[RoninX]

I've had my KEYone for about two weeks, and I've decided to return it to Amazon.

I loved the keyboard, and I never ran into any of the issues with signal reception, notifications, or screen separation that others have encountered.

So why am I returning it? Two reasons:

1. It's too slow (for me)
2. The screen is too small (for me).

Both of these are subjective criteria, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will be happy with the K1, but the excellent keyboard wasn't enough for me.

Speed is always relative. Is a Miata fast or slow? It's fast compared to a Prius, but slow compared to a Corvette.

The K1 is about as fast as you would expect from a current, mid-range SoC like the K1's Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. It's not slow slow, but it's nowhere near as fast and responsive as a flagship Android device like my Snapdragon 820-based V20 (which I'm switching back to).

Even my 4-year-old Note 3, with a Snapdragon 800, feels much faster and more responsive. And like the K1, the Note 3 has only 3 GB of RAM.

On the other hand, if you're coming from a mid-range device, you probably won't have any problem with the K1's speed. It's not bad; it's just not top-of-the-line.

In my case, the main problem wasn't running out of RAM. The problem was that in any task that was CPU or GPU intensive, the K1 was notably slower than my V20 (or any other current flagship). This was particularly noticeable when surfing the web, but it even showed up when reading through Gmail.

Size is a matter of personal preference. After getting used to phablet-sized screens, I wasn't satisfied with the smaller screen on the K1.

The K1 is probably the perfect phone for some people, but not for me.

I'm still a physical keyboard fan, like I've been since the beginning of the smartphone era. It was one of the reasons I choose to get a T-Mobile G1 instead of an iPhone, back in the day.

I'd consider buying a KEYtwo (or whatever Blackberry Mobile calls the follow-up to the K1), if they made the following changes:

1. Flagship specs (SoC and RAM)
2. Larger screen (at least 5.5")

One way to implement the larger screen would be to use a portrait slider like the Priv. The Priv had the right idea about form factor, but the keyboard was too small. A portrait slider with the footprint of a Note 8, V30, or Pixel XL should be able to hold a K1-sized keyboard.

I would go from "might buy" to "definitely will buy" if they also added:

1. High-end DAC (like the V20 and V30)
2. Dedicated row for physical number keys

Of course, this all adds cost, but I would definitely be willing to pay flagship prices (equivalent to a Note 8, V30, Pixel XL) for a flagship KEYtwo.

[anon(4297019)]

I'm not gonna buy a phone that costs a thousand dollars and will only use until the next Corvette comes along. I appreciate your decision but your expectations are a wee bit little on the high side for a brand that is attempting a recovery.

[TheBond]

I think I should create a thread like this saying "Why I am buying KeyOne Black after selling Se KeyOne and using my V20 for two days"

I know where you're coming from but KeyOne never promised to be the media device. It's not slow or at least slower than my Note 4, who's lag and below par multitasking (at premium price) was unacceptable.

99% of the time when I'm using the device, it's about chatting or composing something where the size of the screen was actually more than any slabs. The only time I missed the big screen was when watching content. But that didn't bother me much as the size of the screen wasn't that small. My biggest concern with KeyOne and will be with the Black one, when it comes out, is the multitasking ability.

At the moment I'm charging my V20 twice a day to get through the day where my KeyOne I had 30-40% left by the time I was in bed.

[RoninX]

Yeah, the K1 has great battery life -- the best I've even seen. For me, the V20 easily lasts a day, but the K1 would easily last two days.

I don't watch much video on my phone, but I do use it to browse the web, and the K1 was just too slow (for me) at rendering web pages. It wasn't a network speed issue, since I could use the same wi-fi network and the V20 would render the pages much more quicly.

[Mercuryuser]

In real world use, and for my needs, my keyone seems faster than a stock S8.

Granted I have pared it down and if I did the same tweaks on the S8 it would outperform my keyone, but for my needs it's great.

Best phone iv ever used.

[TCM01]

I have no idea why you expected the KeyOne to be a high end phone. It wasn't built to be high end nor is it priced to be high end.

Honestly, I would prefer the phone to be smaller. IMO I think they could reduce the physical size while keeping the screen size the same.

[valer466]

The idea that a business phone should have business phone strengths doesn't apply anymore.

Definitely not when AT&T has made a perfect KeyONE video for business folks and TCL in their video talks about gps, consumer apps and fingerprint sensor.

Naturally consumer's will be confused and think that a "cell phone" costing $500 a pop doesn't matchup to an iPhone/Samsung in a gadgetry contest.

[anon(9638631)]

Why are we constantly subjected to these threads about "leaving _____ phone because it sucks"?

Don't like something, just move on peacefully.

Posts like these are most likely from the same people who constantly post stuff on social media for attention seeking purposes.

[ironmanberry]

Why are we constantly subjected to these threads about "leaving _____ phone because it sucks"?

Don't like something, just move on peacefully.

