I'll be honest, my knee-jerk reaction was "BlackBerry is still in business?". Anyone on HN own one or know of someone who does? I can't recall the last time I walked into a store who actually carried BB products on their shelves.
The camera on my KeyOne is superior to anything I've tried before, I'd even go as far as saying that it's up there and competing with the giants. The Sony Z2 Compact camera is a potato in comparison. The keyboard feels a bit cheap and some keys make a squeeking noise, but it's still better than touchscreen typing by far. I've dropped the phone on a number of occassions, it hasn't broken once. The backside tend to pop out, but it's easy to put it back in place again. My biggest complain about the hardware would be the screen, as I haven't access to any protective accessories my screen is pretty scratched by now. It doesn't affect what's displayed on the screen (yet) however, but yeah, I think it scratch too easily. Like I said, the OS is Android, and it's been fairly problem free for being Android. However, lately it has been a bit too agressive in shutting down apps in the background. But I don't know if that is BB's own build's fault or Android in general. There are some pre-installed "security" apps which gives the feeling of the phone being more secure than your other average Android phone. I don't use them though.
My over all impression of the KeyOne is 8 out of 10 I'd say, and I think I'll keep it until it literally fall apart.
Really, I didn't even care that it was Blackberry, I've been getting so tired of the software keyboards that I couldn't even consider the others once I saw it. And for me, it was definitely worth it. Now I can actually touch-type again without having to pause between words to check I didn't mis-type anything - I can feel it, just like missing a key on a regular keyboard.
KEY2 is available in the US.
In other words it's the phone (Android + BB keyboard) they should have made years ago, and many were hoping for.
Their handset business is almost completely wiped out. The catch is that they're making their money off enterprise software and services. They also still have their QNX business, but maintaining their lead in the automotive sector will be challenging. It remains to be seen how long their strategy will work.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-blackberry-results/blackb...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2018/10/01/bl...
Honestly it made me lose all interest in any other phone.
In the past I have had to install a root CA (for AWS or LE, I forget which), I have to use FTP to get my pictures off, but the trade-off is worth it in my book.
I always get an amazing amount of push-back (from astonishment to outright "you're wrong") from people who argue that no-one should ever want anything except what Apple and Google want to push. Well, some people do!