BlackBerry Key2 Review: BlackBerry Key2 Review: Strictly for Keyboard Die-Hards

I did not write this review on a BlackBerry Key2. But I wanted. My thumbs were too painful to leave me.

I thought that after changing my SIM card at the Key2 – BlackBerry Mobile's second attempt to create a modern Android phone with a QWERTY physical keyboard – I would regain my old talent for typing on a physical keyboard. I had always liked these things.

But after using the Key2 for absolutely everything for more than a week, my thumbs hurt, I feel hobbled and slow, and the work of pressing extra buttons for punctuation tires me at the base.

This is a dark start for a phone with a fantastic battery and really smart ideas, like keyboard shortcuts, a dedicated shortcut button on the side of the phone and widgets built into your screen icons. In addition, there is a new "hot key" that helps you open the shortcut application no matter what screen you are on. The space bar doubles as a fingerprint reader (though I've had some issues with the accuracy) and there is a productivity tab that shows your appointments calendar and weather at a glance.

The Key2 greatly improves the KeyOne from last year ($ 400 on Amazon.com) from nose to tail in almost every way, from the size and shape of the keyboard buttons to the dual cameras at the back – a first for BlackBerry devices.

But there are unidentifiable problem areas, like the fact that applications tend to be shifted and some applications trigger a virtual keyboard, like Gmail, which stacks the virtual keyboard on the phone's keyboard, with little space on the screen. The touch screen of the phone did not always respond as it should have, so I sometimes tapped the same area several times.

When all comes down, the Key2 is not the phone for the most part; it is certainly not the phone for me. But BlackBerry fans like Susan, the pretty woman who owns an executive store in San Francisco and whines of pleasure when she saw the Key2 in my hand, will get an improved experience on older models like the BlackBerry Pbadport ($ 223 on Amazon.com) She uses.

Long-time BlackBerry fans who love the precision and physical appearance of pressing real keys will also adopt Key2. But I hope that BlackBerry Mobile will have solved the problems by the time we will see Key3 next year.

The BlackBerry Key2 is on sale July 13 and pre-orders begin June 29. It sells for $ 649 and £ 579. The US price converts to around AU $ 847.

BlackBerry Key2 Keyboard: Is it good?

Good things first. The Key2 buttons enhance KeyOne from last year. They are 20% taller, easier to grasp and better separated than before. Keyboard shortcuts are the best feature of the phone. You can customize up to 52 applications or tasks to load when you briefly press a key or long-press it. It's really great.

Unfortunately, when it comes to typing on the Key2, I am everyone. It's as far as I've written notes on the Key2 using the notes app and the QWERTY keyboard:

• Thumbs hurt
• I do not want a lot of text
• Sometimes I have to manually press the text field to place the cursor. Does not always fill in the first available text field *
• The touch screen does not seem uniformly responsive
• I continue to press the capacitive home button and the target continues to record on the screen just above the button – boo
• Everything feels slower. Navigation; change application
• Miss an always on display
• Like that, there is a file in the file

* The phone is supposed to allow you to double-tap the spacebar to place the cursor in a field, but it never worked for me.

I should mention that as a phone critic, sore thumbs are already a danger of my work, where I probably spend more time snapping my fingers against a hard glbad surface than the average person. I was surprised at how much the Key2's physical keyboard exacerbated the problem.

I felt so slow, especially since I remember being a fast and accurate typist on a BlackBerry keyboard like the iconic BlackBerry Bold. Key2's keyboard is still tight despite the bigger buttons. But since people want their phones to be close, the QWERTY arrangement of Key2 can become bigger, but probably not much wider without the phone expanding too.

My hands are on the small side, so I did not have any problems finding keys. It was more than typing with precise capital letters, numbers and punctuation, I had to break the tide to reach the Shift and Alt keys. If you press Alt twice, for example, you are stuck typing a long chain of nonsensical punctuation until you realize your mistake. (: * (4_9 & # 39; 4. <- Yes, it's a real thing I've typed.

Key2's keyboard is touch sensitive, which means you can swipe it to scroll; It works very well from one side to the other, but vertical scrolling, like on a web page, was often slow. You are also expected to be able to scroll through the physical keyboard to select a predictive text. I found that in applications with a virtual keyboard enabled, I had to slide the virtual keyboard instead. The cursor sometimes appeared in the middle of a word (instead of being at the end) without me realizing it.

The fact that most applications today are not made for physical keys means that you will often see the virtual keyboard appear on the screen anyway, which blocks your view of the screen. Application, without means of hiding the numeric keypad.

BlackBerry Key2 design, camera, speed, battery life, everything else

And the rest of the phone? BlackBerry Mobile deserves a rating of five for updating almost all physical and hardware components of Key2. The phone runs Android 8.1 Oreo, but in terms of software and layout, the Key2 looks and feels like the KeyOne, which ran Android Nougat 7.1.

Much improved design

More clbadic looks: Compared to KeyOne, the BlackBerry Key2 is much more refined, with straight sides and side keys and more sophisticated accents. The phone bucks trends and maintains a rubberized support. It's not as sophisticated as glbad, but it does not accumulate fingerprints and I've never been afraid to let it down.

Convenience key (aka the button on the third side of the phone): You can configure this to float shortcut icons for up to three applications on your screen. I've set up a calendar, a flashlight and a Gmail message. You can also use this button to switch to a new profile, such as your work profile. It's best for the actions you use often, or you want to easily get without having to worry about your mind.

Speed ​​key: The 9-point button you press to launch a shortcut from any screen. This is a good solution, but applications can take a long time to load. Things get confused here, so support me. You press this button before pressing your shortcut key 1) each time you invoke a long press action, and 2) each time you invoke a short press action from a screen other than the welcome screen.