BlackBerry used to represent the
business end of smartphones, while the
iPhone and Galaxy were more casual.
If you wanted to get any real
work done, you'd buy a BlackBerry Bold.
- This is business.
Six years later, almost
everyone's forgotten about it.
Business users that need a smartphone
now have an iPhone, a Galaxy, or some other Android device.
Now it's 2018, and here's the new BlackBerry KEY2.
It exists in the landscape of phones
that are shedding bezels and going
for full-screen designs, not keyboards.
You're used to most smartphones
trying to be the best or the cheapest.
But the BlackBerry KEY2 isn't trying
to be either of those things.
It's trying to be the best business phone.
But in 2018, is this BlackBerry really
what business people or casuals want?
The KEY2 is made by TCL, a Chinese
manufacturer best known for its cheap
4K TVs, and now they're responsible
for BlackBerry-branded phones.
The KEY2 is trying to take home
the "most secure Android phone" tagline,
with monthly security updates on Android 8.1.
There's device encryption, a built-in
information locker, password manager,
and the DTEK app, which rates the KEY2's
overall security based on the
apps' information you program.
And yes, it will get upgraded to Android P at a later date.
Specs wise, the KEY2 isn't blazing fast like its rivals,
but has Snapdragon 660, six gigs of RAM,
64- or 128-gigabyte storage options, with microSD expansion.
And, sure, that it can run decently enough
for the stuff it's really designed for: email and messaging.
It opens apps quickly, doesn't stutter,
and has never crashed on me, which is good.
The other reason why this processor's really
interesting is because of battery life.
When using the KEY2 for the stuff that it's really made for,
email and messaging, I can get
one or two days of battery life easily.
After all, watching YouTube or playing PUBG
on a three-to-two ratio screen is a stifling experience
that I wouldn't recommend to anyone.
Both business and regular users
will appreciate just how far TCL has gone
to make the BlackBerry KEY2 feel more
like a BlackBerry phone and not an Android phone.
There's even a redactor app that acts
as an overlay and lets you block sensitive
information on screen and in screenshots.
Dark modes are available for the Hub, BBM, and App Launcher.
The red notification asterisk makes a return, as well.
And there are 52 possible customizable shortcuts,
one for each key, that you can use to quickly
start anything from the home screen.
Unfortunately, simply typing on the keyboard
from the home screen doesn't trigger
a Google search, but I wish it did.
If you know anything about BlackBerries,
you'd know about BlackBerry Messenger.
Before the age of iMessage and
Facebook Messenger, BBM was the app to beat.
I would tell you what BlackBerry Messenger's
like to use on the KEY2, but I don't
know anyone that still uses it.
Alternatively, Slack is a lot of fun to use on the KEY2,
and the Hub makes it obvious that
you missed a few direct messages.
So it can be useful.
(techno music)
Here's the thing: the KEY2 isn't really that great
at being a keyboard-equipped phone for productivity.
Still, the KEY2 keyboard has some neat tricks,
like swiping across it to quickly
erase all the texts in the line,
as well as scrolling on webpages,
the home screen, or in emails.
It can even swipe to text on the physical keyboard,
which is cool at first, but if you think about it,
it defeats the purpose of having
a physical keyboard in the first place.
Everything here feels slightly
cramped and not tactile enough.
I've been using it a fair amount, yet I can still
type better with on-screen or mechanical keyboards.
If you look past the keyboard and added security,
the KEY2 starts to lose its luster.
The space bar, which also acts as a fingerprint sensor,
does a decent job, but doesn't register
consistently at an angle when you use your thumb.
The cameras aren't that good, despite the KEY2
being the first BlackBerry with a
dual 12-megapixel camera design.
For some reason, auto-focusing before capture
isn't turned on by default, resulting in some blurry photos.
And it's only marginally better when it's enabled.
The camera setup also supports
4K video recording at 24 or 30 FPS,
but the results are a bit choppy.
The verdict on the BlackBerry KEY2
is that it's a perfectly usable
smartphone with a keyboard in 2018.
The real issue isn't that it doesn't have a full screen,
blazing-fast processor, or amazing cameras.
It's just fulfilling a simple need for its clientele:
being a new an updated BlackBerry.
The problem with that is, its clientele
deserves a better smartphone, something like
a Galaxy, an iPhone, or a Pixel.
Hey, thanks for watching.
Let us know what your favorite
BlackBerry was in the comments.
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