In 1999, BlackBerry launched the first BlackBerry RIM 6230 that can talk 2006 Launched Blackberry business in mainland China, and introduced Blackberry 8700 in July 2007. In the US market, BlackBerry reached its historical peak at the end of 2010, with 21 million users.
Because of the impact of iOS and Android, the BlackBerry fell quickly after that, and it has suffered from major layoffs, CEO resignation, nearly being acquired and other events. In 2013, Cheng Shouzong, former chairman of Sybase in Hong Kong, temporarily replaced the CEO, and then outsourced non core business to Foxconn. At Christmas 2016, in addition to India, Indonesia and other major markets (Indonesia is the largest mobile phone market for BlackBerry), TCL designed, manufactured and sold BlackBerry branded mobile devices worldwide.
The Blackberry KEYone we evaluated this time, Communication by TCL It was released on the eve of MWC2017 in February this year. Half a year later, on August 8, JD led VAIO, Sharp and Blackberry to a three consecutive belief conference, completed the return of three classic brands, and officially released the Bank of China version of KEYone. Whether the BlackBerry is floating or sinking, KEYOne is the last smart phone designed and selected by BlackBerry in the international market.
Parameters and configuration
Available in black and silver, 3D 149.3x72.5x9.4mm, 180g
4.5 inch 3:2 IPS screen, 1620 x 1080434 PPI, four generation gorilla glass
Snapdragon 625 (8* [email protected] ）+ 4G memory+64G storage (European version is 3G memory+32G storage), supporting up to 2T storage expansion
Front 8 million pixels+12 million rear camera (Sony IMX378, unit pixel area 1.55 μ m, F2.0 aperture)
3505mAh battery, supporting QC3.0 fast charging (9V/1.67A), claiming 50% charge in 36 minutes, Type-C interface
Solid backlight QWERTY keyboard, support capacitive touch, space bar integrated fingerprint recognition, and support WeChat and Alipay
All Netcom, single nano SIM card
NFC and OTG support reverse charging
Android 7.1.1， BOC has no Google framework
The selling price of BOC is 3999 yuan
Appearance and workmanship
Commercial packaging, drawer style outer layer, very textured
Accessories include manual warranty, pin clip, headset and corresponding spare silicone plug, Type-C data cable, Qualcomm QC 2.0 quick charger, maximum output 9V/1.67A, 15W. KEYone supports QC 3.0. It's a pity that the accessories are not in place.
Xiaomi 6 KEYone、S7 edge、 One plus 5 (5.15 inch, 4.5 inch 2:3, 5.5 inch curved surface, 5.5 inch respectively)
KEYOne is a classic full keyboard straight board shape. After the 2:3 screen and full keyboard are added, the length width ratio of the phone body is close to that of a normal phone. The phone body is slightly smaller than a 5.5 inch screen phone, but its thickness and weight are both larger (9.4mm, 180g).
The top of the fuselage is square in design, similar to the outline of Lumia/Xiaomi 3. All metal forehead and mesh earpiece are very special designs. Under the three Android King Kong touch keys is a crystal full keyboard, which is as crystal clear as the fourth generation gorilla screen glass, but the price is that the keyboard is very easy to grease and ash, and it will look old after a little use.
The back of the skin like coating is only the glossy logo of the blackberry, and the top and front are both metal. Under such a thick fuselage, the camera still stands out, affecting the stability of the flat, but the overall appearance and touch are good.
KEYone retains the headphone interface, The plastic top cover and the antenna without injection processing are a bit abrupt The bottom left microphone, right speaker, Type-C connector edge also has a circle of antenna partition strip.
The power button is placed on the left side of the fuselage. This is an extremely rare setting, and it takes some time to adapt. The antenna partition strip of the fuselage extends directly from the plastic washer at the edge of the screen. The design is very innovative, but it does not use injection processing. It looks similar to the processing of the 1000 yuan machine, and is slightly cheap.
The card slot on the top of the right side, the lower volume and custom shortcut keys (when you first start, you always press it as the power key). The card slot supports nano SIM plus TF card, but does not support dual SIM cards (for business computers, single card may be a big problem).
