This is an era of smartphone revivals. Nokia and BlackBerry, two of the biggest names in mobile in 2010, are back.
The Nokia project is a success. In the final quarter of 2018, the brand sold more phones than HTC or Sony and has reportedly become the third-place runner in the UK phone market.
Things are different for BlackBerry – the flagship KEYone shipped 850,000 units in 2017. Analysts called it a failure. BlackBerry licensee TCL did not. “Mission accomplished”, said TCL executive Francois Mahieu of BlackBerry’s 2017 performance.
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BlackBerry has now announced its 2018 hero model, the BlackBerry KEY2. If Nokia’s resurrection is about distribution, getting phones in front of normal people’s eyes, BlackBerry’s is also a quest for relevance.
The BlackBerry KEY2 refines rather than rejects the design of the KEYone. It’s sleeker, 1mm thinner and 12g lighter than the previous model. It looks better, prettier, and still has a keyboard. The “keyboard is one of the most important features that defines a BlackBerry from all of the competition,” says BlackBerry portfolio manager Gareth Hurn.
Its struggle is to convince us we still need a keyboard on a phone in 2018. When even Apple MacBooks have “barely there” keyboards, BlackBerry needs a solid pitch for this argument. Even Hurn admits, “we know a BlackBerry isn’t for everyone.”
TCL has redesigned the BlackBerry keyboard of the KEY2. It looks similar, but the keys are 20 per cent taller that last year’s. They are well contoured, and using them brings up 10-year-old memories of BlackBerry Bolds, when we were all younger and less dangerously obsessed with social media.
The keyboard can be used as a strange wobbly trackpad, swipe gestures scrolling through menus in the Android 8.1 software. Its space bar doubles as a fingerprint scanner.
However, these were also features of the BlackBerry KEYone. The KEY2’s keyboard innovation is the little button that at its bottom-right. BlackBerry calls it the “speed key”. It’s a function button, letting every character on the keyboard act as a shortcut.
Press a key from the Android home screen and the shortcut wizard pops-up. These shortcuts can run apps, dial a contact or start composing a message to them.
The BlackBerry KEY2, then, is a phone to be programmed. It can be a multi-tasking powerhouse that lets you side-step much of the actual Android interface. The important question: is this what people want?
It’s out of step with the development of Android since 2014, which has rejected much of this flavour of user customisation in favour of clean simplicity.
In person it makes some sense, though. The idea isn’t necessarily that you’ll devise a complex shortcut system comprehensible to an audience of one. “F” for Facebook, “I” for Instagram and “N” for your notes app works better. And as the speed key needs to be pressed at the same time, the chances of it pocket-calling both your mum and ex are slim. We’re just not sure anyone else now believes in the phone keyboard quite as much as BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry KEY2 also has the extra security features seen in the KEYone. The Android kernel is “hardened”, the DTEK app acts as a checklist of security-conscious practices, and both apps and files can be stores in “lockers” unlocked with a fingerprint. It also comes preinstalled with the Firefox Focus privacy browser.
This is a second stab at the same BlackBerry KEYone concept. However, the KEY2 does look like less of a 2009 throwback. Its front surround is series 7000 aluminium, and comes in either black or silver. The back is BlackBerry’s signature soft-touch plastic. A squat 4.5-inch screen looks nothing like the notched 18:9 and 19:9 displays Androids favour today, but closely comparing the KEY2 design with a price rival like the LG G7 ThinQ seems ultimately pointless.
That’s not the case with the tech inside, of course, The BlackBerry KEY2 uses the same Snapdragon 660 CPU seen in the Nokia 7 Plus, a mid-range chipset, but one significantly more powerful than the KEYone’s Snapdragon 625.
Camera hardware has improved, too. The BlackBerry KEY2 has two rear cameras, a large 12-megapixel sensor with OIS and an 8-megapixel one with a 2x “zoom” lens. Like rivals it can blur out the background in photos for a more dramatic effect.
It has a 3,500mAh battery, a very large unit for a phone with a 4.5-inch 3:2 display. BlackBerry calls it a “battery you’ll never need to recharge during the day”. And while recent BlackBerry phones may not be renowned for their high sales, they are known for long battery life.
The BlackBerry KEY2 seems to prove TCL’s claims of 2017 success were not disingenuous. If they were, why would the follow-up seem such a natural progression of the KEYone? Either way, its sales will be a true test for the durability of the Blackberry brand. If BlackBerry die-hards already bought the KEYone, some on a 24-month contract, who will make up the audience for this phone? That’s the head-scratcher.
The BlackBerry KEY2 will be available to pre-order shortly, for a release in late June. You’ll pay £579 for the 64GB version. A 128GB model is also coming.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
