BlackBerry has added a new color to the KEYone family here at CES in Las Vegas. The company had already unveiled the Black Edition last year, and now there is the Bronze Edition which we got a chance to check out at CES, and it is definitely a stunner. Internally, it sports all of the same specs as the Black Edition, which was an upgrade from the original KEYone (which was actually first shown to the public at CES last year, but it didn’t have a name at the time).
The BlackBerry KEYone Bronze Edition does still sport that 4.5-inch display with a 1620×1080 resolution, along with the Snapdragon 625 processor. There is 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage available, that’s an upgrade from the 3GB and 32GB available in the original KEYone. There is a micro SD card slot available for expanding storage as well. And of course, there is a 3505mAh battery inside, which should last just as long as the original KEYone, which already had some incredible battery life on board. Finally, it is still running on Android 7.1, BlackBerry is planning an Android Oreo update in the near future, but it hasn’t pushed one out just yet. As always, BlackBerry is not saying when the update will be available, but expect it in the next few months once it is stable and doesn’t cause many issues.
Now onto the real changes in the BlackBerry KEYone Bronze Edition, and that’s the Bronze color. Basically, all of the silver finish on the KEYone is now Bronze, though the BlackBerry logo is still black like it was on the Black Edition, and not Bronze. Which would have been a pretty cool look, but the black logo on the black back does look nice and stealthy. So it’s basically a bronze frame. It does look pretty sharp, and of course, as you’d expect from BlackBerry, it is still a really solid smartphone that feels great in the hand and also still has that physical keyboard to boot. Of course, the fingerprint sensor is in the space button, which makes it easy to keep your phone secured, and it also hides the fingerprint sensor a bit. As you can see in the picture above, the KEYone all looks really similar, and all three colors are pretty sharp looking.
Currently, TCL nor BlackBerry Mobile has announced when or if the Bronze Edition will make its way to the US. But it is possible that it could be coming to the US in the near future. As the Black Edition did eventually become available in the US. But that also means no pricing or availability has been announced. BlackBerry Mobile will likely initially launch this in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) markets first, like it did with the Black Edition. That said, it’s a bit strange that BlackBerry did not release a new phone at CES, and instead of just offered the KEYone in a new color, and are bringing the BlackBerry Motion to the US beginning later this week.
