As a wardrobe staple for minivan dads and business executives everywhere, the BlackBerry continues to evolve year to year. The design of BlackBerrys change from year to year, adding in new features while taking away old ones to keep up with large phone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung. This year, the brand gave something for 40 year-old men to slide into their belt holsters as the company’s flag ship phone, the BlackBerry KEYone, is now available in Canada. With specs that meet today’s industry standards and a design that’s uniquely BlackBerry’s, your dad’s next phone isn’t half bad.
Measuring at 149.1 x 72.3 cm, the BlackBerry KEYone is about the same size as the iPhone 7 and should fit nicely in the hand. The LCD display backs a very high 1080 x 1620 display, making for one of the highest resolution smartphones we’ve seen on the market. The KEYone falls short of the OLED displays we’re starting to see in newer smartphones and the Retina display that’s been featured in iPhones forever. It leaves a little to be desired, but doesn’t take away from the phone too much.
What would a BlackBerry be without it’s most designing features used to help out parents that are bad at texting: The physical keyboard. Perfect for helping parents that are bad at texting, the keyboard not only has physical buttons, but also has built in touch recognition capabilities that let users enter swipe texting and other hand gestures. The keyboard sits under the 4.5 inch display, taking up about a fourth of the phone’s surface area.
Inside, one of the biggest change that the BlackBerry KEYone has adapted is the introduction of Andriod OS. Out of the box, the phone will be powered by Andriod 7.1 Nougat, ditching the BlackBerry OS of old. While the phone allows for the use of BBM and other BlackBerry services, the KEYone features Google Chrome, the Play Store and every other Google app we’ve seen on Andriods. The phone also packs a 12 Megapixel camera with a f/2.0 lens and a sensor that is 1/2.3″ big. The new camera is top of the line and also allows for the Recording of 2160p video at 30 fps. On the front, the selfie camera is an 8 Megapixel camera at f/2.2. It is by far the best camera we’ve seen from a BlackBerry and has almost the exact same specs as the iPhone 7.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about the BlackBerry KEYone is the battery they put in this things. The phone’s battery can hold a whopping 3505 mAh of power, almost doubling that of the iPhone 7 and even beating out the iPhone 7 Plus. Even though the new operating system will drain more battery life than the older BlackBerry OS, it should be no problem squeezing a full day out of the KEYone’s battery. What’s even better is that large battery can be charged quickly with the USB-C charging port.
The BlackBerry KEYone is now available in Canada for $0 through select carriers on a 2-year plan.