After an unexpected delay, Chinese electronics company TCL has announced the BlackBerry KeyOne will be going on sale in the U.S. and Canada on May 31. First unveiled in February, the phone was originally supposed to roll out globally in April, priced at €599, £499, and $549.
TCL’s first BlackBerry smartphone — and the fourth BlackBerry device running Android — features an anodized aluminum frame, textured back, 4.5-inch display (1620×1080 resolution, 434 PPI, and 3:2 aspect ratio), and a physical keyboard. The Smart Keyboard, as it’s called, responds to touch gestures, can be programmed to launch up to 52 customizable shortcuts, and has a fingerprint sensor built directly into the spacebar. The KeyOne is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with an Adreno 506 GPU, 32GB of storage with a microSD slot, 3GB of RAM, and a 3505 mAh battery (the largest ever in a BlackBerry device). It also features a 12MP rear camera (1.55um) with the Sony IMX378 sensor and an 8MP front-facing sensor. The exact dimensions are 149.3mm x 72.5mm x 9.4mm, with a weight of 180g.
TCL is only sharing carrier details for Canada today. The BlackBerry KeyOne will be available at Bell, Bell MTS, Rogers, SaskTel, and Telus Business, starting at $199 CAD ($146 USD) on a two-year term. It will be available for preorder starting May 18 from select partners.
“BlackBerry fans in Canada will be extremely excited to have the BlackBerry KeyOne available in their market,” Alex Thurber, head of BlackBerry’s mobility solutions unit, said in a statement. “Anyone who is an Android loyalist and values the mobile security and productivity that BlackBerry software brings will love this smartphone.”
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As for the U.S., TCL today is only sharing that both GSM and CDMA unlocked variants will be available. Additional carriers, including Sprint, will carry the phone “later this summer,” but we won’t have further details until late next month.
