Unveiled at the MWC 2017 in Barcelona, BlackBerry has launched today KEYone smartphone in India which runs on Android 7.1 (Nougat) with emphasis on BlackBerry Security features. BlackBerry KEYone Lmited Edition Black as it is called is manufactured by Optiemus Infracom in India.
This phone features a 4.5-inch scratch resistant display (1620×1080 resolution / 434 PPI 3:2 aspect ratio) with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. It has 4 row QWERTY backlit keyboard with capacitive touch display to give users more useable space for typing than a typical 5.5-inch all-touch smartphone.
This phone has a metallic black frame and soft touch textured back.
This phone has improved QWERTY Smart Keyboard which also enables flick typing and a much smoother and intuitive experience. This Smart Keyboard can be customized to launch up to 52 shortcuts for greater ease of use. In addition, the fingerprint sensor is embedded into the keyboard spacebar for added functionality and security.
This phone incorporates the legendary security features that BlackBerry is known for. It comes pre-loaded with DTEK which enables users to automatically monitor their OS and apps to know when their privacy could be at risk and to take action to improve it. The DTEK app also tracks applications and notifies when someone is taking pictures or videos without the user’s knowledge, turning the microphone on, sending a text message, or accessing the contacts or location.
This phone also comes loaded with BlackBerry Hub a unified messaging inbox which combines emails, texts and messages from social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BBM, Whatsapp, Instagram and others. Another benefit of BlackBerry Hub, is the ability to manage multiple email accounts without switching between apps, with support for Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Microsoft Exchange accounts etc.
This phone is powered by 2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 3GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 2TB with microSD card. This is the first BlackBerry smartphone which has Dual SIM support. This phone gets its juice from 3505 mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 and BlackBerry claims that 50 percent charge can be done roughly in 36 minutes.
On the photography front, this phone is packed with 12MP rear camera with Dual-tone LED Flash, Sony IMX378 sensor, f/2.0 aperture, PDAF and 4K video recording capability. For selfies, it has 8MP front-facing camera with fixed focus and 84-degree wide angle lens.
This phone runs on Android 7.1 Nougat and offers connectivity options of 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac,, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS / GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.1 Type-C.
The BlackBerry KEYone comes in Black color and will be available from August 8th exclusively on Amazon India. American Express is offering up to 4,000 bonus points, on purchase of the device, to its credit card members. On buying this phone, Vodafone customers will get up to 75 GB of additional data over a period of three months. This offer is valid until 30th September 2017.
