Gadgetory

in mobile technology it's always the same old song and dance we all go crazy over the newest tech but after that initial review period we all move on to the next new hotness the thing is how a gadget ages is just as important as that fresh out of the box perspective how we hold companies accountable view progress we shouldn't shy away from that conversation so let's do something about that at one time in history this company was one of the most brutally dominant forces in mobile technology but they completely underestimated the consumer response to phones like the iPhone when this brand fell it fell hard back from the ashes with the new manufacturing partner and returning to their hardware roots it would seem you can go back home again here's our blackberry key one after the buzz let's get this out of the way right at the top of the video I really like this phone easily one of my top five favorite devices from 2017 that's not to say it didn't come with something of an awkward learning curve or relearning curve depending on how old you are younger members of our audience have likely never interacted with a hardware keyboard and that unfamiliarity can make for a really poor first impression but it honestly doesn't take long before these little tick tack clicks this little tactile feedback starts to feel really good 2017 was a great year for specialist devices and the key one was the premiere communications device of the year more than just a pleasant tactile experience we could staple a hardware keyboard on to any phone if we really wanted to blackberry manages a very delicate balancing act properly integrating this hardware into the overall Android experience a lot of phones will give you a programmable button on the side some phones give you a little squeezy gesture on the key one nearly every single key is a programmable shortcut that makes the key one the most customizable phone on the market you make it exactly the device you want it to be and it is pretty crazy how quickly you take this customization for granted going back to full touchscreen phones demanding much more visual attention to interact with individual apps and services those phones start to feel a little clingy maybe the less successful aspect of this marriage between Google's OS and classic BlackBerry software I've never been the biggest fan of gesture-based overlays or short cut side panels swiping into the screen to get more information that swipe gesture is already replicated as a part of Google's UI so if you don't nail it perfectly all you do is flip your home screen blackberry launcher blackberry hub collecting communications accounts it feels a step out of place with the way that we currently use data and services and for as close as the rest of this phone interface gets to stock Android those additional pieces of software can SAP some of that computing power out of this mid-range chipset that being said I really like the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 in this phone it never was much of a pain point for me getting my daily work done blackberry and TCL got a lot of grief for the price tag of this phone using that mid-range part but it only really holds the phone back on graphics intense gaming sure your Twitter feed might take a fraction of a second longer to load but in overall daily performance I'm much happier with the battery life that this low-power unit can provide that battery life though we're well into its first year of use and this phone still handily outpaces flagships which are significantly more expensive this is the phone I turn to when I'm traveling or when I know I'm going to have a really busy especially communications heavy day plus it's just refreshing to handle a phone which feels like it was made for grown-ups I've been a huge fan of the combination of metal and a grippy back in the note for the leatherback Moto X 2 the LG v10 now I've totally been mocked by my friends for whipping out a blackberry in public but no one denies that this is a more professional-looking gadget than many of the glass back experiments we see today this videos coming out right before Valentine's Day and it's coming off as something of a love letter to the phone I really do enjoy using it so I wanted to detail where I hope blackberry and TCL will go next key one is a terrific restart a truer returned to the BlackBerry roots than the detect phones which came before it but four key to I really hope to see some small refinements the camera could definitely use a little attention blackberries have never had a reputation for being the best multimedia devices but calling something business grade isn't really an excuse consumers expect their phones to be their primary cameras some snap your performance some crowd-pleasing post-processing tricks and maybe throw in optical image stabilization I'm pretty sure we could get rid of the convenience key now TCL continues to mount their power button in a very unfamiliar place and it's actually pretty awkward so the location of this button is very muscle memory confusing if you've been trained on other devices considering the wealth of customization options we have on this keyboard don't really need this button on the side worse it makes mounting this phone very tricky you can only mount it from the very edge of the bottom of the keyboard that's a dicey proposition when you're trying to slap it into a car cradle business grade hardware is synonymous with durability and linkki one has taken more than its fair share of bumps and bruises I just think there would be some added peace of mind if we had a proper IP rating for this phone even if it was IP 53 the target audience for a blackberry I think they would appreciate that knowledge knowing what the limits of their device might be lastly this one's gonna sound a little nitpicky but it really was one of the biggest pain points for me using the BlackBerry key one and that's how close the hardware keyboard is to the navigation controls under the screen the touch sensors on the keyboard are really cool and very helpful when you're entering in text you can swipe up on the keyboard to autocomplete the word you want to type but mounting your capacitive navigation buttons just above your capacitive keyboard I still regularly swipe up just far enough to hit the multitasking button the home button the back button so while I'm in the middle of typing out a message I am interrupted to go somewhere else on the phone because I swiped just a little too far it's really distracting it's very disruptive for a key to I hope we can find some way to buffer just a little bit more in between these two hardware parts or maybe consider just going to on-screen controls having a slightly larger display on a key - even though that display is going to be taken up with your navigation at the bottom and other than those four points think I'd change a whole lot else I definitely stick with another mid-range 'red chipset move us up to the Snapdragon 630 bumping up the storage would be nice but not necessarily mission-critical considering the target audience for this phone the rest of the phone works for me so I don't really think a lot of tinkering is really necessary more I hope to see consistent progress moving forward continuing to release new phones on a regular schedule that consumers can get used to and making sure that we're keeping up to date with security and operating system patches reviving a brand is a really tough uphill climb but using this phone is giving me a little hope I don't like the idea of a world without a blackberry in it so I've been very happy with how well this little puppy is performed and of course we want to hear from you where do you want to see BlackBerry go next what features would you most want to see on a follow up to the key one and do you think TCL should be putting more Hardware pressure on delivering a high-end flagship with this BB logo drop us a comment down below those are the conversations I love getting into as always thanks so much for watching be sure to subscribe to this channel for more reviews like these and help us out with a share on your favorite social networks for pocket now I'm Juan Carlos fag nails some gadget guy on Twitter Instagram Facebook around the internet and I will catch you on the next review