Business as usual? The Blackberry KeyTwo tested
7.8.2018
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Thomas Kunz
People who like physical keyboards can rejoice: the Blackberry KeyTwo is here. Compared to its predecessor, Blackberry has improved a few things. But what else can the phone do and is it worth buying? I do the test.
There it is: the new Blackberry KeyTwo. The black version is in front of me. Despite its size, I can hold it easily with one hand. The matt black with the white keys looks smart. Although it is a black square, like most phones, the Blackberry stands out from the crowd of smartphones with its keyboard. In contrast to its predecessor, the KeyTwo is flatter and lighter, but also more angular.
The Blackberry fan community is delighted. They are getting a successor to the KeyOne. The manufacturer is said to have listened to the opinions of its customers and improved many things. But is that really the case? I tested the KeyTwo for three weeks and have the answers.
All Blackberrys introduced after the Priv were no longer produced by Blackberry itself, but by the company TCL. The Chinese company also produces the phones for Alcatel, among others. However, the software is still from Blackberry. Since the Priv, the whole thing runs on Android.
Although Blackberry no longer produces its own mobiles, the Canadian company has remained true to itself. Not just because of the keyboard. The non-slip back made of profiled plastic, on which fingerprints are barely visible, has remained. And the KeyTwo is similar to its predecessor in other respects too.
The most important thing first: the keyboard
If you compare the keyboards of the KeyOne and the KeyTwo, you will notice several differences at first glance. The 32 keys on the Two are larger. According to Blackberry, this is around 20 per cent. You will notice the difference when typing. The keyboard has also become flatter and easier to grip. The keys no longer shine like the keys on a piano, but are matt. The key pressure has also changed. With the KeyOne you had to hit the keys harder, with the KeyTwo typing is easier.
Back then, my second mobile phone was from Nokia and had a QWERTY sliding keyboard. I celebrated that thing. None of my colleagues could type text messages as quickly as I could. At first, I was slower with the KeyTwo than with a touch keyboard. But the more I write, the faster I get. After about ten days, I'm typing faster and, above all, with fewer typos. Typing with one hand also works, but it's slower and gets tiring over time.
I need to get used to the fact that the Alt key has to be pressed for numbers and special characters. For certain special characters, you can also press and hold the key. If you press the Alt key once, it remains pressed. This is annoying if you accidentally press the key. Then you get a cryptic arrangement of special characters instead of letters. Experienced Blackberry users will probably not have this problem, however, as it is purely a matter of getting used to it and has been the brand's solution for a long time.
It can do even more
In addition to texting, you can also use the keyboard to set 52 different shortcuts. Whereas with the KeyOne you could only use the shortcuts from the home screen, with the KeyTwo you can now also use them from running apps. To do this, you need the new speed key. Blackberry has removed the second Shift key for this new key. So if you want capital letters, you have to press the bottom left. The shortcuts let you navigate faster and easier on the phone. 52 shortcuts is a lot. I only have a few set for the most common apps and a few shortcuts for contacts - I can just about remember the first initial of the people.
The Blackberry keyboard has a third function. You can scroll on it. You can think of it as a kind of mousepad. Scrolling is useful when surfing the web, for example. The function is not new, but I still find it remarkable. Scrolling was a bit bumpy on the KeyOne. Blackberry has improved this. Scrolling works perfectly for me. What I also liked: If you make a typo while writing, you simply swipe slightly to the left and the phone deletes your last word. And you can also select umlauts with the keyboard after pressing the Alt key. However, you have to swipe a little more carefully, otherwise you will miss the desired letter.
If you write in written German, French, English or Italian - in short: not in Swiss German - you can benefit from the word predictions and word completion. The phone shows you three word suggestions at a time. And they fit perfectly. Except not in Swiss German. You can use the suggestions by simply swiping quickly upwards on the keyboard. However, I sometimes had to swipe twice because the keyboard seems to have more trouble with this than with the usual touch recognition. Speaking of languages: If you text in several languages, the keyboard can be easily switched using the currency button at the bottom right.
As with the KeyOne, the fingerprint sensor is located in the space bar. I think it's a very elegant solution. In contrast to its predecessor, the scanner has become almost half a centimetre larger. It works quickly and reliably.
Blackberry itself calls the keyboard the smartest keyboard ever. That's Marketing gobbledygook - the keyboard is good, no doubt, but SwiftKey is very similar to the Blackberry system, for example. The predictions are also very accurate. The only thing you can't do with SwiftKey is scroll.
There you have your small display
As with the previous model, the display measures just 4.5 inches and is in 3:2 format. The display is therefore much shorter than the usual 16:9 or 18:9 screens. When watching videos, you have two nice bars at the top and bottom in landscape format. But the display is still suitable for taking photos.
There are users who are happy about small displays. But I can't count myself among them. The 4.5 inch is too small for me, especially because I like to watch videos on my phone. The business people who get a Blackberry probably don't do that. And they don't use Snapchat either. Otherwise they would also be upset that the bottom quarter of every picture they receive is simply cut off.
Blackberry has not installed an Amoled display. The display colours still look natural on the phone, but sometimes rather pale. The display could have been brighter for outdoor use.
The Android buttons that you find under the display are only illuminated when the display is on and the system thinks you need the buttons. This is new and looks good. In contrast to the previous model, the whole phone looks more rounded. An always-on display would have been nice, but it's not available.
