The BlackBerry KEYone stands alone, completely by itself in a segment of the market ignored by 99.9% of today’s wholesale Samsung Galaxy Note 4 LCD screen -makers.
Hell, most phones these days have NO buttons on the front of them, let alone an entire QWERTY keyboard. So, yeah… the BlackBerry KEYone is different. But, so what? So’s tuna-flavoured ice cream, and I don’t see anyone queuing up for that.
The BlackBerry brand has been in free-fall for years now. The company has tried and failed on multiple occasions to resurrect its fortunes, first with BB10, and now with Android, but nothing seems to really stick.
And this is a massive shame, because the company really knows what it is doing when it comes to hardware and software. BB10 was well ahead of its time and packed in some truly game-changing features. Sadly, the OS did not have time to mature and has now gone the way of Windows Phone.
BlackBerry is making inroads now, though. The company has a solid grasp of Android, what makes it work and how to improve its security. BlackBerry also uses a stock version of Android, which, in a sea of god-awful custom overlays, is something to be celebrated.
We are now just starting to see where BlackBerry is going, what its intentions for Android are. I like what it is doing in the Android space; no one else is paying as much attention to security, privacy and the overall productivity aspects of the OS.
I’ve had many BlackBerry handsets over the years, but the last decent one was the BlackBerry Passport. All the other Android-powered BlackBerry phones I have tested in the past 18 months have felt like works in progress or handsets that never quite reached their true potential.
Prior to testing, I had a sneaky suspicion I’d rather like the BlackBerry KEYone. I like BlackBerry when its being unapologetically BlackBerry; it's here that it often does its best stuff – the Passport being the last time.
I just spent 16 days testing the BlackBerry KEYone. Below is my full verdict, warts and all. Enjoy…
BlackBerry KEYone Review: Design
There’s no two ways about it: the BlackBerry KEYone is a beast. It doesn’t mess around in this department; what you see is what you get, though the BlackBerry KEYone is A LOT better looking in real life. Pictures do not do it justice.
The BlackBerry KEYone itself is a hulking mass of metal, glass and premium-feeling, super tactile keys. It feels like a BlackBerry of old that has been smashed together with a modern phone. But importantly, and for the first time, BlackBerry has got it right.
The BlackBerry KEYone feels like a BlackBerry should; its reassuringly heavy, kinda thick and it really does look the business whenever you whip it out. During the testing period several people stopped me to enquire about the phone I was using; they liked the look of it and were surprised by the keyboard.
The design will not be for everybody, though. My girlfriend said it was the ugliest piece of junk she had ever seen. Harsh, I know. But that’s always going to happen when you make a phone like the BlackBerry KEYone; some will love it, most will hate it.
I fall very much in the former category. I like that it’s different. I like that it has a keyboard. I also like that it is pretty chunk; it feels solid, like it could take a kicking and keep on ticking. I also like that it has a “smart” button on the side, which you can programme to do whatever you like (take note, Samsung). Mine’s linked to the camera, so whenever I click it the camera opens.
The power/unlock button lives on the left hand side of the handset, and to me this positioning just doesn’t feel right – I’d much prefer them the other way around or even on the same, right side, as I KEPT using the short-cut function key to unlock the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 display when I first started testing the BlackBerry KEYone. Either way, this is a minor crumble.