BlackBerry Key2 review: Legacy keyboard design gets a fresh, useful twist

The BlackBerry Key2 features an enhanced design, slightly powerful processor, more RAM, latest Google Android operating system and a dual camera set-up on the back

Canadian smartphone brand BlackBerry, licensed to India-based Optiemus Infracom, on July 23 launched the BlackBerry Key2, a successor to the BlackBerry KeyOne, which had a full-QWERTY keyboard. Compared to the predecessor, the Key2 not only features an enhanced design but also gets a slightly powerful processor, more RAM, latest Google Android operating system, and a dual-camera set-up at the back. The Amazon-exclusive touch and type smartphone goes on sale today i.e. July 31.

In current times, when almost all smartphones have begun to look almost the same, the BlackBerry Key2, with a rectangular touchscreen-cum-physical-keyboard design, offers a fresh new experience. But, is it worth going back to legacy keyboard design, which one ditched in favour of the all-screen mobile phone format? Let’s find out:

Design

The BlackBerry Key2 impresses with its lightweight design. The phone’s back has a soft texture, which makes it easy to hold the device and use the QWERTY keyboard comfortably. The phone’s rectangular aluminium chassis gives it a solid stance and adds to its overall appeal. The chassis houses volume rocker keys, power key and a customisable speed key on the right, while the left has an ejectable dualSIM slot. On the top, the phone has a 3.5mm audio output jack and the secondary microphone, and the bottom is covered with a USB type-C charging-cum-data transfer port surrounded by 12-hole grilles on either side with a speaker and a primary microphone.

It is the phone’s front that catches your eye with its unorthodox touchscreen and keyboard design. The screen covers two-thirds of the front area, and keyboard the rest. Overall, the BlackBerry Key2 design offers a fresh new experience in the current times, when almost all the smartphones have begun to look identical in many ways.

Display and keyboard

The BlackBerry Key2 has a 4.5-inch fullHD screen stretched in a 3:2 aspect ratio. While the fullHD resolution panel looks sharp, the unconventional 3:2 aspect ratio makes it appear unoptimised for multimedia content. However, the screen is a delight to use for reading articles, books, news, emails, etc, and for messaging.

Speaking of messages and emails, the BlackBerry Key2 features a full QWERTY keyboard, which is swift and makes your writing less prone to errors. The chances of committing a typo is less while using a physical keyboard rather than an on-screen touch keyboard. It takes some time to get used to the physical keyboard on a smartphone after long, but once the fingers adapt to the change, the keyboard looks the best thing possible, especially if you write a lot using your smartphone.

Interestingly, the keyboard area also doubles up as a capacitive scroll controller. In simple terms, the keyboard is touch-sensitive and can be used to scroll web pages, conversations, articles, etc. The space bar also doubles up as a fingerprint sensor, which is always on point and unlocks the phone instantly.

Key features

The BlackBerry Key2 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip, paired with 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal storage – expandable to up to 256 GB using a microSD card. The dualSIM smartphone boots the Android Oreo 8.1 operating system out of the box, custom-tuned by BlackBerry. The customised OS features the BlackBerry Hub, a unified messaging inbox, which combines all emails, texts and messages from social media accounts at one place. It also allows managing multiple email accounts without switching between apps, with support for Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange accounts, etc. As for security, the Key2 comes with the BlackBerry DTEK app that enables users to check and manage app permissions.

The BlackBerry Key2 offers almost vanilla Android experience, so it feels free of clutter and operates swiftly. The phone shows no lags or stutters anywhere and responds well to touch and keyboard inputs. Writing long articles, uploading attachments and sharing multimedia content also show no problem for the BlackBerry Key2, and the phone works optimally in all situations.

Camera

The KEY2 is the first BlackBerry smartphone with dual rear cameras. On the rear, the phone sports dual 12-megapixel shooters, a regular sensor of f/1.8 aperture paired with a telephoto lens of f/2.6 aperture. Both the lenses are assisted by phase detection autofocus (PDAF). On the front, the phone sports an 8 MP selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture.

While the cameras’ performance in auto mode is satisfactory, the other available modes and manual mode offer a lot of scope for experiment and exploration. The camera’s portrait mode works well, too, and the integration of Google Lens for visual search in camera makes it easy to look for information online.

Battery
 

The phone’s small screen, power-efficient processor and optimised operating system make it go for more than a day on a fully charged 3,500 mAh battery. The device supports the Qualcomm quick-charge technology, yet it takes almost 2 hours to go from zero to 100 per cent.

Verdict

The BlackBerry Key2 is a niche product aimed at users preferring physical keyboard to on-screen touch keyboard or those who use their phones to write content, articles, emails, etc. The phone is not a powerhouse and its screen is strictly not meant for multimedia enthusiasts. But, the phone has some strengths in all the areas, making it a complete package.

Priced at Rs 42,990, the phone seems to be on the pricier side. But the price seems justified considering the fact that there is no competition and it is the only phone with a touchscreen, as well as a physical keyboard.