Posts like these are most likely from the same people who constantly post stuff on social media for attention seeking purposes.

They are sharing their honest experience I would assume. Is that ok here?

[anon(9638631)]

They are sharing their honest experience I would assume. Is that ok here?

No because it's straight ranting most of the time almost to the point of trolling, and no doubt attention seeking.

No forum/message board needs 50 threads stating why they are leaving one device/carrier/whatever because the current one sucks or isn't "up to par" to the owner.

To be honest though, it's 1000 times worse over at Android Central.

[FishhPoohh]

So you bought a mid tier phone expecting to perform like it had top of the line flagship level specs??? What you need is the Blackberry Priv my good fellow

[Resilience]

So you bought a mid tier phone expecting to perform like it had top of the line flagship level specs??? What you need is the Blackberry Priv my good fellow

PRIV's performance is worse than the keyones.

PRIV is like a low tier to mid tier device.

[FishhPoohh]

Actually when the Priv came out it was considered a high tier phone.

[RoninX]

I actually had a Priv briefly, but I returned it because the keyboard was too small.

I'm not posting just to gripe. I'm posting because I'm hoping that TCL will produce a flagship product for their next physical keyboard phone. If they read the Crackberry forums, I'm letting them know that there are buyers for a flagship Blackberry device.

I bought the K1 because it's the only Android phone with a good physical keyboard, period.

There is the Samsung keyboard cover attachment for the S8, but all the reviews I've read say that the keys are squishy and difficult to tell apart, since they're identical instead of the sculpted keys you find on a Blackberry keyboard. Also, the S8 keyboard cover isn't even backlit.

[tinochiko]

I left BlackBerry for oneplus 3t after I had my passport for over a year, been thinking about going back to BlackBerry, key2 with better specs would convince me, if I come back to BlackBerry it will be for a keyboard phone and right now they don't have one that meets my needs

[bitek]

I mostly watch everything in portrait because I am too lazy to turn it into horizontal mode. Same was on priv. As to speed. It is fast enough for me. If I need to do any serious work I use for that. Phone does not matter how fast it is for a phone is no pc and it has limitations. I do not play games and overall good luck to you !

[johnb_xp]

For you guys that think it's slow... you can try going into dev options and Force GPU Rendering. Worse battery life by a little bit but should be smooth as butter.

[bitek]

I left BlackBerry for oneplus 3t after I had my passport for over a year, been thinking about going back to BlackBerry, key2 with better specs would convince me, if I come back to BlackBerry it will be for a keyboard phone and right now they don't have one that meets my needs

You can buy special edition KEYone with more 4Gb of RAM and 64Gb of storage.

Blackberry put Snapdragon 625 on purpose and that is why I can get battery life like on attached screen shot.

KEYone Does not need the latest and fastest CPU. Putting 835 in KEYone would bewaste of time and resources.

My KEYone is more than fast enough.

You want the fastest and the most fluent experience on KEYone. Just turn off animations in developer mode.

From my experience apps are landing fast, Google maps are running great, web browsing experience is excellent and multitasking is good.

I am yet to experience any serious performance issues with KEYone.

I do not feel at all like the phone is compromised in any way whatsoever with "midrange" CPU and I do not wish KEYone should have faster CPU.

Also I think 625 CPU should not be described as "midrange" but rather power efficient CPU.

If I had choice again I would buy special edition version with 4GB of RAM. And this is not because I feel like 3GB is not enough but because if I spend $679CAN on this phone I might as well spend extra $130 and get top of the line version.

So in conclusion if you like to watch YouTube or you are fun of mobile video games than KEYone is not right for you because you need big screen and more power.

But if you like me using the phone mostly for communication, some web browsing and occasional YouTube and games than KEYone is a very good choice.

[Daruba]

Their were no surprises in size or speed when I bought the KeyOne. It was all clearly advertised.

Still, if you buy the KeyOne thinking that your copy of the KeyOne will outperform all other KeyOne's, than you clearly have made a mistake.

I suggest that you do a thorough research before buying any device. YouTube might be of valuable help here?

[kvndoom]

You're not going to get the top of the line SD835, as well as a one-off proprietary keyboard and still sell the phone for $529. High-end specs would have pushed this phone past $700 USD, and the Priv already proved that nobody is going to pay Galaxy/iphone prices for a Blackberry. I was doubtful that the K1 would be successful at $529, but it seems to be exceeding TCL's expectations at that price point. If it doesn't get a huge price slash before Xmas, that's a really good sign.

Now that they've been able to recoup some of the R&D costs of the keyboard and have gauged demand, they might risk a higher-end model next year. But they still need the lower spec option for the budget conscious and those who would rather have superior battery life.

[TheBirdDog]

But they still need the lower spec option for the budget conscious and those who would rather have superior battery life.

Thank you for pointing this out. Some people don't realize this but there are those of us out there that would actually much rather longer battery life than having a website or app load a fraction of a second faster. As long as the phone doesn't get completely bogged down (like, say what my BB10 devices are doing when trying to run some Android apps), then that is more than good enough for me.

