Every keyboard warrior’s favourite emailer is back from the brink (a ain), says Marc Mclaren

lackberry has returned from the dead more times than the baddie in a B-movie – but is it back for good this time?

BThe Keyone is very clearly a Blackberry and has almost everything a BB addict would want from a phone in 2017: a hardware QWERTY, premium build and decent specs. The difference is, this phone is running Android with a couple of Blackberry’s enhancements rather than its bespoke OS, so you’ll get the same access to apps as any Samsung or HTC owner. That keyboard, while not exactly spacious, is big enough, and the keys have a nice clickiness to them. The smart features are a bonus too, allowing you to swipe upwards to select spelling suggestions, set shortcuts on letter keys, or navigate within apps by tracing a digit across the keyboard. The space bar also doubles as a fingerprint scanner.

In order to squeeze in a full QWERTY without making the phone a foot long, the 4.5in screen has an odd 3:2 aspect ratio and 1620x1080 resolution. This has plus and minus points: websites and apps look great when you’re typing on them, because there’s no onscreen keyboard taking up space; but the problem is that most of the internet isn’t designed for a screen that shape. Stick on a Youtube video, for example, and you’ll get black bars at top and bottom.

Inside you get 3GB RAM, a Snapdragon 625 processor and 32GB of built-in storage. That’s competing in the upper mid-range… but if a proper keyboard is your dream, the Keyone could knock a few recovering Blackberry addicts back off the wagon. O OS Android 7.0 O Processor Snapdragon 625 O RAM 3GB O Screen 4.5in 1620x1080 O Storage 32GB, expandable via microsd O Cameras 12MP rear, 8MP front