A few weeks ago, BlackBerry opened an official account on Chinese social media platform Weibo, signifying its return to China. Now it is set to launch its first product and judging from the teaser poster, its none other than the BlackBerry KEYOne.
The KEYOne was released back in February at MWC 2017 and is already on sale in different markets such as the US and the UK. The smartphone’s selling point is its physical keyboard, a rare feature in smartphones these days.
The KEYOne has a 4.5-inch 1620 x 1080 display and a QWERTY keyboard that also doubles as a large track-pad. There is a fingerprint scanner underneath the space button.
It has a Snapdragon 625 processor paired with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The KEYOne has a microSD card slot, so that 32GB can get up to an additional 2TB of space. Battery capacity is 3505mAh and supports Quick Charge 3.0.
The rear camera is a 12MP Sony IMX378 with dual-tone flash and there is an 8MP front facing camera. There is is NFC, a USB Type-C 3.1 port, and an earphone jack at the top. It also runs Android 7.1 Nougat.
It is unknown if BlackBerry will release it in China with a different configuration like other manufacturers do with their flagships.
READ MORE: BlackBerry Aurora Officially Launched; Pre-orders for First Dual-SIM BlackBerry Phone Begins
The price for the BlackBerry KEYOne in China is still a secret but if the configuration remains the same as above, it may get a lesser price tag compared to the $549 internatioal price. Reason is because the KEYOne is made by TCL, a Chinese smartphone company which is currently one of those licensed to release phones under the BlackBerry name.
The KEYOne is also expected to launch in India tomorrow.
