BrandedLogoDesigns Complaints: Blackberry KEYone comes with a classic keyboard

TCL wants the Blackberry brand to get more attention in the mobile phone industry - and has now shown the new model "KEYone" on the MWC.

Blackberry itself is well-known out of the hardware business - development and production of the telephones since then completely in the hand of the Chinese company TCL, which has shown at the Mobile World Congress now a new Blackberry device with classic keyboard of the public.

The model "KEYone" runs - as well as the last Blackberrys before it - no longer with the Blackberry OS, but with Google's operating system Android. This is where the latest version 7.1 is used. Thanks to additional software, "KEYone is still the most secure Android phone on the market," said TCL CEO Nicolas Zibell at the presentation in Barcelona.

Blackberry itself continues to control security applications among the devices, said the responsible manager of the Canadian smartphone pioneer, Alex Thurber. The device provides continuous security monitoring and protection for the operating system and apps. The new features include, for example, that every key can be used to start an app directly, for example "F" for Facebook.
In addition, the keyboard is sensitive to touch, as is the case with other recent Blackberry models, and can be used, for example, to wipe it with a wipe.

Other features include a 4.5-inch screen with a resolution of 1,620x1,080 pixels, a fingerprint sensor in the keyboard's keyboard blank, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with Adreno 506 GPU, and QuickCharge 3.0. A 3.505mAh battery, a 12-megapixel main camera and an 8-megapixel front camera complete the equipment list.

Blackberry KEYone comes in April

Blackberry had strongly influenced the early days of the smartphone business, but with the advance of the touchscreen telephones fell far back. Company CEO John Chen directed Blackberry to software and services for enterprises and gave up the development of their own smartphones, after it had not managed to get the area out of the red figures.

The "KEYone" should now bring a comeback also with the devices, emphasized Zibell. However, TCL and Blackberry are taking the risk to bring a model with rather average technical data compared to other Android phones at a premium price of 599 euros.

April was announced as the start date.