BlackBerry just announced its latest smartphone that was codenamed ‘Athena’ as KEY2 at an event in New York City, as it had promised. It has a 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080 pixels) display with 3:2 aspect ratio and has a 4-row QWERTY physical backlit keyboard with keys that respond to touch gestures, support for flick typing, up to 52 customizable shortcuts and the fingerprint sensor is built into the spacebar as the predecessor, but the keys are 20% bigger with same footprint, has a matte finish and new dedicated key called ‘Speed key’ that lets you launch apps by pressing the key and the letter assigned to the app.
It is powered by Snapdragon 660 SoC with 6GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) and has a 12-megapixel dual rear cameras with 1.28 micrometer primary camera with Dual PDAFIt is powered by Snapdragon 660 SoC with 6GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Blackberry Security features, comes with a 12-megapixel dual rear cameras with 1.28 micrometer primary camera with Dual PDAF and an 8-megapixel front camera. It features a series 7 aluminum frame, diamond patterned back with soft touch and packs a 3360mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging that promises 25 hours of battery life with mixed use.
BlackBerry KEY2 (BBF100) specifications
- 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080 pixels) 3:2 display with 433 PPI, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPU
- 6GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD
- 4-row Physical QWERTY backlit keyboard with capacitive touch
- Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Hybrid dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
- 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture, 1.14µm pixel size, 79.3-degree wide-angle lens, Dual PDAF, 12MP secondary rear camera with f/2.6 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, 50-degree lens
- 8MP front-facing camera
- Fingerprint sensor in space bar, Speed Key
- 3.5mm audio jack, HD audio, FM Radio, Dual microphones
- Dimensions: 151.4×71.8×8.5mm; Weight: 168g
- 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 & 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS / GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.0 Type-C
- 3360mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
The BlackBerry KEY2 comes in Black and Silver colors and starts at $649 (Rs. 43,520 approx.) in the U.S. €649 (US$ 763 / Rs. 51,200 approx.) in Europe, £579 (US$ 777 / Rs. 52,122 approx.) in UK and $829 (US$ 640 / Rs. 42,920 approx.) in Canada. It will begin shipping globally beginning this month.