I don't want to be tethered to an AC outlet at any part of my day. A battery that gets me through the entire day, regardless of real-world use, is a priority for me. Shaving fractions of a second each time I am loading a Web page will never add up to the amount of time that I save by not having to stop and wait for my phone to charge. Or even for the few seconds of fumbling for my charger to connect it, for that matter.

Endurance > speed

[o4liberty]

The keyone has a few downfalls as do all devices do. As most reviews point out if you want a physical keyboard then the keyone is for you otherwise move on. I see this as a true statement and it being a mid level device is also true.

[The_Passporter]

I left BlackBerry for oneplus 3t after I had my passport for over a year, been thinking about going back to BlackBerry, key2 with better specs would convince me, if I come back to BlackBerry it will be for a keyboard phone and right now they don't have one that meets my needs

I too purchased a Oneplus 3T in place of the KEYᵒⁿᵉ and if you want to talk great battery life I'd say Oneplus figured it out, not to mention Dash-Charging. I just returned from Las Vegas and I would get near two days on one charge. Day and a half was easy.

Coming from a Passport myself I also thought the keyboard was too narrow. I tried the KEYᵒⁿᵉ's keyboard quite often and I know that I could adjust but that's not the point, I don't want to adjust to that width of keyboard. I enjoyed the room the Passport offered and the higher sensitivity we enjoyed on the Passport's touch sensitive keyboard.

The KEYᵒⁿᵉ was a great first attempt by TCL now let's see it they can get it closer to Blackberry perfection on the next go and I will give it a second look.

[bb10adopter111]

No because it's straight ranting most of the time almost to the point of trolling, and no doubt attention seeking.

No forum/message board needs 50 threads stating why they are leaving one device/carrier/whatever because the current one sucks or isn't "up to par" to the owner.

To be honest though, it's 1000 times worse over at Android Central.

But that is definitely NOT the case here. Great, detailed post that was not at all a straight rating.

Posted with my trusty Z10

[bb10adopter111]

I've had my KEYone for about two weeks, and I've decided to return it to Amazon.

I loved the keyboard, and I never ran into any of the issues with signal reception, notifications, or screen separation that others have encountered.

So why am I returning it? Two reasons:

1. It's too slow (for me)
2. The screen is too small (for me).

Both of these are subjective criteria, and I'm sure there are plenty of people who will be happy with the K1, but the excellent keyboard wasn't enough for me.

Speed is always relative. Is a Miata fast or slow? It's fast compared to a Prius, but slow compared to a Corvette.

The K1 is about as fast as you would expect from a current, mid-range SoC like the K1's Qualcomm Snapdragon 625. It's not slow slow, but it's nowhere near as fast and responsive as a flagship Android device like my Snapdragon 820-based V20 (which I'm switching back to).

Even my 4-year-old Note 3, with a Snapdragon 800, feels much faster and more responsive. And like the K1, the Note 3 has only 3 GB of RAM.

On the other hand, if you're coming from a mid-range device, you probably won't have any problem with the K1's speed. It's not bad; it's just not top-of-the-line.

In my case, the main problem wasn't running out of RAM. The problem was that in any task that was CPU or GPU intensive, the K1 was notably slower than my V20 (or any other current flagship). This was particularly noticeable when surfing the web, but it even showed up when reading through Gmail.

Size is a matter of personal preference. After getting used to phablet-sized screens, I wasn't satisfied with the smaller screen on the K1.

The K1 is probably the perfect phone for some people, but not for me.

I'm still a physical keyboard fan, like I've been since the beginning of the smartphone era. It was one of the reasons I choose to get a T-Mobile G1 instead of an iPhone, back in the day.

I'd consider buying a KEYtwo (or whatever Blackberry Mobile calls the follow-up to the K1), if they made the following changes:

1. Flagship specs (SoC and RAM)
2. Larger screen (at least 5.5")

One way to implement the larger screen would be to use a portrait slider like the Priv. The Priv had the right idea about form factor, but the keyboard was too small. A portrait slider with the footprint of a Note 8, V30, or Pixel XL should be able to hold a K1-sized keyboard.

I would go from "might buy" to "definitely will buy" if they also added:

1. High-end DAC (like the V20 and V30)
2. Dedicated row for physical number keys

Of course, this all adds cost, but I would definitely be willing to pay flagship prices (equivalent to a Note 8, V30, Pixel XL) for a flagship KEYtwo.

Nice writeup. I'm really happy with the form factor of the KEYone, though I would like it even more if it were 20% SMALLER.

I would appreciate a better DAC and headphone output. My Z10 sounds significantly better than my KEYone, but it also sounds better than an iPhone 7 IMO.

The one nice thing about the KEYone is that it's large enough that I never need to use landscape mode for anything I do, including my limited use if video.

Posted with my trusty Z10