It's my honor to officially unveil the BlackBerry Key2.
We hear the BlackBerry Key2 event on my [UNKNOWN] with Roger Cheng.
Roger what's new with the BlackBerry Key2.
Well, BlackBerry.
You have to start by talking about the keyboard.
Keyboard's completely redesigned.
The keys are 20% larger.
They're textured, so you've got better touch typing capabilities.
It's massive glossy.
The old one on key one was actually glossy, like the old bubbly ones?
Actually slip and slide on the keys, frankly the key one keyboard.
Felt a little cheap.
It's definitely a much nicer feeling keyboard.
Okay so we've got a four and a half inch screen.
Touch screen is running Android.
And we should've said this in the beginning.
Yes a BlackBerry's still a thing.
Can you explain the whole BlackBerry Limited versus BlackBerry Mobile?
Yeah so BlackBerry Limited, the original BlackBerry that we all knew and loved and grew up with
They basically gave up making phones.
They've since licensed out the Blackberry name to a chinese company TCL they make televisions they also make phones in the [UNKNOWN] brand.
Now they're making Blackberry mobile phones, they started a year ago with the Key 1
>This is their follow-up.
This is the second version, with they KEY2.
Let's talk about other hardware changes.
We have a very similar design.
Like you said, 20% larger keyboard.
But we've got two cameras on the back this time?
Yes.
They're very proud to boast the first Blackberry with a dual cam setup.
Nevermind that most phones already have this, most premium phones do this, they spend a lot of time talking, but the portrait mode photos they take now, obviously, these are features that have been around for most premium flagship phones.
Blackberry's just getting around to it, but Blackberry's a little slow when it comes to things that aren't about the keyboard.
Right, so we've got that design change, we've go the dual Cameras on the back, we've got inside though.
It's not super top of the line.
We're talking about a Qualcomm 660 processor.
Yeah.
The major flagship phones these days are running 845s.
That sounds like a lot.
I know the numbers sound extremely different.
It's at least 200 better, right?
That must be a big deal, right?
Well no look, Blackberry said if In terms of your normal tasks, productivity tasks, running emails, browsing, all that stuff, you're fine.
But if you really want a multimedia powerhouse, this is not the phone for you.
Where does this thing fit in with all kinds of phones?
You've got Apple phones, you've got OnePlus phones, you've got Apple, Samsung, this is gonna sell at $649.
Is for a 64 Gigabyte model with 6 Gigabytes of Ram which is insane.
So the specs here it's a little weird because it's sort of priced at that level right below the super premium phones like your iPhone or Galaxy it's really close to like a one plus or an LG phone Motorolla phones but the specs aren't quite top tier they're a little bit as you mentioned with the quad core processor, It's a little bit lower than your standard premium phone, even though they're trying to frame this as a premium phone, so it's kind of a weird position it's really it's own niche product right this is going after
Folks who are just die hard fans of a physical keyboard.
Let's talk a little bit about the Blackberry add showing off the introduction of the [UNKNOWN].
The add is very self aware.
It seems like they're making fun of themselves a little bit.
People saying, Blackberry's still a thing?
Without saying Blackberry's still a thing.
I think it's actually a really smart marketing move.
What do you think about that?
No, I think tapping into the idea that I used to love my BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry, there's a bit of nostalgia involved there.
It's kind of a smart move trying to bringing that BlackBerry love that we used to have.
We used to have this?
I used to have.
I used to have BlackBerry love.
I wrote whole stories on my old BlackBerry.
That reminds me back to the keyboard situation they were talking about.
The clickiness that the designers are worried about how well these keys perform.
They compare it to the Blackberry Bold 9900 with a very beloved keyboard.
They got a lot of people in the crowd excited about that.
Jut to reference the Bold 9900.
I remember the clickiness of those keys.
I remember how responsive they were.
The fact that they were really using that as a sort of the foundation for this keyboard.
Definitely bodes well for it.
Yeah, I think there are times you've reached die hards and I think this device while not super top of the line like a 999 phone or something like that.
If you're into Blackberry into an actual keyboard, this is one of the few phones that has a keyboard on it.
And as for Androids, you've got thousands and thousands of apps.
I mean millions of apps I guess.
Well like I was saying, this is not a mainstream phone.
This is not a phone that's going out to the same crowd as an iphone or a Galaxy S9.
This is really a niche, niche product.
This is going after folks who love keyboards and fortunately there aren't a lot of other options out there so this is it if you want a physical keyboard.
We're gonna see how this thing performa in a full review.
So we'll have a lot more details at CNET.COM.
I'm Iyaz Akhtar
I'm Roger Cheng
See you guys later.
