At a launch event in Johannesburg today, TCL announced that the BlackBerry KEYone will be available in South Africa from August 7.
Pre-orders for BlackBerry KEYone are now open via Cellucity and for for a limited period, the device will be available exclusively at Vodacom stores from August 7 and will retail for R9,649 Prepaid and R479 per month on a a 24-month U Choose Flexi 200 plan.
Bob El-Hawary, EMEA head of carrier operations for BlackBerry Mobile, a business unit within TCL Communication said,
“We are thrilled to announce the availability of the BlackBerry KEYone in South Africa”
“With our new Android powered BlackBerry smartphone, we’ve built a highly reliable and durable device with a strong display that packs enough battery life to get you through a busy day”.
“We are convinced this distinctly different smartphone is the perfect companion for today’s professional consumer”Â
Davide Tacchino, Vodacom ME for Terminals commented,
“We are excited to launch the BlackBerry KEYone with its unique form factor designed to meet the needs of the modern generation and professional consumer”
Out of the box, the device runs Android 7.1 – giving users access to the entire Google Play store and apps – and will receive Google security patch updates. It comes loaded with BlackBerry Hub, bringing all your messages into one consolidated place; including emails, texts and messages from any social media account. 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, and many other IMAP and POP3 email providers.
At the core of this new BlackBerry smartphone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 mobile platform with the Qualcomm AdrenoTM 506 GPU. This means BlackBerry KEYone users will enjoy long battery life thanks to more efficient battery usage and fast LTE speeds for super-fast file sharing.
It includes Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 technology, making it possible for the 3505 mAh battery on the KEYone – the largest ever in a BlackBerry device, to receive up to 50 percent charge in roughly 36 minutes. And for when you only have a few moments to grab a fast charge, BlackBerry’s Boost can turbo charge your battery to get you the most charge with the limited time you have.
Coming to the camera, there is a 12MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, and dual tone LED flash. For selfies, there is an 8MP front camera with 1.12 µm pixel size. Both the cameras can record videos at a maximum of Full HD resolution. The power button, volume rocker, and the SIM card are placed on the right edge of the device.
On the left edge is the BlackBerry Convenience Key that can be customized for different operations. In between the display and QWERTY keyboard are the three capacitive navigation buttons for back, home, and multi-tasking (from left to right).
Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, GPS, 3.5mm Audio port, and USB Type-C port. With the NFC and fingerprint sensor, the KeyOne can be used for making payments using the Android Pay.
BlackBerry KEYone Specs
| Operating system | Android 7.1 Nougat |
| Display | 4.5-inch, 1620×1080 IPS LCD 434ppi 3:2 Aspect Ratio |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Quad-core 2.00GHz Adreno 506 GPU |
| RAM | 3GB |
| Storage | 32GB |
| Expandable | microSD up to 2TB |
| Rear Camera | 12MP (1.55 micron) f/2.0, PDAF dual-tone LED flash HDR, 4K, 30fps |
| Front Camera | 8MP f/2.2 1.12-micron pixels Selfie flash 1080p/30 video |
| Battery | 3505 mAh non-removable |
| Charging | Quick Charge 3.0 USB-C |
| Water resistance | No |
| Security | DTEK security suite FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption Android For Work, Google Play for Work |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC GPS, GLONASS NFC FM Radio |
| Network (NA GSM) | LTE Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/19/20/28/29/30 TD-LTE Band 38/39/40/41 |
| Network (NA CDMA) | LTE Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/12/13/20/25/26/28/29/30 TD-LTE Band 41 CDMA BC 0/1/10 |
| Network (EMEA) | LTE Band 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/13/17/20/28 TD-LTE Band 38,40 |
| Dimensions | 149.1 mm x 72.39 mm x 9.4 mm |
| Weight | 180 grams |
