BlackBerry KeyONE Succeeds In Combining Nostalgia & New Features

TCL pulled a surprise on the mobile phone industry on Wednesday by the successful debut of the BlackBerry KEYone smartphone in North America. Early reports indicate the smartphone, which successfully merged the nostalgic appeal of using a BlackBerry phone with Android technology, was sold out online in the U.S., while demand is extremely high.

According to Steve Cistulli, president of TC Communication North America, the CDMA and GSM flavors of the BlackBerry KEYone are both sold out. As a result, Amazon recognizes the brand as the # Best Seller label in Amazon USA for unlocked mobile phones, GMS Arena reports.

The excitement over the BlackBerry KEYone is on a high level because the launch and public acceptance debunked a belief among skeptics a few years ago that the BlackBerry brand is virtually dead. However, Tech Crunch reminds that the company behind the new phone is TCL, not the BlackBerry based in Ontario, Canada, which is TCL’s partner.

The old BlackBerry company was the one which launched the BB10 that flopped. What sets aside the BlackBerry KEYone is that while TCL kept the trademark hard plastic keys, inside the device, the Android OS lives. Buyers of the new phone are assured of a good camera as what is expected from an Android gadget. It has the same sensor as the Google Pixel. Other nostalgic features of the phone are the Hub and BBM, but owners of the new phone who may find those features unnecessary can just skip these features.

Tech experts note a big improvement in the performance of the BlackBerry KEYone when it was originally teased. At that time, the phone constantly lagged and multi-tasking was next to impossible. Despite the phone running on Snapdragon 625 and with 3GB RAM, it was not impressive then. However, with the number of updates that TCL made, there have been improvements good enough for daily use, although there are still stutters when multi-tasking and some lags.