UK will be getting the first crack at the BlackBerry KeyOne, with the unit's release date in the country scheduled on May 5, while US and Canada will be able to get it starting May 31.
Bell, Bell MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, and TelUs will be offering the phone to Canadian consumers at $199. The price in the US is much heftier at $549. However, Sprint will be offering the handset at a lower cost sometime during the summer, according to Engadget. Preorders can be made starting on May 18 on the BlackBerry website.
The KeyOne distinguishes itself from the phones in the market today with its inclusion of a physical QWERTY keyboard, which is the unofficial trademark of the phones made by BlackBerry.
BlackBerry KeyOne bears a 12-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel front one. It runs on Android 7.1 Nougat and comes with a Snapdragon 625 chipset, which is an octa-core processor. It has a 4.5-inch screen with a 1,620 x 1,080 resolution. It has a 3,505 mAh battery. It comes bundled together with BlackBerry's productivity apps.
Given that the KeyOne is intended as BlackBerry's comeback phone in the market following dismal sales of the handsets it offered in the past years, the company will need a lot of sales to put it back as a contender for being one of the top phone manufacturers alongside leading brands such as Samsung and Apple. This will be the first BlackBerry phone, that will be released by TCL Communication, and it is also the first to be powered by Android, which is one of the reasons why the phone is meeting a lot of interest.
The phone was originally slated for release in April. However, a one-month delay was announced so that the company can produce more units in anticipation of the demand that will be made given that this will be the comeback unit of BlackBerry.
