BlackBerry Keyone finally goes on sale in the US at $549

BlackBerry’s next attempt at building a great Android-powered smartphone has finally gone on sale in the US. The company had first officially revealed the smartphone at the MWC 2017 (first showcased at CES 2017) and now its finally going on sale at $549 (Rs 35,000) for US customers.

According to Mashable, customers can get their hands on a BlackBerry Keyone from BlackBerry’s own website, Amazon or at BestBuy (online and in stores).

The smartphone will be available both in two unlocked variants (GSM and CDMA) and carrier bound variants will arrive in summer.

Indeed the BlackBerry Keyone is one of the many “last attempts” to break into a highly competitive Android smartphone market.

After the BlackBerry Priv, which came with its own set of quirks the Keyone certainly looks and feels refreshing.

Owners get a 4.5-inch display with an unusual 1,680 x 1,080 resolution. Inside, there’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset that is seen on budget to mid-range handsets and 3 GB RAM with 32 GB of internal storage (expandable).

The camera on the back is a 12 MP unit (same as on the Google Pixel) while the front-facing selfie camera comes with a humble 8 MP sensor.

All of the above is powered by 3,505 mAh battery which along with the almost Full HD display and the battery happy Snapdragon 625 should deliver some good battery life figures.

“Key” to the BlackBerry Keyone is the one feature every red-blooded BlackBerry fan has been waiting for, the physical keyboard. While the features are same as on the BlackBerry Priv, owners will now find a fingerprint reader embedded into the space bar. Thanks to the thickness of the devices, we guess the keyboard travel too may have increased as compared to the tough and crammed keyboard that hid under the Priv’s display.

We contacted BlackBerry for comment, but the company has yet to decide on a launch date for India. But now that it is out in the US, the global launch may not be too far away.

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from Tech2