Workmanship: Except that the gap between the screen and the plastic washers on both sides is slightly large (the adhesive can be seen through the gap), and the antenna strip does not use the injection molding process, the combination of the skin like coating on the back cover and the metal body, and the tolerance control of the plastic antenna and the metal keys are quite good. The metal keys with chamfers on the side have a larger gap than the flagship of the same level. The handle of power and shortcut keys is slightly different from that of volume keys, and the latter rebounds more clearly.
feel: What we got is Black reinforced version, with arc transition on both sides of the machine, extending to the edge of 2.5D glass. Although the screen is slightly higher than the surrounding gasket, the side grip is very comfortable. Top The outline is similar to that of Lumia/Xiaomi 3, but the two corners of the chin are round and do not touch hands. The width is slightly narrower than the normal 5.5 inch screen phone, and the body is thicker and heavier, so it feels very reliable to hold it.
screen
KEYone is equipped with 4.5 inch IPS screen, 3:21620 x 1080434PPI, and the fineness is close to 5.15/5.2 inch 1080P screen. The manual maximum brightness is about 460 nits, and the automatic maximum brightness is close to 600 nits. There is no pressure to use it in the sun. The system comes with three modes: cold color, natural color and warm color.
In the natural mode, the color accuracy test is carried out at a brightness close to 100 nits in daily use. In the sRGB color gamut, the average deltaE of 104 colors is 6.2, the maximum is 13.9, and the performance is poor. By contrast, the IPS screens of the same generation have generally been controlled below 5, and even the IPS screens of some 1000 yuan computers have been 2-3. IPhone 7 is 1.6, Note5 is 1.8, S6 edge+is 2.6, and S7 edge is 2.9.
Visual Content Comparison
Cloud music, microblog
Hungry, Jingdong
5.7 ", 5.5" screen phones and KEYone
The horizontal width of KEYOne's screen is close to that of a phone with a 5.5 inch screen, but the length of the screen is not enough. The visual height of almost all applications is lower than that of a 5.5 inch phone (the list will be a few lines shorter than that of an opponent, and you will have to slide more times), and even the length of the content is not as long as that of a 5.15 inch phone.
After getting used to the straight full screen phone, you will have a basic expectation of the font size displayed on the screen when holding the phone of this size. But on KEYOne, you will find that the font is much smaller than that of common mobile phones. In addition, this non mainstream screen has a flat ratio close to that of the iPad. When the list is displayed, the right side will be very empty and the space utilization rate will be low. These are the small price of "being different".
performance
We use Xiaomi 5X, which is also called Snapdragon 625, MediaTek P25 Jinli S10 and Vivo X9s, which is called Snapdragon 652, as a comparison. The detailed score data can be viewed Love to play computer games Of Running points library (GeekBench encounters compatibility problems and has no results).
CPU computing performance
GPU graphics performance
Flash memory read/write performance
In terms of performance, Xiaolong 625 is better than MediaTek P25 in CPU and GPU. It is expected that it will be rubbed on the ground by the original mid-range Snapdragon 652. Moreover, the BlackBerry tuning is conservative, and the performance output of the CPU and GPU is lower than that of the Xiaomi 5X, which simply adds insult to injury. In terms of storage, continuous read and write performance is good, random read speed is slow (special global encryption?), and random write performance is normal.
Everyone's evaluation of Snapdragon 625 is good. It has low fever and can be used. However, this evaluation is limited to low-end products below 1500 yuan. When manufacturers began to put it on mid tier products with a price of more than 2000 yuan, the taste changed. Mid tier performance refers to Snapdragon 650/652, Snapdragon 660, and even Snapdragon 820/821. In front of them, the performance of Snapdragon 625 is "not usable at all".
As a commercial machine, BlackBerry chooses the first two in terms of reliability, endurance and speed. However, choosing Snapdragon 625 is a bit excessive. As a flagship model with a price of 3999 yuan, its performance must at least make room for system and app upgrades in the next two years. However, Snapdragon 625 is only a mid - and low-end SoC. If you encounter a system that is radically improved and eats performance like Smartisan OS, you can't expect too much for smooth flow.
In fact, even though the KEYone system is close to the original, with the encryption requirements of Blackberry series applications and its own conservative core and frequency control, the KEYone version of the Bank of China will occasionally encounter a situation of stuck or slow response, and its slow response to touch keys will also increase the speed gap. Performance is definitely the biggest weakness of KEYone, and with the update of third-party applications in the future, this problem will only become more and more serious
photograph
The hardware material of KEYone photographing part is much thicker than that of the processor: 8 million pixels in front, 1.125 μ m photosensitive element, f/2.2 aperture, 84 ° wide angle, and 1080P video recording is supported at most. The rear camera uses a 12 megapixel Sony IMX378 sensor, 1/2.3 inch, 1.55 μ m, f/2.0 aperture, and dual color temperature flash.
