BlackBerry KeyOne (aka "Mercury"): First Look!

Video transcript provided below...

So this is the Blackberry Mercury, which is the internal codename given for the all new Blackberry due out later this year. Now we have covered other Blackberry's on the channel in the past but this one was built by TCL, who have also recently had their hands on the popular Alcatel Android phones. TCL was kind enough to let us go hands on with the new Blackberry Mercury at this year's CES 2017 and bring you a first look at this new device.

Since this device is so new, we really don't have a lot of details and aren't really allowed to show too much at this current moment in time but definitely stick around and subscribe to the channel for our full review later this year.

What we do know about the Mercury is that it does bring back the popular physical qwerty keyboard that classic Blackberry users have known to love but with some really nice build quality. Again, I don't have any real specifications about the device but the phone has a rather large footprint but with a smaller display due to the space of the physical keyboard.

What is nice about having this keyboard is the return of the trackpad feature. Performing swiping gestures over the keys gives you the ability to use this larger phone with one hand pretty comfortably, of course until you need to type something out.

The keyboard reminds me a lot of the Privs keyboard but the space bar is packing a hidden fingerprint sensor which is great because this keeps the sensor on the front and not in less desirable areas like the sides or back of the device.

Security is still a big part of Blackberry's makeup and the software for the Blackberry brings that security that really helps keep Blackberry so enticing to enterprise and business users.

Finally, we couldn't test much of the software but it seems that they will go the same route as the Priv by having Blackberry's key features in the form of separate apps like Blackberry Messenger and Blackberry Hub. All of this over Android 7.0 Nougat, gives consumers a new feel to a classic Blackberry look.

My hands on time, although brief and limited, left me wanting more and I am extremely excited to get my hands on the finished product!

Let me know what you think of the new Blackberry Mercury and if you think this new device would be enough to sway you into potentially trying a new Blackberry as your next smartphone.

Thanks for watching guys and I will see you in the next one.