BlackBerry Brand to Launch at Least 2 More Smartphones in 2018: TCL

BlackBerry licensee TCL Communication at CES 2018 announced it would be launching "at least two new BlackBerry smartphones" in 2018. Just what these will, is uncertain. Separately, TCL Communication launched a GSM unlocked BlackBerry Motion and a new colour variant and dual-SIM version of the BlackBerry KEYone.

Getting back to the two new BlackBerry smartphones - in a statement, Alain Lejeune, Global General Manager for BlackBerry Mobile, said, "It has been less than one year since we formally introduced the world to our all-new BlackBerry smartphones and we’ve seen very strong renewed interest thanks to devices like BlackBerry KEYone and BlackBerry Motion. With new BlackBerry smartphones from TCL Communication now available in over 50 countries around the world, we have a solid foundation to continue building upon our portfolio in the new year. This means
customers can expect to see at least two new BlackBerry smartphones from us later this year.” There you have, new BlackBerry devices are coming.

The full touchscreen BlackBerry Motion was announced back in October last year. It will be priced at a $449.99 (roughly Rs. 28,600) and will available in the US starting from January 12. Meanwhile, the new BlackBerry KEYone (Bronze Edition) will be released in select markets across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the company has said.

At the CES 2017, TCL had announced its first BlackBerry smartphone, which was later called the BlackBerry KEYOne. However, this year there were no announcements regarding a follow-up of the flagship smartphone.

The BlackBerry Motion is a dual-SIM smartphone running on Android 7.1 Nougat. It comes with a 5.5-inch HD (720x1280 pixels) display with DragonTrail Glass protection. It sports a physical home button below the Screen. A fingerprint scanner is also placed on the front. The handset is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC processor with 4GB of RAM.

BlackBerry Motion smartphone features a 12-megapixel rear camera with an f/2.0 aperture, dual-tone LED flash capability and ability to record videos in 4K at 30fps. There's an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with Selfie flash feature. The smartphone has 32GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). The new smartphone is powered by a 4000mAh non-removable battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support and a USB Type-C port.

The BlackBerry Motion also features a lineup of security suites like DTEK security suite and support for FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption. It also features Android For Work and Google Play for Work.

Meanwhile, the BlackBerry KEYOne Bronze Edition is just a new colour variant of the KEYOne smartphone. In India, the BlackBerry KEYone went on sale in August 2017 priced at Rs. 39,990.

The BlackBerry KEYone is a dual-SIM smartphone powered by Android 7.1 Nougat. It sports a 5.5-inch Full-HD screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio (1080x1620 pixels) and a pixel density of 433ppi. It is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC clocked at up to 2GHz, coupled with 4GB of RAM.

The KEYone camera setup bears a 12-megapixel rear camera with a f/2.0 aperture, PDAF, EIS, and dual-tone LED flash, apart from the 8-megapixel front camera that sports a f/2.2 aperture and an 84-degree wide-angle lens. It is powered by a 3505mAh non-removable battery that supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, said to charge the smartphone from zero to 50 percent in just 30 minutes.

The BlackBerry KEYone comes with 64GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB) in a hybrid dual-SIM configuration. In terms of connectivity, the smartphone supports 4G VoLTE, dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11ac, NFC, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth v4.2, FM radio, USB Type-C (3.1), and a 3.5mm headphone jack.