- [Mr. Mobile] When I last laid hands on the new Blackberry,
it didn't have finished software,
it didn't have a final spec sheet,
it didn't even have a proper name.
What a difference a couple of months make.
From an echo chamber of a hotel room in Barcelona,
I'm Mr. Mobile and this is a hands on
with the Blackberry KeyOne,
the smartphone formerly known as Mercury.
Not much has changed on the hardware front here,
it's still the same aluminum candy bar,
built to be used with one hand.
It's important, Blackberry's philosophy is that,
if you have to put your coffee down to use your phone,
then there's something wrong with your phone.
I got to spend about two hours with the KeyOne this time,
and I think Blackberry really nailed the hand feel.
It's a very comfortable smartphone to use.
The rounded lower corners mean
it doesn't dig in to your palm,
and the soft touch coating on the back plate
make it easy to grip.
As you can, these are still pre-production devices
with some uneven button back lighting,
but the keyboard is now much closer to the final product.
While it's not as spacious as the bolds of old,
these keys are much clickier than the mushy pad
on 2015's Blackberry Priv.
Now, some of you were concerned about the placement
of those capacitive buttons above the keyboard,
and now that I've used the phone a little longer,
I see what you mean.
If you're using the keyboard as a track pad
or doing some swipes to autocomplete sentences,
you're gonna accidentally hit those function buttons
until you train yourself to avoid them.
On the brighter side, the spacebar doubling
as a fingerprint sensor totally works.
There are two little LEDs to remind you it's there.
The placement is top notch, and the sensor is very fast.
Also fast, the software.
None of the pokiness of the Priv is present here.
The KeyOne is zippy, even on this early build.
Of course, the real test will come
during the full review period,
when I've got three email accounts
and 100 apps clogging up the works.
But my initial impressions are good.
The usual Blackberry benefits are here, too.
The hub that gathers all your notifications
into one list, the super bright LED
that tells you about those notifications in the first place.
The D-Teck security suite, and my favorite,
the convenience key on the side.
It opens any app you want with a click,
or mutes the audio on a call.
Like the millions of Blackberrys that came before,
this is a smartphone very much aimed
at corporate and government users.
Those users aren't gonna care much about the spec sheet,
but you do, so here it is.
In the predictable category, expandable storage,
scored for GSM and CDMA networks,
and a full HD display.
In the pleasant surprise department,
the same camera sensor used by the Google Pixel,
with a responsive view finder offering
a fairly complete feature set.
On the controversial side,
a mid-range processor with three gigs of RAM.
I'm disappointed with the latter,
but I'm actually okay with the Snapdragon 625,
and here's why.
That's the same power efficient processor
used by the Moto Z Play,
a speedy phone with excellent battery life.
It's such a long laster that it's actually
my primary show phone for this Barcelona trip.
And the battery in the Blackberry is just as big.
That should make the KeyOne a real marathon runner,
and when you do need to top it up,
there's a quick charge 3.0 USB power delivery
and an optional boost mode
that shuts down power intensive features
so the phone will charge even faster.
Blackberry claims its zero to half charge
in just 36 minutes.
At a starting price at around 549 US dollars
when it goes on sale in Q2,
the KeyOne is gonna be a tough sell
to any consumer who doesn't need a physical keyboard.
I mean you can get better specs
on the Dteck 60 for 100 bucks cheaper.
But for me, it's tough to get excited about the Dteck 60,
whereas it's tough to fight my excitement for the KeyOne,
and anyway, consumers are secondary to Blackberrys quest
to recapture its enterprise base.
We'll see how likely the KeyOne is to help with that
when it comes time for the full review.
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Until next time, thanks for watching,
and stay mobile my friends.