As the name suggests, BlackBerry have just launched a new smartphone which harks back to the original design of the first BlackBerry mobile phones, it’s name – the BlackBerry Classic. BlackBerry’s heyday in the late ninety’s through to around 2007 meant that it was one of the major players in the mobile phone world and it’s handsets with keyboards were a very familiar sight.
The new BlackBerry Classic features the famous QWERTY keyboard under a 3.5-inch square screen. This is great news for fans of the popular keyboard-toting old-style BlackBerry mobile phones as it’s not uncommon to see the old handsets still in use in the City or on Wall Street. Many business execs still prefer to use a traditional hardware keyboard to the touchscreen keyboards featured in more recent smartphones. In fact, the Classic comes with both a physical and touchscreen keyboard so it offers versatility on the keyboard front which is all important when ploughing through the hundreds of emails most of us get on a daily basis.
The BlackBerry Classic comes with a bigger screen that the BlackBerry handsets of old – it’s a square 3.5-inches and offers 294 ppi (720 x 720). Underneath the screen can be found the physical BB keyboard which is said to be up to 4 times more accurate than touchscreen keyboards. The Classic comes in 2 colour options, black or white and there’s a decent 8-megapixel rear-facing camera which features HDR, autofocus and an LED flash . On the front, the Classic offers a 2-megapixel camera.
The Classic is powered by a dual-core 1.5GHZ processor as well as 2GB of RAM. The 2515mAH battery is powerful enough to provide around 22 hours of average use which is definitely a bonus for busy business execs. The 16GB of expandable onboard storage can be increased up to an excellent 128GB thanks to the microSD slot.
Running on BlackBerry’s latest 10.3 operating system, the Classic comes with BlackBerry Messenger 6, BB Balance to keep the ‘work side’ of the handset separate and secure, virtual BB Assistant, the Hub and BB Blend. There’s also access to a great number and variety of apps as the BB Classic is able to run Android apps and is preloaded with the Amazon Appstore.
The BB Classic offers excellent security features which are a must-have for many business users, as well as BlackBerry Balance, there’s BlackBerry Protect which has GPS for helping to find lost or missing handsets and the option to lock or wipe the phone remotely. Emails and messages sent from BlackBerry smartphones are also encrypted for additional peace of mind.
The BlackBerry Classic has already made its debut in the USA and is expected to be available in the UK in early 2015. More news as we have it.