Downer: the camera
Blackberry's camera has been criticised a lot online. This criticism proved to be true in my test. Although Blackberry has kept up with the competition here and has installed a dual camera for the first time. With the two lenses, you can achieve a reasonably acceptable artificial bokeh effect.
However, the software always struggles to distinguish between foreground and background. To get depth of field, it's best to use portrait mode, but you can also get some depth of field in normal mode.
Blackberry also talks about a superzoom. However, it wasn't that great for me. Theoretically, the zoom should come from the two lenses with different focal lengths. In practice, however, the smartphone always used the same lens, which means that the zoom is only digital. Photography expert David Lee and I suspect a software bug here.
Both camera modules each have a resolution of 12 megapixels. That would be a good value in itself. However, the pictures I take are rarely or never good. They are often blurred, have far too pale colours or look blurred. The blurred colours are particularly noticeable when zooming in. Overall, most of the photos look like they have been washed for too long.
I was surprised, however, that night shots are not completely for the bin, but have come out reasonably well.
But it gets bad again when you take selfies with the 8-megapixel front camera. Every selfie I take outdoors is overexposed. There is no longer a recognisable sky in the picture, everything around the face is white. But at least the space bar can also be used as a shutter release, which is handy when taking a selfie.
The camera hardware wouldn't actually be bad. I have the impression that it's the software that prevents you from taking good pictures.
Comfort and safety are written in capital letters
The KeyTwo now comes with three buttons on the right-hand side. There were only two on the KeyOne and the lock button was still on the left-hand side on the old model. The fact that the three buttons are all on the right is practical. I am right-handed. However, the two left-handers in the digitec editorial team also find the buttons easy to reach. The top one controls the volume, the centre one is the lock button. It's a good thing Blackberry has grooved this button so that you can't accidentally touch it. The bottom button is where things get exciting. Blackberry calls it the convenience key. You can use it to set three different apps or functions as quick access.
You can define the three shortcuts for three different profiles: Vehicle profile, Meeting profile and Private profile. The phone recognises the different profiles from the Bluetooth in the car or the home Wi-Fi, for example.
Another convenient feature is quick access to calendar entries, messages, tasks and contacts. This is possible with a digital bar on the edge of the display, which you can call up with a swipe towards the centre of the display. You can freely determine the position of the bar.
The clever battery
The KeyTwo's battery is supposed to last for two days. Unfortunately, that's not the case for me. I run out of juice by lunchtime on the second day at the latest. On the other hand, the battery has other positive aspects: There is a quick-charging function and the battery has become intelligent. An intelligent battery works like this: The software analyses your usage behaviour and your calendar entries. If you use your phone excessively, the battery manager switches on and informs you that the battery will not last as long as usual. If you have an appointment entry, you will receive a notification plus or minus one hour beforehand that you should charge your phone now. A nice feature that I haven't seen on any other phone so far.
The most secure Android phone?
According to Blackberry, the DTEK60 was the most secure Android phone back then. Now the KeyTwo is said to be the most secure. Security with Blackberry is not complex, as you are used to from some other phones, but surprisingly simple. With the KeyTwo, however, security is not the main focus, but is simply included.
The KeyTwo comes with the tried-and-tested DTEK app. The pre-installed app gives you an overview of the security status of your phone. The app also shows how other applications access your data and you can centrally manage all the rights of the other apps.
The Locker function also ensures security: In Locker, you can create private folders for documents and photos and protect them with a password or your fingerprint. Blackberry has also built the Locker mode directly into the camera app: If you only touch the fingerprint sensor lightly instead of pressing it fully to take a photo, your photo will only be visible afterwards if you have unlocked it with your fingerprint. If you like taking nude selfies, this function is certainly helpful.
If you're looking at sensitive documents - or nude selfies - you can use the privacy shade to prevent your neighbour from staring. It is quickly activated and only shows a small part of the screen. You can adjust the visibility, size and shape of the display.
The KeyTwo is also part of Google's Android Enterprise Recommended programme. This means that security updates are guaranteed every 90 days.
And the rest?
The Blackberry KeyTwo is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor. This is in the lower mid-range. At least it now has six gigabytes of RAM instead of just four gigabytes like the KeyOne. During the test period, the phone ran smoothly, quickly and efficiently. I only had a complete crash once. People without Bluetooth headphones will be pleased with the jack plug at the top left of the phone. However, the phone is not waterproof - which is probably due to the keyboard.
Blackberry has advertised, among other things, that the Google Lens image recognition application is available on the phone. This was not the case for me until the test was completed. However, Wifi calling worked in conjunction with my Swisscom subscription. I think it's a shame that Blackberry doesn't offer a desktop mode. I would have expected that from a business phone.
Conclusion
I wouldn't buy the Blackberry KeyTwo myself. The price is too high for me. For what the phone can do and for the hardware it has, I can get a better phone for less money. However, I can recommend the KeyTwo in good conscience to fans of the brand and anyone who wants a phone with a real keyboard. If you have a Blackberry, you have a special phone in your pocket. It allows the user a lot of control and efficient working. And the keyboard sets it apart from other phones. Blackberry phones will probably remain niche products - but that's what Blackberry itself wants. <p
Testing devices and gadgets is my thing. Some experiments lead to interesting insights, others to demolished phones. I’m hooked on series and can’t imagine life without Netflix. In summer, you’ll find me soaking up the sun by the lake or at a music festival.
