BlackBerry Classic, the newest smartphone offering from BlackBerry, was officially launched recently during an event in New York City. As its name implies, the BlackBerry Classic is decidedly old-school, at least in terms of appearance.
As a matter of fact, it is the first BlackBerry handset released in three years that actually looks like your standard BlackBerry. Which means that it features a QWERTY keyboard replete with physical navigation keys, plus a touch trackpad.
BlackBerry has always positioned its products as special niche devices for specific types of consumers (no nonsense, corporate, busy business types). The BlackBerry Classic is no exception. In fact, the company is banking on the idea that the Classic will appeal to the same type of buyers who went and purchased the BlackBerry Bold 9900 back in 2011.
If Bold 9900 owners ever do decide to upgrade to the Classic, they will find that the newer smartphone has a few improvements, but still keeping some familiar qualities. BlackBerry's latest device features a 3.5-inch 720 by 720 pixel resolution touchscreen. The rear side is fitted with a 8-megapixel camera with auto-focus and LED flash.
The Classic is powered by a twin-core 1.5 GigaHertz Snapdragon processor and has 2 gigabytes of random access memory (RAM). Even though the device is designed for business-minded users, it can still tap into high-speed LTE networks when needed.
The BlackBerry Classic runs on the BlackBerry 10.3.1 mobile operating system, which is a really nice upgrade from the OS used on the BlackBerry Bold 9900. BlackBerry 10.3.1 is optimized for touchscreen operation, and even has a decent Internet browser to boot.
Most importantly, the OS on the BlackBerry Classic can run Android apps from the Amazon App store, as well as native BlackBerry apps from BlackBerry World.
Two of America's major wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon Wireless, have stated that they will be selling the BlackBerry Classic. However, both carriers have yet to provide any details regarding the pricing and the availability of the device.
Last month though, BlackBerry has already started taking pre-orders for the Classic, although the version they are offering is a GSM unlocked version with support for LTE (on bands 1/2/4/5/7/13/17/25). It can work on AT&T and T-Mobile networks. Its price is at $449.
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