Die-hard BlackBerry fans who have been underwhelmed by the company’s past few phones with big, touchscreen displays can now pre-order a device that looks a lot more like a classic BlackBerry.

In fact, it’s called the BlackBerry Classic.

BlackBerry is taking pre-orders for $449, and expects the phone to ship in mid-December.

blackberry classic_pre

The BlackBerry Classic features a 3.5 inch, 720 x 720 pixel display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage. It has an 8MP rear camera and a 2MP front camera, and a 2515mAh battery.

What really makes this phone special though, is the keyboard below the screen. It’s a classic BlackBerry-style thumb keyboard with navigation buttons and a trackpad.

The phone does have a touchscreen, but you never have to use it.

In other words, it’s not a phone designed to win over iPhone or Samsung Galaxy users. It’s a phone for folks who loved their old-school BlackBerry phones and want a modern version with a decent display and processor that runs BlackBerry OS 10.3 software.

via BlackBerry

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5 replies on “BlackBerry Classic goes up for pre-order for $449”

  1. Disappointed that the battery is non-removable (without getting ‘adventurous’), but overall the phone looks interesting. However pricing is a bit off, considering my wife picked up a Q5 for CDN$ 130 last month….

  2. BlackBerry should stop wasting their time with BB OS. It’s tough to use on a touch screen, not user friendly, rough around the edges.. A good game plan is to release 2 product lines: one running BBOS, and another running a business focused secure Android.
    Us Android fans have been waiting for a decent phone with a keyboard for ages, and when the DROID line was discontinued, it kinda killed all hope.

    1. Uh, no on all counts… not ever going to happen… Android is made for touching and there isn’t enough of a market to warrant dedicated keyboard devices and BB getting into that market won’t change it!

      It would also not benefit BB in the slightest, plenty of companies try getting into the Android device market and plenty fail! Thus the idea that making a Android device will solve BB’s problems was never a idea that had much of any chance of succeeding… it’s just plenty of people seem to confuse the success of some companies that it would be successful for all when the market really isn’t that big… Much of the Android market is shared and the biggest companies get the biggest shares and they’re not going to give those shares up to make room for yet another company!

      Never mind they lose a lot of their self control and would have to make deals with Google, etc and not be able to do everything they want to, etc. Joining the Android market comes with strings attached!

      BB’s issues with touch won’t change switching to Android either… they’re still the ones who have to optimize the device and they’ll still have the same people working on it as before and get pretty much the same results…

      What you blame on the BB OS is really Blackberry itself, the BB OS is a very powerful and versatile OS platform and there’s not a reason it can’t be great at anything it is used for but how it is used determines how well it functions in any given role and that’s all on Blackberry itself!

      So, you’re not going to magically get a better device from them by just switching OS and their popularity isn’t going to change just by switching the OS either… They just need to get better at designing their devices and optimizing the OS for their users and until then it’s going to be a hard uphill struggle for them…

  3. I wanted to get this and have been waiting for a LONG time…but I’m pissed off with the specs. The cameras have retro specs, no replaceable battery, no Miracast (business phones need this), 2GB of RAM where the passport and Z30 have 3. If this had Passport specs minus the swipeable keyboard I’d be all over this. But I’m now going to pass and wait for the slider next year. Q10’s were going for $199 CAD on sale at Shopblackberry so even the price of the classic @ $449 ($499 CAD) isn’t that hot.

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