Gadgetory

one of the main selling points for a smartphone a decade ago was the fact that these were communicators it was really the first time that the internet walked with you 24/7 and at the top of the food chain was blackberry this alone became so viral that we even had names for people that became addicted to their BlackBerry's it's the main reason why I've carried two phones ever since even if the BlackBerry copper plates shortly after blackberry 10 that it's damaged what's funny is that today we don't communicate any less as smartphones have become more essential and yet using them for communication has become more cumbersome the larger they become for the sake of content consumption so guess who wants to change that one more time you guessed it I'm highlighting that with pocket now and this is our review of the BlackBerry key one so what things are essential for a communicator first it has to be easy to handle since you will be handling it a lot and second it has to last all day no matter what the BlackBerry key one is actually both even if taking a step away from your standard Android smartphone it's built of a sturdy aluminum that's met with grippy texture at the back and a mix of curves and flat finishes at the top and bottom at a glance it is definitely unlike any smartphone in the market today and it doesn't feel like any smart phone in the market either 149 millimeters in height 72 and width 9 and 1/2 in thickness and 180 grams in weight the key one isn't out to win any thin enlight contest on the contrary the grippy texture at the back ends to a device meant to achieve its first goal as it is definitely quite comfortable in the hand to achieve the second goal the key one pulls on some inspiration from its legacy the added thickness is most likely to house its large 3505 milliamp hour battery the source of internals are also more in line with that of a premium mid ranger given the added power efficiency of the snapdragon 65 processor since again this device values endurance more than content consumption its display is actually just the hair smaller than your standard iPhone 7 at 4.5 inches and brings the same IPS LCD technology at 3 by 2 aspect ratio color accuracy is great with decent blacks and it's also efficient enough to bring an ambient display with your notifications below it we also have the famous blackberry curity keyboard from the fingerprint scanner on the space bar to the capacitive navigation gestures provided by the keyboard the visual combination of everything is quite striking and elegant from a distance bottom line as for the second goal my week of testing has proven the battery to be quite epic my first couple of tests allowed me to go for two days without a charge and bear in mind my job is to use a phone pretty much all day one of the key ingredients to achieve this great endurance is the inclusion of android 7.1.1 as close to stock as possible and i say it's close to stock because visually it is but it is very loaded with a ton of tools to help you communicate more efficiently for starters the launcher allows widgets but you kind of don't need them you see three dots at the bottom of any app icon swipe it up or down to reveal the applications widget and you can actually switch it depending on how many are available and if you still want regular widgets you can find these in the app tray in addition to a third tab for programmable shortcuts and speaking of shortcuts you can either press or long press any keyboard element to launch an extra one for a total of 56 shortcuts though these four reason only seemed to work on the home screen at least for now the only one that really works all the time at least at the time of this review is the one you set at the convenience key which is at the right I've actually disabled the short press shortcuts since I find it more convenient to just start typing and have the key one perform a device search even if it's quite laggy right now the BlackBerry hub continues to play a major role on this phone as the one place you've come to receive all your communication instead of needing to fumble from one app to the next this is definitely my favorite feature as you can be selective of which accounts fall on the hub I just wish that Gmail integration was better at least then figuring out ways to archive email by simply swiping and not requiring an extra action to select the folder and then to complement the hub the productivity tab at the right allows you to view your day from any screen and act on specifics within it I'm sad to report though that bbm is dead like seriously the last time that any of my old contacts was seen online was two years ago it's really sad to see this great platform just died and then there is everything else which pretty much looks like stock Android and where the pixel is mimicked in most things like for example how notifications are portrayed on the ambient display and the launch of the Google system by pressing and holding the home button missing though are essentials like the blue light filter which are not found at least on this version that I'm currently using now all this very of custom software doesn't seem to like the limited spec sheet I wouldn't call performance sluggish but there is the occasional stutter when launching applications or navigating within them and then ideas like typing a search from the home screen are great selling points for a persistent keyboard but as I mentioned earlier the lack can really hinder the experience as you can't really tell what the phone is doing whenever you start typing and then you have to wait for your response and ask for that persistent keyboard there are elements to love and a sort of a wish list on my behalf all right find the genius to be able to use it for navigation between screens and for this fingerprint scanner to be as fast as it is I also love the swiping action for predictions since these are on spot most of the time and then my favorite which would be the fact that it's multilingual without the need of me to switch languages what I don't like is more personal thing as I can't feel kind of crammed compared to even legacy blackberries it is also quite mushy when pressing it compared to older units as well in my time testing it I have started to get used to it but I do hope the key to will take over the rest of the chin and provide us with a larger keyboard and blackberry since the technology is already capacitive how about having it detect typing without the need to press the keys as regaining muscle memory has been my largest learning curve the camera is one of those stories I am glad to report on the key one sports the same IMX 3 7 8 sensor that we find on the Google pixel and that is actually awesome there isn't the background work that the pixel is able to achieve with HDR plus but this device is actually a worthy contender for daylight photography in almost every scenario the one point 5 5 microns on the sensor even allow this camera to perform abruptly in low-light though focus can be a challenge there's a setting to force the camera to not take the shot until focus is acquired so you can pick your poison if you'd prefer it to take its time pro tip disable HDR at night and watch ones real camera review for more details another thing that's shocking is how well this camera stabilizes video even without the inclusion of OIS something which again is another very neat trick from the pixel that's also mimicked here and yes this phone takes decent selfie photos even though again we're not really fans of these to conclude I think it's important that we remember the main purpose of a communicator ergonomics and endurance are essential for someone that doesn't want to be carrying a battery pack around after a long day in the city and in that respect the BlackBerry key one nails everything there is a lot of genius behind the hardware and a lot more behind the software that powers at all now those of you who need a phone focused on content consumption and not really communication I can totally understand that you feel this device is not for you because you're probably right it's not and if you still do want the software but on more powerful hardware there is the BlackBerry detects 60 the BlackBerry key one is designed for the rest of us who did feel nostalgic the moment we saw it for the first time the die-hard professional in need of a work tool that's quick to react and that can last a full day and then some so then I say the BlackBerry key one is a great device for the things that matter the fact that this phone is already running the latest version of Android is a good indication that my complaints about software will be ironed out soon because and absolutely everything else this is going to be one phone I will have a hard time putting away and while that happens remember this is just one of many reviews to come so make sure you follow us on social media and hit that subscribe button down 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