TCL today announced that Sprint will be the first carrier in the U.S. to offer the BlackBerry KEYone. This all-new BlackBerry smartphone will officially be on-sale beginning tomorrow, July 14, at sprint.com or by calling 1-800-Sprint1 for 18 monthly payments of $22.00 (SRP – $528 USD).
It will also be available at Sprint stores across the country later this month.
“This is a highly anticipated launch as we partner with Sprint who is among the first U.S. carriers to offer the award-winning BlackBerry KEYone,” said Steve Cistulli, President and General Manager of TCL Communication, North America.
“Expanding the availability of the BlackBerry KEYone is a significant milestone for BlackBerry Mobile, furthering our commitment to offer the best in mobile security and a distinctly different communication experience to customers across the U.S.”
Roger Sole, Sprint Chief Marketing Officer added,
“BlackBerry has a long-standing reputation for providing one of the most accurate and easy-to-use keyboards and incredible security features,”
“We are pleased to bring BlackBerry back into our device portfolio and we believe the BlackBerry KEYone will be a hit with our customers. It pairs perfectly with Unlimited Freedom, giving Sprint customers the convenience of unlimited data on an incredibly powerful and security-conscious smartphone.”
For a limited time, when a customer switches to Sprint, they can get four lines of unlimited data, talk and text for $22.50 per month per line with Unlimited Freedom. Plus for a limited time, your fifth line is free! This offer includes HD streaming for videos, gaming and music enjoyment and 10GB/month per line of mobile hotspot data.
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 |
