If you’re a fan of physical keyboards, you’ve no doubt been keeping up with the newest BlackBerrys. We’ve reviewed the KEYone and the KEY2, but they were both quite businesslike. The new BlackBerry KEY2 Red Edition, however, looks sporty, fun, and it has updated features!
If thoughts of QWERTY keyboards give you a little thrill, you’ll like that BlackBerry is giving us more options. In addition to the BlackBerry Key2, you can also consider the new Key2 LE. The BlackBerry Key2 LE has slightly fewer premium features than the Key2, but at $399 for the 32GB and $449 for the 64GB, it’s an attractive alternative.
Last year, I reviewed the BlackBerry KEYone, and I found it to be an excellent update to the BlackBerry line. A year has passed, and the BlackBerry KEY2 is now available. Should you get one?
If you prefer the feel of physical keys under your thumbs when you’re tapping out emails or posting on Instagram, you’re going to love the BlackBerry KEY2. Sleeker and with dual-lens optics, the BlackBerry KEY2 is a welcome update to last year’s KEYone.
In case you haven’t noticed, there are lots of different smartphones on the market – and the options aren’t limited to iPhones and Galaxies. If you’re in the market for a new phone and don’t know where to start, this article can help.
If you’d asked me several years ago if I’d be recommending a BlackBerry phone in 2017, I probably would have laughed and said no. For years, BlackBerry has seemed one step away from death taking the physical QWERTY keyboard along with it. No one could be more surprised than me that I like and enjoy using the new BlackBerry KEYone.
TCL, one of the world’s leading smartphone manufacturers has descended upon this year’s Mobile World Congress to announce they will try a feat that has been attempted quite a few times with failing efforts: Resurrecting the BlackBerry.
TCL Communication, the fourth-largest mobile phone manufacturer in North America announced today plans of a portfolio business model that will enable an entire suite of mobility products, including a brand you might know of even if you haven’t used them in a while, BlackBerry.
T-Mobile is now offering the Android-based BlackBerry Priv for $719 or $30/month for 24 months. Hailed as the (possible) savior of BlackBerry, this qwerty keyboard device has drawn mixed reviews. The keyboard has been welcomed by fat-thumbers. An excess of heat from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor and creaking body panels has been mentioned as negatives by a few purchasers. The Priv is available in the U.S. at AT&T and T-Mobile.
As of March 30th, BlackBerry is now accepting pre-orders of their new BlackBerry Leap for the US, UK, France as well as Germany. The Blackberry leap features a 5-inch 720P display and will actually only be placed at $275, £199.00, or €289 according to the country that you live in and will be released officially on April 21.
If you’ve been tempted but haven’t yet pulled the trigger on the BlackBerry Passport (good move, BTW) – BlackBerry is now offering a limited edition black and gold trimmed version. Apparently only 50 will be offered at the price of $999 Canadian or $899 US. A quick review of BlackBerry’s site shows “out of stock”.
Rumors are swirling from CNBC that Samsung is looking to snatch up Blackberry for their patent portfolio (and presumably whatever positive goodwill still exists in the Blackberry name). Several suitors have been rumored for Blackberry, but Samsung certainly has the cash, and the incentive in the form of their ongoing arms race with Apple.
Here’s one Black Friday offer you should refuse. It’s the BlackBerry Passport at $200 off. If you fall for this deal, you are virtually guaranteed to be the only one amongst your friends to own this BlackBerry device (GSM unlocked – coal colored) – normally $699 now $499 through November 30, 2014.
BlackBerry reported earnings this morning. Sales for the quarter were $996 million down 70% compared to the prior year’s quarter when sales were $ 3.1 billion. Sales of devices shrank to 2.6 million smartphones compared to the year earlier when they sold 6.8 million.
As I noted previously, I ordered the BlackBerry Q10 off contract via Amazon primarily out of nostalgia, because I think this is going to be the last widely available North American BlackBerry device with a keyboard.
I’ve been eyeing the no-contract pricing on the BlackBerry Q10, and last week the non-contract price suddenly plummeted from $599 down to $399 for both AT&T and Verizon, so I bought one. As of now, the price on Amazon continues to fluctuate between $399 and $ 599 — likely because of some type of demand pricing algorithm Amazon uses.
Interesting quote of the day from BlackBerry CEO John Chen, who is quoted as implying that apps don’t matter, that BlackBerry could be the Porsche of smartphones. Does history teach people anything? Perhaps I’ve been dozing the past two years as BlackBerry market share has completely nose-dived – largely due to a lack of applications.
During GearFest 2013 Carly, Mike, Judie, and I — the Editorial Staff of Gear Diary — sat down to take a look at the current lineup of super phones on each of the major platforms. We laid out a dozen or so different smartphones and talked about some of our likes and dislikes. Among the phones discussed are the iPhone 5, the Samsung GALAXY S4, the Samsung GALAXY S4 Active, the HTC One, the Nokia Lumia 928, the Nokia Lumia 920, the LG Optimus G, the HTC One X, the Google Play HTC One, and the Blackberry Z10. We then turned…
The candy bar QWERTY has been one of my favourite form factors since I first laid my hands on the Nokia E71. It helped that the E71 was super slim, solid and had amazing battery life, but the tactile keyboard held me back from switching for quite some time. Since those days a glass slab has been my device of choice, be it iPhone or more recently Android. It’s easy to see why, considering the ratio of consumption over creation they are typically used for. Intelligent keyboards like the brilliant SwiftKey for Android further bolster the argument that the hardware…
Reading over Carly’s post and the comments made something clear to me – plenty of people have at least a vague sense of dissatisfaction with pretty much ALL of the available smartphone choices. iOS is ‘stale’, Android remains klunky, Blackberry is dead-end, and Windows Phone is the also-ran that just can’t seem to win. Many polls suggest general dissatisfaction with all current smartphone brands. Yet when you read about smartphone loyalty, Apple leads the way and in general most people are likely to stick with the brand and operating system they currently use. Which leads to the obvious question ……
For some time it seemed that if you wanted to be taken seriously as a business person, you had to have a BlackBerry device. Research In Motion — or RIM as the company was commonly called — built smartphones that were solid, had excellent QWERTY keyboards, they were secure, and they were the first devices to have PUSH email. Side note: PUSH email may be something many of us take for granted now, but there was a time when if you wanted it, you had to own a BlackBerry. Those of us on Pocket PC phones, Treos, or other phones…