Days out from Christmas struggling smartphone Company Blackberry has rolled out a new model that is a Classic in more ways than one.
The new model is the long-awaited BlackBerry Classic, which combines the traditional look of the old BlackBerry Bold and Curve smartphones with the company’s latest touchscreen OS.
What is not known is when the new smartphone will be launched in Australia.
At this stage the 4G Blackberry is an LTE/HSPA+ smartphone, designed for the T-Mobile and AT&T networks in the USA.
It is set to be available through Ingram Micro Mobility for resellers who target the enterprise market.
BlackBerry said that they will make the device available to carriers around the world.
The BlackBerry Classic is positioned as a productivity-first smartphone that combines the touchscreen 10.3.1 OS with the old BlackBerry Bold’s optical track pad, physical QWERTY keyboard, menu and back buttons, and dedicated answer/hang-up phone buttons.
The physical user interface enables one-handed typing and phone calling, the company said. The Classic runs a newly expanded selection of vertical applications focused on specific industries such as healthcare, financial services and professional services.
Although it looks a lot like the old Bold, the Classic offers a 3x faster browser, 60 percent larger touchscreen at 3.5 inches, 50 percent longer battery life at up to 22 hours, and access not only to BlackBerry World for apps but also to the Amazon Appstore.
Other key features include Category 3 LTE and HSPA+42Mbps cellular data, 294 dpi 720 by 720 touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3, 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB of device storage, 128GB micro SD slot, and 2- and 8-megapixel cameras.
The latter captures 1080p video at 30fps, and the former captures 720p video.
It also features 2.4 GHz WI-Fi b/g/n, 5 GHz WI-Fi a/n, Miracast, FM radio, Bluetooth LE with HDR, and NFC. With the updated BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, the phone offers updated icons, an instant -action bar placing most commonly accessed functions in the centre of the screen, and
