We reviewed the BlackBerry Keyone back in February and we loved it. From the keyboard to the battery life and form factor. Definitely ideal for the niche consumers crowd or enterprise crowd. Earlier this month, the unveiled their new take on it by beefing up some area to make a more pleasurable experience.
This time around you got the same dope battery, better keyboard, faster CPU, more RAM, & even more privacy software features on board. We've had our time for about 2 weeks w/ it and we're gonna talk about what we loved about it, what we want to be improved, & how it holds up to the Keyone.
The team behind the Key2 made sure to update the hardware a bit w/ a more of a slimmer metal slab. Still got the aluminum frame now w/ smaller bezels that makes room for slightly wider keys. The soft grip on the rear has improved to make it easier to grab on to. This time around the volume rocker, Power & a programmable convenience buttons are all on one side- the right-side. The LED notification that you can put a custom color based on the app notification. The 4.5inch LCD display mirrors that from the KeyOne as its bright w/ ideal color reproduction. All makes for a more attractive while still retaining a slightly industrial look to it.
Better to hold & better to type on.
The physical keyboard has improved ergonomically from the KeyOne to the Key2. They're now taller, better clickiness, and has a matte finish instead of a glossy one. Think of the keyboard of the Bold 9900 when it first came out way back when. An overall much better keyboard to type on. Along w/ the customizable 52-keys, they added a dedicated shortcut button called the Speed Key. This will allow you to create macros like hitting the C + Speed Key to open Chrome. This is another way to get more use out of the keyboard as I didn't use this often. They made sure to retain the touch sensitivity on the keyboard to use a trackpad and the fingerprint scanner on the spacebar - which is about the same speed as KeyOne.
- 4.5inch LCD display w/ 1620 x 1080 resolution
- Snapdragon 660 CPU
- 6GB of RAM + 64GB storage expandable via microSD up to 2TB
- Touch sensitive physical keyboard w/ fingerprint sensor in the Spacebar
- Dual rear-facing cameras: f/1.8 12MP + f/2.6 12MP portrait lens w/ 2x optical zoom
- 8MP front-facing camera
- 3500 mAh battery w/ QuickCharge 3.0
- Android 8.1 Oreo
BlackBerry maintains its mid-range internals but made sure to take the time to beef things up a bit as well. So they put in here the latest 600-series from Snapdragon w/ the 660 CPU which continues to hold it down. There were reports of Keyone owners suffering from lagging experience after a while so they made sure to address that by bumping up the RAM to 6GB. So far, this been a speedy performance but we'll have to test it in 3-6 months to really see how it holds up.
Faster performance so far & the same great 2-day battery life.
There is only a slight difference in regards to battery life but still maintains the 2-day battery life from last year. So instead of the 3505 mAh battery, you got a 3500 mAh one. This is got me around 48-hours w/ medium-to-heavy usage and several days on light usage. Good to see BlackBerry maintaining its dominance on battery life for Android.
Now BlackBerry made sure to give the Key2 more premium features w/ dual shooters, optical zoom, & portrait mode. The Keyone had a pretty good shooter on it. So did the f/1.8 + f/2.6 12MP shooters do better than last year's camera? Well, yes and no.
In regards to regular photos, you get pretty good photos in daylight. Decent amount of color, sharpness, and such. You can give this a bit of a boost using the slower HDR mode. The portrait mode is fine. Nothing amazing as you still would get hazy edges in some photos. The low-light photos are a bit hit and miss. The less the light the more the miss but in HDR mode can save some photos but requires a few seconds of being steady to get a good shot.
The 8MP selfie camera is fine. You will need a decent amount of light or else you'll get a lot of noticeable grain. Its kind of what you would expect from a mid-range for the most part.
The Key2 is sporting the latest in Android w/ version 8.1 Oreo as well as even more new goodies from BlackBerry to better uphold security, privacy, & more. You for the basics, you still got the unique layout (post-It board-look) for Recently Opened Apps, extra dots for icons, Productivity Tab (like Samsung Edge panels) to access BB Hub, Tasks, Contacts, and customizable widgets.
What's new software-wise on the Key2? You got Locker mode from the non-keyboard BlackBerry Motion, which is a hub that will allow you to store files, photos, & Firefox Focus (a private browser) via the fingerprint reader. You got its own smart battery center dubbed Power Center. It will learn your charging habits and ask if you're charging your phone around the usual time you would. As well as suggest settings even extend your battery life. Kind of like that feature set to arrive for Android P.
And you still have the DTEK security holding you down. It is basically watching every app install/update, file download, etc, for any types of malware, viruses, sketchy apps, and more. Hell, it will even tell you what permissions each app has received and detect if an app is acting strangely. Still good stuff and a stand out feature.
There is a lot that I love about the Key2 over the Keyone. The keyboard alone is leap & bounds better. The form factor hs improved as well. The stellar battery life remains the same. The cameras are OK for the most part but hit or miss in low-light. My real gripes w/ the Key2 is the dual cameras & the pricing. The cameras aren't bad but not sure they justified the need to have 2 cameras that can do optical zoom & portrait mode. Not when the main camera is just OK.
I would have liked to see them get better there first - then make the move to dual shooters. And the pricing, they're charging $650 for this which is a lot for a mid-ranger. You can get a bit more bang for buck w/ the OnePlus 6. You would be missing out on the amazing battery & privacy/security features but if you're not interested then you won't care. I would love to see this at least $550 starting off then drop down via promotions/sales throughout the rest of the year. It's a good device just a bit on the pricey side though.