IMX377/378 is the sensor with the largest unit pixel size on mobile phones. The law of "the bottom is bigger than the bottom" also determines that it has inherent advantages in weak light and tolerance, but KEYone has failed to add optical anti shake (there is no flagship of IMX378+optical anti shake for the time being), and the ISP performance of Snapdragon 625 is weak.
KEYone's photo interface has its own characteristics and is easy to use. Common functions such as professional mode, filter and panorama are covered. Even among the flagship, its photo taking experience can rank above the middle level, providing automatic HDR and night view functions. The focusing speed and success rate are also close to those of Pixel. HDR and night scene multi frame synthesis speed is very fast, which will only cause a few tenths of a second of frame fixation, which is faster than Pixel's HDR+. However, under extremely weak light, this strategy will cause the shutter speed to slow down, which will cause the camera to extend to 1 or 2 seconds, affecting the experience. However, the yield is also higher than many domestic flagship, which is surprising.
Scene 1 and 2 with large optical aberration
Large light difference scene 1, 2 central magnification
Scene 3 and 4 with large optical aberration
Large light difference scene 3, 4 central magnification
KEYone's HDR multi frame synthesis effect is excellent, which reminds people of Pixel's HDR+mode. The HDR strength of most scenes is very appropriate, which will significantly improve the bottom noise suppression and add some sharpening. The default mode of full rolling has little impact on the experience. It is recommended to keep it open for daily use.
Daytime Scenario 1
Daytime scene 1 central zoom in
Daytime scenario 2
Daytime scene 2 central zoom in
Daytime scene 3 central zoom in
Light Scene 1
Light Scene 1 Center Enlarged
Light Scene 2
Light Scene 3
Light Scene 3 Center Enlarged
Weak light scene 1
Weak light scene 2
Weak light scene 2 central amplification
Weak light scene 3 central amplification
Enlarge the left side of the center of weak light scene 3
Although it is inferior to other top photography flagship, KEYOne's performance is unexpectedly strong, The overall photography performance conforms to the self positioning, and the performance is good : The white balance of most scenes is relatively accurate, the accuracy is higher than that of HTC U11, but the light measurement is slightly unstable, the large light difference scene has a slight tendency of overexposure, and the extremely weak light scene is obviously underexposed. The ultimate discrimination and detail texture are not as good as those of the other three flagship. The detail decline of the weak light scene is also more obvious, but the overall lag is not much, and noise control is also commendable.
Endurance, heating and charging
KEYone is equipped with 3505mAh battery. After 30 minutes of large-scale games (NBA 2K15), wifi and 4G Internet access, and 30 minutes of local video playback, after a total of 2.5 hours of endurance testing, the remaining power is 84%, which is weaker than the 4000mAh battery of the red rice Note4X. The 8 hour WiFi network standby power failure of the telecom card is 3%, and the overall performance is slightly excellent (here is only a 2.5 hour test, if the test time is longer, the endurance gap between mobile phones will increase proportionally). However, it should be noted that the domestic The cancer application is added to the background and battery optimization list, otherwise the endurance of the native system may appear inexplicable diabetes.
KEYone supports QC3.0 fast charging, with a maximum of 9V/1.67A and a total output of 15W. It claims that 50% of the power can be charged within 36 minutes. The actual charging speed is fast, but the fuselage is also obviously hot.
Charging node table
0-90% charging speed is slightly faster than Glory V9 (4000mAh battery), and the performance is good for this battery capacity. It's slow to use and fast to charge. The endurance pressure of KEYOne is very low.
In terms of heating, after 20 minutes of NBA 2K15, the highest temperature on the front of the machine appears on the right side of the top, about 42.6 degrees; The highest temperature at the back appears at the upper right side (SoC may be at this position), about 45.2 degrees. Although it is a Snapdragon 625+plastic back cover, the heating speed is much faster than expected under high load or charging. But after all, it is a plastic back cover. The hand-held part of the back cover at the highest temperature also has a slight heat sensation.
system
survey: KEYone The system of is Android 7.1.1, The Blackberry desktop retains the original application drawer, and the notified app has corner marks. It supports double clicking the screen on/off, but there is no self starting management for domestic application ecology and other functions. Android's background/power optimization function must be used. The good news is that the default background optimization strategy of the system is radical, and even the power statistics app can work normally only after it has been cleared in the power management.
Fluency and stability: With the help of Android 7.1.1, the list slides smoothly and the application installation speed is fast, but the application switching is limited by the performance of Snapdragon 625. The touch keys and operation response of the three Android King Kong are also slow, and occasionally there is a jam. In addition, the system has some small bugs that affect the fluency, and the stability and completion still need to be improved.
