BlackBerry KEYone review

PROS

• Solid security
• Useful productivity features
• Excellent battery

CONS

• Underpowered CPU
• Expensive
• Physical keyboard won't be for everyone

KEY FEATURES

• Snapdragon 625 CPU
• Physical Smart Keyboard
• 4.5-inch LCD touchscreen, 3:2 aspect ratio
• 3505mAh battery
• Android 7.1 Nougat OS
• 12-megapixel rear camera with a Sony IMX378 camera sensor and 8-megapixel front
• USB Type C
• Manufacturer: BlackBerry
• Review Price: £499.00/6000MAD

WHAT IS THE BLACKBERRY KEYONE?

The KEYone is the latest handset from former smartphone heavyweight BlackBerry. It aims to offer the classic BlackBerry keyboard experience to old-school folks who remember the original Bold.

Paired with the cutting-edge Android Nougat OS and the best battery life I’ve seen on a handset this year, the KEYone essentially achieves this goal and is a solid choice for hardcore BlackBerry fans hankering for a decent work handset.

BLACKBERRY KEYONE – DESIGN

The KEYone feels distinctly like a classic BlackBerry phone straight out of the early 2000s. It combines design elements from the company’s first Android phone, the Priv, which featured a slide-out 'smart' keyboard, and the newer DTEK60, which was a pure touchscreen phone.

The end result is a handset that looks a little like a stretched-out BlackBerry Passport, where the keyboard sits beneath a rectangular touchscreen. The aluminium chassis and textured back cover continue the KEYone’s retro feel but will divide opinion.

BLACKBERRY KEYONE – DISPLAY

The 4.5-inch screen’s 3:2 aspect ratio is another minor issue that makes some applications, and particularly video content, look a little odd.

Outside of this the screen is pretty good. The 1620 x 1080 resolution gives the display a crisp 434ppi (pixels per inch) density, ensuring text and icons look uniformly sharp. The IPS panel also offers suitably clean whites and, although the blacks aren’t as inky as on AMOLED phone screens, such as the Galaxy S8’s, they're suitably deep. Colours are also reasonably good and don’t look too cool or overcooked.

BLACKBERRY KEYONE – PERFORMANCE

It runs using a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 CPU. The use of a 625 CPU isn’t necessarily terrible, as past phones I’ve tested running it have a great balance of power efficiency and performance.

The use of the 625 makes the entire phone feel overpriced as competing handsets.

That said, the octa-core chip doesn’t offer terrible performance. Paired with 3GB of RAM the combo keeps the KEYone chugging along stutter free with regular use. Webpages and apps open in milliseconds and video stream is fluid. Multipage web browsing works ok too.

BLACKBERRY KEYONE – CAMERA

Camera tech is an area BlackBerry has traditionally struggled with, which is why you will be pleasantly surprised to find the KEYone’s 12-megapixel rear camera is actually quite good.

The Sony IMX378 sensor used is the same as the one in the Pixel, which remains the best camera phone around, but it's not implemented quite so well here. It works nicely in regular light and matches, if not beats, competing headsets such as the OnePlus 3T on picture quality, but can't equal the iPhone 7 or Samsung Galaxy S8.

Low-light performance is a little hit and miss, but far from terrible. Photos in low light pick up some noise and the autofocus does begin to struggle, but these are issues you’ll have with pretty much every smartphone, regardless of price. The f2.0 aperture also ensures the issues aren’t as pronounced as they are on most competitors, like the Huawei P10.

The KEYone can record video in 4K at 30 fps, though doing so will rapidly eat up its 32GB of storage. Recording without a tripod will also result in fairly shaky, unpleasant-to-watch footage.

The 8-megapixel front camera is a similar story and is more than good enough for video calls, or selfies in regular light, though again noise and autofocus issues creep in when shooting in dim conditions.

BLACKBERRY KEYONE – BATTERY LIFE

Battery life is one area that the KEYone excels at. Powered by a hefty 3505mAh cell, the KEYone has one of the longest-lasting batteries around.

With regular use the KEYone easily lasted two, if not two and a half, days from a single charge. Regular use entailed making and taking a few calls, regularly messaging people on WhatsApp, constantly checking my email and social media feeds, watching a few videos on YouTube and listening to music on the way to and from work.

The KEYone also dealt with demanding process, such as video streaming and gaming, very well. Watching video with the screen set to 70% brightness the phone lost an average of 7-9% of its charge per hour, which is excellent. Most phones lose at least 10-15% of their charge when faced with the same test.

OVERALL SCORE

SCORES IN DETAIL

• Battery Life9
• Camera8
• Design7
• Performance6
• Screen Quality7
• Software9
• Value6