BlackBerry KEY2 Review: The Android with a QWERTY quirk! By Android Central

Meet, the BlackBerry mobile key ?, it's a phone, that's been tailor-made for the small minority of users that just can't get enough of a physical keyboard, a perfect physical keyboard. It's an iterative upgrade from last year's key one and that's a very good thing. All the changes made address where the key one needed improvement and none of them make anything worse. That's a tough trick to manage when you make this same model of phone more than one year in a row. Think of the key to is blackberry, Mobile's attempt to mix a large screen and a full physical keyboard onto a surface. That's just not too big to hold they've done a good job.

Here, though, fans of all screen phones aren't going to think. The four point five inch display is really that large speaking of the display, the key to has a sixteen twenty by ten. Eighty-four point: five inch LCD. It has an aspect ratio of three to two and an acceptable 434 PPI, but don't get too excited it's easy to see that the display just isn't the key twos best feature. In fact, it's the same display used in the key one from last year.

That means it has the odd issue of being one of the brightest displays available, yet being nearly impossible to use outside in bright sunlight under the hood. There are several significant changes from the key one, and these make all the difference. When you're using the phone with the full suite of BlackBerry's apps, the processor has been bumped to up to the snapdragon 660, which improves not only the performance, but it allows for the same multi-day battery life of the key one. It also allows for a few extra camera features like 4k, video or shooting 1080p video at 60 frames. Another welcome change is a whopping 6 gigabytes of RAM, which is quite the healthy bump, from both key ones.

We saw last year externally. The round and weighty feeling of the key one has been replaced with a more refined series: 7, aluminum shell, there's, two upgraded cameras across the back and the overall feel of the phone is more sleek and modern than the model we saw last year. But the biggest change is to that iconic blackberry keyboard gone. Are the oddly shaped glossy Chiclets that the key one brought us and in their place, is a keyboard? That's basically directly from the bold 9900 s playbook the keys are larger, they're, more responsive without feeling soft or mushy, and the shape isn't going to feel foreign to anyone. Who's used any premium.

Blackberry of the past BlackBerry has also added their first key to their keyboard layout in about 10 years, and that's called the speed key. It changes how you'll use the BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts, because, with the speed key, you can use them anywhere. You don't have to go back to your home screen to make them work. On the software side, the key to ships with Android 8.1 Oreo with blackberry, Mobile's, light touch to the default interface at work. You have the full suite of apps from blackberry and while many of them replicate features of Google's own apps, some like the phone dialer or the task manager are just superior and well worth a look, but not enough changes to make an Android purist feel out of place.

You'll be able to get an honest full day of battery life out of the key ? and by honest I mean more than six or seven hours. It's going to last you all day. Most of us are going to be able to get more, and it's very possible that you'll get two days from a single charge. That's one thing from the key one that wasn't changed, and we're really happy about that. The cameras are passable.

That damning praise you hear is intended as the new dual camera experience, with an improved image. Processor just didn't have quite the impact many of us had hoped for you can take a photo that will be more than passable for a social media post, but you also have a fair share of photos that didn't turn out well enough to keep, especially when the light gets dim, don't buy the key too for its camera. There are phones with better cameras out there. The overall user experience has been great in the time I've used. It calls are crystal clear.

The new design of the front of the phone makes for better sound, experienced both when you're using it against your head or in speakerphone mode. Folks who got used to the key one will probably need a bit of adjustment to a lighter, more angular built phone and a new keyboard, but the adjustment period shouldn't be too difficult. What really remains to be seen is if this modern take on the classic idea of a physical keyboard will be enough to draw any new users.

Source : Android Central