Why You Can Trust CNET BlackBerry Classic with QWERTY keys and Android apps available to pre-order now for £350, $450
If you had to draw a picture of a BlackBerry, it would probably look like the new BlackBerry Classic.
BlackBerry is going back to its roots with its latest phone. The new BlackBerry Classic draws on the classic BlackBerry design but with a twist: Android apps.
Shop for BlackBerry Classic
See all pricesThe Classic costs £350 in the UK and $450 in the US, although be warned it doesn't work on Verizon, Sprint, or US Cellular. It converts to about AU$630. You can pre-order now, and the phone is expected to be sent out in mid-December. Official launch events are scheduled for 17 December.
True to its name, the Classic is a traditional BlackBerry design, complete with a physical QWERTY keyboard under the square 3.46-inch screen.
Dividing the two are a small trackpad and buttons to call up the menu, go back a step, or start and end phone calls.
Under the clicky keys is a dual-core 1.5GHz processor backed by 2GB of RAM. There's 16GB of storage that you can top up with a microSD card for extra space.
The touchscreen is 720p high definition, giving you a pixel density of 291 pixels per inch. The main camera is an 8-megapixel snapper and there's a 2-megapixel job on the front for video calls.
First unveiled way back in February -- then christened the Q20 -- the Classic runs BlackBerry's own BlackBerry 10.3.1 software, so you can download apps from the BlackBerry World app store.
Even better, you can add Android apps too. That opens you up to a much wider selection of apps as Android is a far more popular operating system; but the Classic only works with those Android apps that are on the Amazon App Store rather than the main Google Play store.
The Classic is a 4G phone, but only runs on selected LTE bands: it's not compatible with CDMA networks, which includes Verizon, Sprint and US Cellular.