aperture for capturing selfies and making video calls.
In terms of connectivity, the BlackBerry KEYone offers various connectivity options including 4G LTE with VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 & 5.0 GHz), GPS/A-GPS/GLONASS, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB 3.1 Type-C port for superfast charging and data transfer. On the battery front, the BlackBerry KEYone comes packed with a 3,505mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology support for fast charging. Dimensionally, the handset measures 149.3 x 72.5 x 9.4 mm and weighs 180 grams.
As for pricing, the BlackBerry KEYone was launched in the US with a price tag of $549 (approx. Rs. 35,200). The smartphone is now available for purchase in the UK at £499 (approx. Rs. 42,000). In the Indian smartphone market, the BlackBerry KEYone will likely to be priced somewhere in between the Rs 40,000 and Rs 42,000.
