BlackBerry KEYone launches in North America tomorrow

Tomorrow is the last day of May 2017, but it happens to also be the first day that the BlackBerry KEYone will be available in the U.S. and Canada. In North America, the phone's distinctive physical Keyboard and outstanding battery life have excited consumers, many of whom would have never considered buying a BlackBerry before. The KEYone will be sold starting tomorrow at select Best Buy stores and through Amazon, priced at $549.99 USD.

In the U.S., these unlocked models will be available in two different variants. One will support GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile, while the other supports CDMA operators like Verizon and Sprint. Carrier availability will start this summer at Sprint.

Beginning tomorrow, several Canadian carriers will make the BlackBerry KEYone available with certain plans. Wireless operators such as Bell, Bell MTS, Rogers, SaskTel and TELUS will sell the KEYone in stores or online. Carrier pricing starts as low as $199 Canadian with a signed two-year contract. The retail price for the device in Canada is $729 Canadian.

The physical QWERTY keyboard on the KEYone looks great, and is a major improvement over the one found on the BlackBerry Priv slider. BlackBerry uses metal frets on the new model, which brings back memories of the BlackBerry Bold 9000 (possibly the best portrait positioned typing experience on a handset ever). The outstanding battery life is the result of BlackBerry combining a 3505mAh battery with the Snapdragon 625 chipset. The latter is an energy sipping chip that allows KEYone users to steer clear of outlets for nearly two days.


With its North American release tomorrow, you can bone up on the BlackBerry KEYone by reading our review. Simply click on this link.

source: CrackBerry (1), (2)