BlackBerry KEYone available in US from Amazon and Best Buy on May 31
BlackBerry KEYone, see our full review, pre-orders started on May 18 and today TCL Communication announced it will be available starting tomorrow, May 31, at select Best Buy physical stores and online from BestBuy.com and Amazon for $549.99.
Featured
According to TCL Communication, the BlackBerry KEYone will be available in two unlocked variants for U.S. customers, optimized for GSM networks such as AT&T and T-Mobile, as well as a CDMA variant optimized for Verizon network support - with the CDMA variant available via Amazon at launch. Additional carrier availability of the BlackBerry KEYone - including Sprint retail availability - is expected to start this summer.
Alex Thurber, Sr. Vice President and General Manager of the Mobility Solutions at BlackBerry, stated:
BlackBerry fans in the U.S. will be extremely excited to have the BlackBerry KEYone available in their market. Anyone who is an Android loyalist and values the mobile security and productivity that BlackBerry software brings will love this smartphone.
The BlackBerry KEYone was originally announced at MWC in Spain back in February. As a fan of the older BlackBerry OS10, and earlier, devices I have been looking forward to the BlackBerry KEYone. TCL Communication sent me one to test out last week and I will soon have a couple of articles sharing my experiences.
In today's modern large screen, sometimes all screen, smartphone world it is interesting to see a new device with a physical QWERTY always present and available for use. I'm not sure it is more efficient than a software keyboard, but the KEYone is likely to appeal to fans of physical keyboards.