BlackBerry Mobile are due to launch their new smartphone at MWC in a few hours and the official name has been revelaed as the KeyOne. The device was codenamed Mercury and many assumed that the official name would be the DTEK70.
BlackBerry Mobile inadvertedly launched the official device page which showed the full specs and official named as Blackberry KeyOne. (This page has been pulled).
The KeyOne features a regular QWERTY layout along with 4.5-inch display offering 1620 x 1080 pixels resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio. There is also a Gorilla Glass 4 on top of the display for the extra protection. It runs on the latest Android 7.1 Nougat along with Blackberry Hub that brings all the iconic Blackberry features into a single app.
Under the hood is the Snapdragon 625 octa-core processor clocked at 2.0GHz and coupled with Adreno 605 GPU. It also packs 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that can be further expanded upto 256GB via MicroSD card slot. It is kept powered on by a 3500mAh non-removable battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging technology.
The battery on this device can be charged from 0% to 50% in just 36 minutes. The interval (space) bar in the fourth row of the QWERTY keyboard also comes integrated with a fingerprint sensor. The Keyboard also supports touch gestures for using like a touchpad on laptops.
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.
In the next few hours, official pricing and availability details of the Blackberry KeyOne smartphone. should be made available.
