BlackBerry just announced its latest smartphone that
was codenamed ‘Athena’ as KEY2 at an event in New York City, as it had
promised. It has a 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080
pixels) display with 3:2 aspect ratio and has a 4-row QWERTY physical backlit
keyboard with keys that respond to touch gestures, support for flick typing, up
to 52 customizable shortcuts and the fingerprint sensor is built into the
spacebar as the predecessor, but the keys are 20% bigger with same footprint,
has a matte finish and new dedicated key called ‘Speed key’ that lets you
launch apps by pressing the key and the letter assigned to the app.
It is powered by Snapdragon 660 SoC with 6GB of RAM,
runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) and has a 12-megapixel dual rear cameras with 1.28 micrometer
primary camera with Dual PDAFIt is powered by Snapdragon 660 SoC with 6GB of
RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Blackberry Security features, comes with a
12-megapixel dual rear cameras with 1.28 micrometer primary camera with Dual
PDAF and an 8-megapixel front camera. It features a series 7 aluminum frame,
diamond patterned back with soft touch and packs a 3360mAh battery with
Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging that promises 25 hours of battery life
with mixed use.
BlackBerry KEY2 (BBF100) rumored specifications
- 4.5-inch (1620 x 1080 pixels) 3:2 display with 433 PPI, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
- Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPU
- 6GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD
- 4-row Physical QWERTY backlit keyboard with capacitive touch
- Android 8.1 (Oreo)
- Hybrid dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
- 12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, f/1.8 aperture, 1.14µm pixel size, 79.3-degree wide-angle lens, Dual PDAF, 12MP secondary rear camera with f/2.6 aperture, 1.0µm pixel size, 50-degree lens
- 8MP front-facing camera
- Fingerprint sensor in space bar, Speed Key
- 3.5mm audio jack, HD audio, FM Radio, Dual microphones
- Dimensions: 151.4×71.8×8.5mm; Weight: 168g
- 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4 & 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS / GLONASS, NFC, USB 3.0 Type-C
- 3360mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0
The BlackBerry KEY2 comes in Black and Silver colors
and starts at US$ 649 in the U.S. € 649 (US$ 763) in Europe, £ 579 (US$ 777) in UK and US$ 829 (US$ 640) in Canada. It will begin shipping globally beginning this
month.
