BlackBerry launches KEYone smartphone with Android 7.1 Nougat in India at Rs 39,990

BlackBerry KeyOne smartphone has been launched in India on Tuesday at a price of Rs 39,990. The smartphone has been manufactured by TCL which has the license to make and distribute BlackBerry smartphones in India. The phone shall be excusivey available on Amazon. The new BlackBerry phone will go on sale from August 8 onward.

The company has also announced partnership with American Express and Vodafone. American Express credit card users will get bonus points if they purchase the smartphone from Amazon. Vodafone users will get 75 GB of data with three months of validity.

The BlackBerry KeyOne went on sale in the US and Canada in May. In the US, KeyOne was priced at USD 549 (unlocked version). BlackBerry KeyOne is the new flagship phone under the brand, and was showcased at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona in 2017.

The KeyOne continues with the iconic physical keyboard which was the highlight of the BlackBerry smartphones, though of course, the new phones are on Android.

Here are the key specifications and features of the KeyOne phone

Display and Processor: BlackBerry KeyOne comes with 4.5-inch LCD IPS display with 3:2 aspect ratio and resolution of 1620 x 1080 pixels with a pixel density of 434 ppi. The processor on the BlackBerry KeyOne is Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and the phone comes with 3GB RAM on board, along with 32GB storage. There’s also support for a microSD card with up to 2TB limit. Battery on the BlackBerry KeyOne is 3505 mAh with the company promising 26 hours of talktime.

Camera: On the camera front, BlackBerry KeyOne has a 12MP rear camera with the Sony IMX378 sensor and 1.125um pixel size. The front camera is 8MP. The highlight of the BlackBerry KeyOne is not just the specifications, but the actual physical keyboard. It has the four row physical keyboard on the front, but this one doesn’t slide up like it did on the BlackBerry Priv.

Smart Keyboard:The KeyOne has a smart keyboard, which also responds to touch gestures, and has 52 shortcuts which can be customized. The fingerprint scanner is embedded inside the space bar of the BlackBerry KeyOne.

The phone runs Android 7.1 Nougat, but also comes with other BlackBerry apps like the BlackBerry Keyboard, BlackBerry Hub and DTEK by BlackBerry. The phone has its own security features from BlackBerry.