BlackBerry has forged a partnership with TCL to push its Android hardware forward. We've seen a few phones come out of this association so far, but they've been recycled Alcatel designs. The KEYone is all new and all BlackBerry. This phone was pre-announced as the Mercury, but now it's official and coming to the US and Canada in "early Q2" and elsewhere shortly thereafter.

Here are the specs for BlackBerry's latest smartphone. We don't have all the details yet, but these are the basics.

SPECS

SoC

Snapdragon 625
 

Display

4.5-inch 1620x1080

Battery

3505mAh with Quick Charge 3.0

Camera

12MP, 8MP

Software

Android 7.1.1 with Blackberry Hub

The centerpiece of the KEYone is the BlackBerry-style keyboard, which takes up the bottom of the device. That's why it has a smaller screen with an odd resolution (it's a 3:2 ratio). The keyboard will certainly make some BB fans happy, and it's backlit, which is neat. BlackBerry says the keyboard actually gives you more overall space when inputting text than you'd have on a standard 5.5-inch smartphone with an on-screen keyboard. There's also a fingerprint sensor built into the space bar, which is super-clever.

The KEYone will launch with Android 7.1.1 and BlackBerry's light customizations. The UI will be mostly stock. It includes the DTEK security monitoring suite, as well as the Hub apps. The device will also support custom app shortcuts triggered by the keyboard. For example, you could launch Maps by pressing M on the keyboard.

The KEYone will sell unlocked for $549. That's maybe a little high, but you don't have a lot of options for phones with a keyboard. There will also be some carrier deals, but no details on that are available right now.

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