BY Staff Reporter < 1 MINUTE READ

TCL Communication’s newest BlackBerry smartphone the BlackBerry Key 2 now has a release date which will be available on July 13th in the United States starting at $649.99 (R8789.49)

WATCH:

Pre-orders are set to start at Amazon and Best Buy on June 29th.

The Key2 is an upgraded version of the KeyOne.

TCL has updated the design a bit, slimming down the bezels and making the iconic physical keyboard slightly larger. But this isn’t a radical redesign.

Specs have also been boosted since the KeyOne, for example, there’s a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chip and both RAM and internal storage have been doubled from the previous model to 6GB of memory and either 64GB or 128GB of space.

The front-facing camera is still an 8-megapixel shooter, but the rear camera is a new dual 12-megapixel camera.

Both Amazon and Best Buy will be offering the Key2 unlocked, although TCL and BlackBerry say that the phone is optimized for GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile in silver and black options.

Specifications include:

1. Keyboard

Touch-enabled 35 key backlit Physical Keyboard (QWERTY) and integrated fingerprint sensor.

2.Size

Height 151.4mm
Width 71.8mm
Depth 8.5mm

3. Display

Resolution
433 PPI
1620 x 1080 IPS LCD
24-bit colour depth

4. Screen size

4.5” diagonal
3:2 aspect ratio

5. Performance

Processor:
Qualcomm® SDM 660, Kryo 260 Octa-Core 2.2 GHz x 4 + 1.8GHz x 4, 64-bit

6. Memory:

Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD
memory card (Up to 256GB)

6GB RAM + 64GB Flash
compatible with 6GB RAM + 128 Flash
Ports
USB Type-C, USB 3.0, USB OTG

7. Battery

3500 mAh.

– BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE