BlackBerry KEY2 LE with physical keypad and Android Oreo launched at IFA

tech2 News StaffAug 31, 2018 19:56:13 IST

The BlackBerry KEY2 which was launched in India in July claimed to be the smartphone with extra security to keep the users' data safe. It rolled out for Rs 42,990 and was made available on Amazon.

Now the company has announced a BlackBerry KEY2 LE at the IFA 2018 which is said to retain few of the features of KEY2.

The phone comes with a screen size of 4.5-inches diagonally with an aspect ratio of 3:2. It weighs 156 grams.

BlackBerry KEY2 LE. Image: BlackBerry

The phone has an IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1620 x 1080 which is said to be protected by the "impact resistant" Corning's Gorilla Glass which hasn't been named yet.

Aimed at physical keyboard lovers, the phone comes with a 35 key backlit keypad which also has an integrated fingerprint sensor which is said to be placed under the spacebar key.

The BlackBerry KEY2 LE comes with a Snapdragon 636 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 660 which came with the original KEY2. It can hence be seen as a toned down version of the KEY2.

The phone is said to arrive with a 4 GB of RAM and it would maybe come with either 32 GB or 64 GB internal storage. It also sports a microSD card for expansion up to 256 GB.

BlackBerry KEY2 LE. Image: Blackberry

In terms of the camera, the phone comes with a 13 MP + 5 MP dual-lens camera on the back with LED flash. The main lens has f/2.2 aperture while the 5 MP lens has f/2.4 opening. It's capable of 4K video recording at 30 fps. The front camera is 8 MP.

The 3,000 mAh battery is smaller in comparison to that on the KEY2 which comes with a 3,500 mAh battery. The company states that the KEY2 LE will last for "22 hours of mixed-use battery" but these claims will have to be substantiated. Also, there is an option of setting a charging reminder that will update the user when the battery level falls below a certain percentage chosen by the user. BlackBerry  also throws in Qualcomm QuickCharge 3.0 support which is always helpful.

The phone runs on the Android 8.1 Oreo out of the box and comes equipped with the Google Assistant and an option from choosing from "millions of app" available on Google Play.

The phone would be available in three colours such as Slate, Champagne and Atomic which are said to be available according to the region it's been delivered to.

According to a report by GSMArena, the KEY2 LE might cost around $399 for a 32 GB model or $449 for a 64 GB model which is much lesser than the original KEY2's price tag which was around $649.