CHINA’S TCL Communication seems to be carrying the weight of the world on its shoulders. Its mission when it got the rights to make smartphones under the BlackBerry name: to turn the once-loved brand’s misfortunes around. Today, ahead of MWC 2017, we have finally seen the first true phone that TCL hopes will bring former Crackberries back into the fold, the BlackBerry KeyOne (click for complete specs).

Code-named Mercury, the KeyOne is as every bit as classic as the BlackBerry we have known, with oodles of features from devices that are popular today.

BlackBerry KeyOne video

The physical QWERTY keyboard returns — complemented by a scratch-resistant touchscreen measuring 4.5 inches, a size we’re not sure will appeal to folks who are now accustomed to big displays. The keyboard can launch up to 52 shortcuts. Press “F,” for example, and you will be directed to Facebook. Press “Y,” and you’ll go to YouTube. You get the drift.

Also back are BlackBerry’s security software, Hub, and BBM, which are layered on top of Google’s Android 7.1 Nougat.

The physical QWERTY keyboard returns — complemented by a scratch-resistant touchscreen measuring 4.5 inches. So do BlackBerry’s security software, Hub, and BBM, which are layered on top of Google’s Android 7.1 Nougat.

A fingerprint reader is built into the BlackBerry KeyOne keyboard’s space bar. On the back are the non-removable 3,505mAh battery and the 12-megapixel main camera, which is paired with an 8-megapixel fixed-focus front camera that has an 84-inch field of view, a wide selfie mode, an f/2.2 aperture, and a 1.125um pixel size.

SEE ALSO: Nokia 6 hands-on: Back for real?

There’s 32GB of internal storage, but should you need more space for your files, you can always expand it via a hot-swappable microSD memory card with storage of up to 2TB.

RAM is at 3GB, but contrary to previous reports, the chipset is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625, not the higher-end 821. A real bummer because the BlackBerry DTEK60, announced in October 2016, features a Snapdragon 820 chipset. Then again, who knows? Maybe software optimization is so efficient that you won’t really feel a performance difference. 

Perhaps the biggest hurdle TCL has to face is people’s willingness to shell out $549 or about P27,500 for the BlackBerry KeyOne when it arrives in April. Will consumers be inclined to pay a premium for a device with average specs? Can TCL, the world’s No. 7 phone maker, replicate what HMD Global did for its first effort for the Nokia brand, the Nokia 6?

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