BlackBerry’s revival teased several months ago. TCL bought the rights to make BlackBerry phones in December, and the company then announced its first BlackBerry prototype, codenamed “Mercury,” at CES 2017. Finally, at Mobile World Congress, the new BlackBerry was officially announced. It’s called BlackBerry KeyOne and it will be available in the U.S. this April.
The BlackBerry KeyOne has the look and feel that nostalgic BlackBerry lovers have been missing. It has BlackBerry’s trademark keyboard, a 4.5-inch, 1620 x 1080 touchscreen display and 52 total shortcuts; you can launch apps by holding down keys. Additionally, the KeyOne has a 12MP rear-facing camera, 8MP front-facing camera, 32GB internal storage and the latest Android OS.
Despite its feel-good factor, the KeyOne faces an uphill battle. It will cost $549, putting it in direct competition with the iPhones, Pixels and Samsung Galaxies of the phone world. And its not-so-premium Snapdragon 625 processor and small screen make it a hard sell to non-BlackBerry nostalgists, especially when you consider that most people want to stream Netflix on their big-screen phones. Maybe look elsewhere for phone nostalgia.
The Classic Nokia 3310 Is Back. (So Is Snake.)
17 years later, Nokia is reinventing the iconic phone — and they’re calling it the Nokia 3310 (again). Read the Story