The system's built-in apps, such as calculators, contacts, calendars, tasks, weather, clocks, and picture libraries, are also very close to the native ones, which can only meet basic functions. The Do Not Disturb mode related to business and meetings supports the setting of automatic exit time, which is a function recently added to many domestic ROMs.
Special functions
KEYone places a custom button at the position of the normal phone power key, which can customize triggering applications, making calls, sending text messages, even creating schedules/alarm clocks/timers, contacts, turning on/off wifi/bluetooth, and checking power. It has powerful functions. There are always a few to your taste, but the chance of accidental touch is extremely high, which limits the availability.
KEYone uses several Blackberry apps to complete the security, information center and feature functions of BlackBerry Heirs. In fact, most of these apps have already been launched in Google Play, but some functions need the cooperation of the physical keyboard to fully play. In addition, so many services and processes that need to reside in the background still consume memory, which is more obvious in the international version with only 3G memory. Fortunately, the Bank of China version has 4G memory:
Blackberry desktop/launcher: Except that the notified app can have corner marks on the icon, the desktop function is no different from the common launcher. The biggest significance of this desktop is that it provides the function of "entity key click/long press to trigger specific functions". All 26 English letters on the desktop can trigger specific applications, contacts, etc. by clicking and long press (that is, a total of 52 shortcuts are provided).
BlackBerry Hub (multi platform information integration center) : This is originally used to centralize the messages of nonexistent apps such as BlackBerry BBM and Facebook/twitter. On BOC KEYOne, six notifications such as "call records, SMS, email, calendar, WeChat and QQ" can be integrated, and information can be viewed and processed in a unified and convenient way. This is an important feature of BlackBerry. But instead of directly replying like BlackBerry before, you can directly jump to the original application.
It integrates the mailbox app There are a lot of settable items, such as setting ring tones, indicator colors and vibration modes for different contacts and emails, which are unique to many geek agenda apps.
Work efficiency card (sidebar) : It can be understood that the sidebar directly displays calendar, to-do list, SMS, and contact list. The trigger location, height, and transparency can be customized, but its efficiency may not be as high as that of desktop plug-ins;
Password Keeper : The button of adding password book and filling password will pop up on all occasions of entering password. The next time you meet the same occasion, you can fill password with one key. The intelligent effect is not as good as the global automatic filling of Android 8.0, but it is still very practical. In order to keep secret, the app can't take a screenshot when opening or entering a password. Fingerprint identification is also required to view the password book, and the security is very good;
Privacy Shade: Put a layer of black mask on the desktop content, which is only partially visible. Its shortcut defaults to the factory resident notification bar, and the mask position, shape, and transparency can be customized, but it is really an advanced function that only top business people can use. In the eyes of most users, it is a thing that takes off their pants and farts
Notes (similar to notes) and Notable (image and screenshot editing tools): The latter is a handwriting application in nature, but it is mainly used for screen capture handwriting or text input. It is recorded by steps and can return to the previous step. On KEYOne, the function of editing immediately after screen capture, which is common in domestic ROMs, needs to be enabled in Notable before it can be enabled, and there is no long screen capture
Contacts, device search, Blackberry keyboard (Chinese input does not support the selection of words by upward strokes, which has more functions of castration, and can automatically record the entered mailbox and number) Power management (It can provide performance, energy saving and balanced power management for different applications);
Safety part of official publicity:
BID system integrity detection: in-depth kernel BID system integrity detection, real-time monitoring system, indicating device status, and preventing Trojan viruses from invading devices;
Full time hard disk encryption: restore factory settings protection, wipe password errors automatically, and provide remote management functions such as mobile phone positioning;
DTEK security protection: security controls monitor the operating system and running programs of the mobile phone in real time, and you can view the security factor level of the mobile phone through a quick browse. The camera, microphone, SMS, and positioning operations in the background will have real-time tracking and alarm alerts.
The above functions sound empty. The easiest to perceive and the most practical is the monthly security patch. The patch density is hard to rival in the Android camp.
keyboard
Appearance and feel: The physical QWERTY keyboard with backlight and capacitive touch is the biggest feature and selling point of KEYOne. The "crystal" design is easy to be oiled to show the old. keyboard It has irregular edges and corners that are easy to identify. The keystroke bounces back clearly, which is better than the soft feeling on the Priv. The space bar is slightly loose, and the gap is larger than other keys. The frosted coating may be at risk of paint falling off (there are hidden backlight spots at both ends of the keys). The feel of the space bar is also slightly different from other keys, which makes the keyboard feel a little less.
