REVIEW: BlackBerry KEYone Bronze Edition

There are 52 unique keyboard shortcuts at your disposal on the BlackBerry KEYone.

Dubai - Did you miss that keyboard? Well, it's back, better than ever

How many of you, dear readers and smartphone users, had once upon a time utilised a BlackBerry not just as your everyday digital pal, but also as a status symbol?
Truth be told, a BlackBerry was the smartphone back then. And TCL has been doing a good job of keeping the iconic brand in the conversation.
TCL's latest offering, the KEYone Bronze Edition, evokes memories of the coolness that owning a BlackBerry brought along. This is the third version after the original silver and black variations, and is by far the most aesthetically-pleasing among the lot. To be fair, I sadly never got to review its predecessors (though I've seen them), but, hey, it's always nice to see something other than those two colours for a change.
Out of the box, the KEYone Bronze is a beauty: swapping those silver and black hues for a bronze touch really ups the ante in terms of looks, with a matte finish on its leather-esque rear for good measure. It also matches up with the Black Edition's 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, up from the original's 3GB and 32GB. Plus, it now also supports dual-SIM capabilities.
And, of course, the KEYone's come-and-get-me proposition is the iconic BlackBerry keyboard. Those who've used - and continue to use - a BlackBerry will be very much familiar with how the drill goes. But for those of us who have been using the virtual keyboard on smartphones (I'm quite sure that's practically all of us), you may find yourself learning to do the thing all over again (don't you miss the shift and 'sym' keys?).
Aside from that, you can also assign shortcuts by short- or long-pressing those chiclets: for example, short-pressing 'S' will open Snapchat, while long-pressing it fires up Super Mario Run. There are 52 unique shortcuts at your disposal, plus a fingerprint scanner on the space bar. And aside from pressing the keys on it, the 'board can also serve as a trackpad, which you can use to scroll content - not the first time BlackBerry has incorporated this ability.
But if you insist on the virtual keyboard, you can actually activate it in Settings - but, of course, you'll have to say goodbye to half of its 4.5-inch display; the keyboard already takes about one-third of the entire device (practically equivalent to a 5.5-incher), not counting the bezels on top and below. Which leads us to the 'Beef of the Review': while the screen is indeed bright and crisp, you may have to get used to the black voids when viewing 16:9-format videos (it has a 3:2 ratio). It could be even worse on the Black edition, since those dead zones blend with it; at least the bronze tone eliminates that.
Battery life is A-OK, enough to last you over 24 hours. Our standard one-hour YouTube-at-full-brightness test sapped 12 per cent of juice, a fairly good measure.
BlackBerry has always been about security, and the KEYone Bronze has been tagged as the most secure Android smartphone out there, thanks, again, to BlackBerry's very own DTEK security software, which monitors your apps and alerts you if something fishy's going on.
While donning the looks of a premium phone, it only has a Snapdragon 625 chipset, though its performance still yields a smooth performance. I did a speed test - firing up apps in succession, going back-and-forth through screens, etc - and it still did well, though lags will be there sometimes, especially when playing games.
And let's not forget about BlackBerry Hub, your go-to place for all your messages and communiqués. Still pretty much the same. The camera, meanwhile, holds up pretty well in well-lit scenes, but will give some mushy images when darkness creeps in, especially on the front snapper.
 
AND SO.
TCL's BlackBerry KEYone Bronze Edition reminds me of my favourite BlackBerry of all-time, the Torch, way back in 2010, because of a simple reason: it combines productivity, great form and, in the KEYone's case, nostalgia. We hear that there are a couple of keyboard-wielding BlackBerry devices coming up in 2018. Keep 'em coming.
 
THE LOWDOWN