Phone Comparisons: BlackBerry KEYone Vs. BlackBerry PRIV

Introduction

With recent reports suggesting that BlackBerry KEYone pre-orders have hit record highs in Canada, let's accept a closer look at the device and compare it with its spiritual predecessor – the BlackBerry PRIV – the device that heralded the Android era at BlackBerry back in 2015, merely failed to brand much of an bear upon in the premium segment dominated almost entirely by Apple tree and Samsung. The subsequent BlackBerry releases – the DTEK50 and the DTEK60 – didn't fare whatsoever better either, merely the KEYone seems to be bucking the trend if early indications are anything to go by. Then what is it that is reportedly making people flock to the KEYone while having largely ignored the PRIV last year? While the relatively lower price-tag is very likely one of the factors that has made this particular device a bit more accessible to consumers, traditional BlackBerry users accept never actually been known to be penny-pinchers, and then it is certainly intriguing every bit to why this device is off to such a cracking start while the response to the PRIV was largely lukewarm.

While the PRIV was BlackBerry'southward flagship device back in 2015, the KEYone is actually a mid-ranger in terms of its hardware. However, while the pricing for the KEYone starts at $549 in the U.S., the PRIV tin be bought for about one-half that price these days, having been launched at $699 a year and a one-half agone. It is of import to notation here that the PRIV is no longer being sold on BlackBerry'due south official online store in the U.S., merely is available at several 3rd-party retailers, like Amazon, Newegg, B&H, Walmart and BestBuy. So with a ~$250 difference between the KEYone and the PRIV, it is but natural to wonder if all that extra money for the former is really worth it. Both take their own pros and cons, so which one is actually the ameliorate purchase? Let'southward detect out!

Specifications

BlackBerry KEYone

There was a time in the not-too-distant by, when owning a BlackBerry device was the ultimate condition symbol. However, all that changed with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007 and the subsequent emergence of Android, which eventually led to the mass adoption of smartphones by consumers worldwide. As with Nokia, BlackBerry also kept trying to swim confronting the tide and kept clinging on to its in-business firm software without paying attention to ground realities. Still, piling losses and shrinking market shares forced both old smartphone majors to jump on the Android bandwagon, merely neither are designing or developing their own models anymore. While HMD Global is manufacturing Nokia-branded devices nether license from the Finnish telecom giant, TCL has been entrusted to practise the same by the Canadian tech firm, and if the BlackBerry KEYone is anything to go by, the Chinese house is definitely making a move in the correct direction.

The KEYone may not exist a tier-1 flagship in the strictest sense of the term, but it does have a loftier-end feel to information technology both in terms of its hardware and design. It comes with an all-metal structure with curved edges on all four sides and a soft-affect rubberized back for ameliorate grip. On the front, it has the much-vaunted physical keyboard on the bottom, and a 4.five-inch IPS LCD display on top. The panel comes with a resolution of 1620 10 1080 pixels, thanks to its slightly odd 3:ii aspect ratio to suit the physical keypad. The device is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC that comes with an integrated 64-bit octa-core CPU clocked at 2GHz along with the Adreno 506 GPU. The KEYone ships with 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32GB of congenital-in storage that'due south expandable via a microSD card of up to 256GB in capacity.

Optics on the device includes the same 12-megapixel rear-facing camera establish on the Google Pixel and Pixel Forty, although, there's no laser auto-focus in this item device different the two Google smartphones. As far as the forepart-facing photographic camera is concerned, there's an 8-megapixel sensor that works as advertised for selfies and video chats. The KEYone ships with Android vii.one Nougat out-of-the-box, and carries a 3,505mAh battery with support for Qualcomm'south Quick Charge 3.0. As with the DTEK50 and the DTEK60, the KEYone too comes with a customizable 'Convenience Key' on the right side, just below the volume rocker. Another interesting aspect of the phone is its fingerprint scanner that comes embedded in the infinite bar of the physical keypad.

BlackBerry PRIV

This was the device BlackBerry introduced a twelvemonth and a half ago when it finally joined the Android bandwagon afterward giving up the ghost with its BlackBerry OS, which never really got much beloved from the developer community. While in theory the BlackBerry PRIV had everything BlackBerry aficionados were thought to be looking for – a physical QWERTY keyboard and virtually unlimited apps thanks to the Google Play Store, in reality, that turned out not to exist the case. While many BlackBerry loyalists were concerned nigh the perceived lack of security on Android, others were upset well-nigh the high toll-tag. The device was launched in the U.South. at $699, which was fifty-fifty higher than the iPhone 6S that had only launched weeks before with a $650 price-tag.

The device itself, though, came with some decent hardware. The telephone features a v.4-inch AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with a brandish resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels (540dpi). The screen has curved edges on the sides and, is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4. A Snapdragon 808 powers the BlackBerry PRIV with its hexa-core CPU and Adreno 418 GPU. The device packs 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage that tin be expanded via a microSD card. Optics include an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera with an f/2.2 discontinuity and a i/2.4' sensor size, Schneider-Kreuznach optics, optical image stabilization (OIS), phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and dual-LED (dual tone) wink. Information technology can record 2160p videos at 30fps and 1080p videos at upwards to 60fps. The front-facing photographic camera, still, is a measly 2-megapixel sensor that is only capable of recording up to 720p videos.

Sensors on the device include an accelerometer, an altimeter, a gyroscope, a ToF proximity sensor and a magnetometer (eastward-compass). The device carries a three,410mAh bombardment and was originally launched with Android five.1.ane Lollipop out-of-the-box, although, information technology has since received its Android six.0 Marshmallow update. The BlackBerry PRIV, similar all its predecessors, comes with BBM pre-loaded, and too has a hardware 'Mute' button that sits between the two book buttons on the right. The device measures 147mm in length, 77.2mm in width and 9.4mm in thickness, while weighing in at 192 grams.

Finally, all discussions about the PRIV remain incomplete without any talk about its sliding QWERTY keyboard. While the company tried to give its users the best of both worlds by incorporating a physical keyboard into the PRIV without reducing the screen real-estate, many weren't too impressed by the way it was implemented, calling it haphazard and one-half-baked. However, the software that drives it comes with some really useful features. You tin can hold down a key and the PRIV volition suggest apps and contacts starting with that letter. For instance, holding downwards the letter 'C' will bring upward apps like Clock and Calculator, and people such equally Chris and Caroline. The keyboard as well provides swipe areas across the keys and custom keyboard shortcuts for the virtually commonly used words. Yous tin also use the trackpad features of the keyboard to roll up and down long webpages.

… And The Winner Is …

The Last Word

Trying to make up one's mind a winner between 2 smartphones is ever pretty hard, only if e'er at that place was an easy ane, this was it. In our review of the KEYone, we unequivocally chosen information technology BlackBerry'south "greatest smartphone ever," so information technology was never actually going to be a shut fight betwixt these two, but then once more, it was never meant to exist. The only reason we decided to pit them confronting one another was to see if BlackBerry and TCL learned anything from the failure of the PRIV and implemented the changes that the BlackBerry faithful were clamoring for. Turns out, they did. The KEYone is not just the ameliorate of the two BlackBerry devices in today'south comparison, merely it is by far the best BlackBerry with Android always made, and a must-buy for anybody looking for a smartphone with a concrete QWERTY keypad.

Buy The BlackBerry KEYone Buy The BlackBerry PRIV