BlackBerry KEYone Review: Typing Purist’s Phone
12 min read
BlackBerry KEYone
RM 2688
Pros
- Excellent build quality
- Accurate & fast fingerprint scanner on spacebar
- Great 4.5-inch 1080p IPS display
- Excellent rear camera
- Great performance
- Excellent battery life
- Tactile & touch capacitive physical keyboard
Cons
- No IP-rated dust and water resistant
- Weak in entertainment (odd screen ratio, single speaker)
- Only included Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 adapter
- High price for mid-range spec
Software & Features
Android 7.1.1 Nougat
You get the Android 7.1.1 Nougat alongside with the latest security patch from BlackBerry. I am very pleased with their decision to reduce the focus on the custom skin feature and put more effort in delivering the latest security patch to the users. I wish other smartphone manufacturers would do the same with their current and future smartphone offerings.
Most secure phone?
When BlackBerry claims that they are producing the most secure Android smartphones, I had my doubts because Android being a mobile operating system developed by Google, how would third party manufacturers actually secure it without touching the core components of the OS? Some of the security features are already offered by Android, for example, granular permission control since Android 6 Marshmallow, hardware root-of-trust & secure boot since Android 7 Nougat, and etc.
Do all those features make the BlackBerry phones more secure than other Android smartphones that run the same version OS? I don’t think so. While BlackBerry did make some changes in the kernel hardening and address space randomization, however, that doesn’t mean it is anything new. What they did was just to take the existing cryptography and change it with their own proprietary random number generation algorithm. There’s no way we could tell if their generator is better than the other generator.
On top of that, the BlackBerry DTEK app that was introduced alongside with the BlackBerry Priv is something I wish to talk about as well. Being a security app that constantly monitors your phone’s security configurations and gives you advice on how to keep your phone secure, you wish that the app would help to protect your phone and data right? Except no, it doesn’t really do anything to block the attacks. If a malicious attempt is “DTEKed”, the app will alert you but it won’t do anything such as securing your file or shield up. Come on, it is just an app.
Now you may be thinking that BlackBerry is just all talk with neither any of their security offering being any better than the build in security options, but looking at the bright side, at least they are putting the effort in delivering the latest security patch to the end users.
BlackBerry Hub
The BlackBerry Hub is an all-in-one inbox and notification app that consolidates all your social app notification and email inboxes into one single location. Basically, it allows you to check for notifications, respond emails from the app and schedule your next meeting without leaving the Hub.
While it may clash functions with the Android’s default notification function, I do see a value in having a centralised app of this calibre especially if you manage multiple email accounts and social media accounts on a single phone. It gives you a big picture or overall glance over all your social media activities and notifications.
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