Fingerprint identification: The space bar supports fingerprint identification. The identification area is similar to that of common mobile phones. It takes about 18 times of pressing to enter fingerprints, which is too many times. Its own recognition speed is fast, and it can be recognized immediately after clicking, but the animation entering the system is slow, and the whole process of unlocking is similar to that of iPhone 7. When the screen is off, touch the fingerprint button to directly wake up and unlock without pressing. The system supports Alipay and WeChat fingerprint payment, which is very practical. In addition, this space bar has some hidden functions. It is the "next page" in most apps, and it may also be the key for turning pages (kindle) or shutter (camera).
Capacitive touch: The sliding of the keyboard surface can be used as a touch pad, and the left and right sliding controls the cursor. It supports English up stroke selection, but does not support Chinese input... The sensitivity of the keyboard up and down sliding is low, and continuous sliding often gets stuck intermittently, and it takes a few tenths of a second to respond, and it is easy to be identified as left and right sliding by mistake. The practicability is quite low, and can be ignored basically
Input experience and special features: The physical keyboard will be harder to press (for users with large fingers, it is a poke), which is suitable for blind operation. However, the 26 key design is not as fast as the 9 key design in terms of manual speed and single hand operation speed. For the overwhelming majority of Pinyin IME users in China, KEYOne's own Chinese IME thesaurus is too weak, and does not support the up slide word selection in English IME. After installing the third-party input method, the keyboard will be used as an external keyboard, and the experience is not far from the Chinese keyboard after the castration.
In the international version, The alt key can be used as the control key to complete the classic operations of ctrl+C, ctrl+X, and ctrl+V. However, it is a pity that it is not supported in the Bank of China version. The keyboard slide is only left to delete (long distance slide is to delete all). It does not support the fast movement of the input box, and the castration and compatibility problems are worrying. In addition, the physical keyboard can only be effective with two hands. One hand operation is not only slow but also dangerous (easy to slide out of the palm). It is hard to input verification code with one hand
The biggest advantage of the current keyboard is that typing does not need to pop up the virtual keyboard and does not occupy screen space. Typing in the dual screen mode is more comfortable. For most users, the speed and efficiency of physical 26 key keyboard input is not as good as that of 9 grid virtual keys, but the touch, stability and input experience of physical keys are really addictive.
Quick Start: A physical keyboard essentially adds dozens of custom buttons, All 26 English letters can be set with two shortcuts: short press and long press. A total of 52 shortcuts are provided for opening applications and contacts. They are very practical, but require high learning costs (remember what applications/shortcuts are triggered by those keys).
Three Android King Kong touch keys (return, home, multi task keys): The sensitivity is general, the response is slow, and the key bar is very narrow. Users with large fingers are easy to touch the screen content by mistake. The sluggish and stuck experience of the whole machine is mostly derived from this touch button.
On the whole, although there are many functions of castration, KEYone's physical keyboard is a very practical "chin", which is definitely not a gimmick. It is much more practical than the dual camera of most mobile phones today.
summary
Unlike virtual keyboards, physical keyboards are components that continue to occupy the screen area, resulting in problems such as square screen proportions and smaller "visual range" than competing products. The touch screen machine is "evolved" from the keyboard machine, and the physical keys are abandoned to increase the screen area. Blackberry's physical keyboard, in essence, is the reverse of the mainstream. It's just that we have been immersed in the "future" for too long, and we have forgotten what the mobile phones were like in the past. Of course, the physical keyboard has brought a huge number of physical keys. Even though KEYOne's Chinese input is not as fast as that of the virtual keyboard (especially when Chinese input), its appearance recognition, various shortcuts, and The texture of input is an undeniable advantage of this keyboard.
Everyone is in the era of mobile phone homogenization. Like the phones before BlackBerry, KEYOne is a heterogeneous phone that can turn around and explode 99% of mobile phones on the subway and elevator. It is also absolutely the flagship with the weakest performance of 4000 yuan. KEYone's industrial design and ideas are very fresh, the screen color is poor, but it is better than exquisite and high brightness, excellent photo taking and endurance performance, and the practicability of the BlackBerry featured application group is remarkable (in fact, other Android phones can also install these BlackBerry apps). When used, it will encounter the trouble of screen comparison and physical keyboard single hand input. But the biggest problem is the system with low completion, the touch keys with slow response, and the performance of wandering on the edge of enough.
Every time KEYone of the Bank of China gets stuck, it seems that Dragon 625 is venting its sovereignty. Whenever I think about the cost performance of KEYone, I always think of the Priv with Snapdragon 808, slide design and physical keyboard for the first time, and then wonder what is the significance of Blackberry launching KEYone?
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