BlackBerry Key2 is a love letter to physical buttons and sharp edges

08 JUNE 2018

At an event held in New York, today TCL officially announced the few remaining details we didn't already know about the BlackBerry Key2, which was leaked heavily in the past couple of days.

Unsurprisingly, the Key2 is a continuation of the Keyone in almost every respect. It retains the squarish form factor that's highlighted by an iconic physical keyboard and a 3:2 aspect screen and adds a dual camera on the back - a BlackBerry first.

The camera is a dual 12MP with a regular f/1.8, 1.28um, and a telephoto f/2.6, 1.28um that's used for optical zooming as well as portrait shots with defocused backgrounds.

The display is a 4.5-inch 1080x1620px IPS LCD, while the chipset of choice is the Snapdragon 660. It's paired with 6GB of RAM.

Back to the design. The BlackBerry Key2 has a Series 7 aluminum frame (in Black or Silver) and a soft-touch back with a diamond pattern finish.

   
BlackBerry Key2

The keyboard height has been increased by 20% which BlackBerry claims will increase comfort and typing accuracy. The keys have a new matte finish and have been arranged in a new fret pattern to optimize spacing. There's still a fingerprint scanner embedded into the space key.

There's also a new Speed Key that enables shortcuts that can take you to any app at any time, call a favorite contact or access functions.

Flick typing makes a return - using predictive text that learns your typing over time it will show suggestions that you can flick into your text. You can also use the keyboard as a trackpad to scroll through the UI.

   
BlackBerry Key2

BlackBerry has promised monthly security updates for the Key2 as well as at last one major OS update - that means the Key2 will be updated up to Android P, at the very least.

The BlackBerry Key2 will go on sale globally this month starting at €649/£579/$649