The next BlackBerry phone is coming soon, and in case you had any doubt that the next new phone would be a follow-up to last year’s BlackBerry KeyOne, this tweet from BlackBerry should make things pretty clear:
🔑2⃣ 👀 pic.twitter.com/t4ZF9yGfhH
— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) May 11, 2018
Yup, it’s the Key2 (or 🔑2⃣ , I guess). Either way, BlackBerry plans to unveil the new phone at an event in New York City on June 7th.
Of course, BlackBerry doesn’t actually make phones anymore. The company develops software that runs on Android phones, and licenses the BlackBerry name to Android hardware makers including TCL. So the next phone will most likely be a BlackBerry-branded device built by TCL.
If recent leaks are anything to go by, it’ll look a lot like the KeyOne, with a 3:2 aspect ratio display and a physical QWERTY keyboard below the screen.
Under the hood the new model will likely get a spec bump, and the new model is expected to have dual rear cameras rather than the single camera on the back of the phone of the KeyOne.
There’s still no word on the price or release date, but we should find out more about the upcoming BlackBerry Key2 in less than a month.
I’ve been planning to replace my BlackBerry KeyOne with a Note 9 or Pixel 3, but this will probably be my new phone if the specs are decent. I love having a physical keyboard.
Why replace KyeOne with keyless phone so soon?
Blackberry 10 is doomed, because it’s a 32 bit operating system. That means all the old Blackberry devices will soon be unsupported. Blackberry is switching to 64 bit Android rather than creating a new Blackberry 64 bit OS. It makes sense, since Blackberry 10 has less than 0.2% market share. But still there are a few die hard Blackberry users who don’t want to give up their phones. The Key2 might be a good option for them, of corporations buy into the idea.
Yet the kernel is a million times better than any mainstream OS bar none.
BB OS 10 was sleek, smooth running, however, when I bought it, Android was already as smooth and, aside from awesome-native gesture control, UI and user experience wise it didnt have anything special about it anymore. Yes, security was better, but nothing else.
Still ugly AF and huge as well.
Would love to get one with the size of Q5/Q10. Bought both of them when they were already obsolete thinking that at least basic apps that I needed would be supported or use Android versions – no deal, plus the battery was crap, returned them both.
Looking towards iPhone SE2 to fill that niche of small smartphone, albeit without a keyboard.