**The BlackBerry Key2: A Review**
I'm thrilled to share with you my experience with the BlackBerry Key2, a phone that has become my daily driver due to its unique blend of features and functionality. As I mentioned before, aside from a few scuffs, the phone is working beautifully even after dropping it a couple of times in Taipei.
**Physical Keyboard and Extra Inputs**
One of the main aspects of the Blackberry Key2 that sets it apart from other smartphones is its physical keyboard. I love the physical keyboard and also love when there are extra inputs on phones. The reason why is because it provides a different experience than the full touchscreen. Even just one more button can make all the difference in a phone. In the case of the Blackberry Key2, you get more than 26 inputs, which leads to more than 50 two different shortcuts. I actually rarely use the A/B drawer or even my docked folders to get to my most used applications. Instead, I have C for calendar, K for Google keep, Y for YouTube, and long press Y for Yelp and F for Facebook Messenger.
**Typing with Confidence**
Even though the screen is a little bit smaller, the fact that you're doing a lot of work on the keyboard itself means that you have the entire 4.5-inch screen to look at all the content you want. And that includes scrolling up and down because you can use the keyboard as a swipeable trackpad. It allows you to go through pages like Instagram without having to worry about accidentally liking any photos. My fellow Android Authority brother and also a BlackBerry fan made the point that typing with real keys isn't about typing really fast; it's about typing with confidence. Because you have to physically type the right letters for the most part, your overall typing accuracy actually goes up.
**Benefits of Typing**
I think there's a benefit to typing out words that end up appearing on the screen. There are some studies out there that say that writing in a notebook can be more beneficial than just typing it onto a laptop. I think that the Blackberry Key2 keyboard is kind of a happy medium between these two extremes. I'm actually thinking about the letters I'm typing, and thus, the notes, journals, tasks, calendar events that I create tend to be a little bit better remembered in my mind. And it's not like you have to sacrifice that much speed to type what you want to type.
**Speed and Performance**
I know this all sounds a little unbelievable to you guys, but honestly, the Blackberry Key2 provides everything that I need in my smartphone device. Now, it's not going to have the Snapdragon 835, and yes, I can feel the difference with the Snapdragon 625. But for most applications, I don't really need to have the highest-end specifications. There are some times when the phone might get bogged down when I'm watching YouTube videos or playing some games.
**Productivity**
My main reason why I love this phone is because of the level of productivity it provides. I've been using the Blackberry as a way to get better at calendaring, jotting notes, responding to emails, and just generally getting things done. The audio in the form of music and podcasts is also a big yet secondary need that this phone still fulfills without many problems.
**Camera**
Watching YouTube or TV hasn't been a problem despite the smaller screen even then I don't do it so often unless I have no other way of watching, and the same thing goes for the camera. The camera on the Blackberry Key2 is essentially the Pixel camera and does a pretty good job. I know that I have said in the past that the LG G6 would be my smartphone shooter of choice, but as a vlogger type and someone who actually really enjoys photography, I tend to have a compact camera on me at all times anyway.
**Conclusion**
I think I've done a good job of figuring out what it is I really need, and the Blackberry Key2 just happens to provide all of that specialization is simply underrated these days in the tech world. For the Blackberry Key2 knowing exactly what it is meant for means that the design, keyboard, and overall experience are honed in, which is why I love it when a piece of tech does just that.
**Thank You**
Don't forget to check out our other videos, including the full review of the Blackberry Key2. And you can also see all of our other coverage here at Android Authority. Don't forget to follow us on social media as well and to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already, because we are your source for all things Android.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enyou clicked on the title and you saw the thumbnail so I'm sure a lot of you users out there are wondering why well it's Joshua varara what's going on everybody and I'm here to talk to you about my daily driver on the daily I use the Blackberry key1 now I'm going to get into my reasoning in a little bit however if you haven't seen lawn's video about the Galaxy S8 and why that phone is his daily driver you should definitely check it out he does a good job of explaining exactly what a daily driver means to him and I agree mostly with those points the only other thing I would add to it is that well this is the phone that I would actually pay for if I was just a general consumer and not a reviewer now a lot of you out there swear about the Galaxy sa and the fact that a lot of you even have one is actually part of my first reason exclusivity the Blackberry brand was really easy to find back in the day you had people using bolds and curves and everyone was exchanging BBM pins but back then much of what Blackberry was doing actually permeates into today's version of Android you have endtoend encryption from device all the way to the BB servers and you also have BBM send receipts on top of other great messaging features now Blackberry is a fringe brand it's not one that you find too often and you might actually go up to someone and ask them wow is that a Blackberry when they're using it and that's actually part of the fun we always talk about Android being a place where you can personalize and customize the operating system in order to make it more individualistic well I think actually using the Blackberry key one is kind of a sign of who I really am and it's another level of individualism and part of the reason why the the phone is even head turning is because of the design a lot of Flagship devices these days go for the Glass and Metal designs but since Blackberry is a French product like I mentioned before they could experiment a little bit more with what their main phones look like I love what TCL and blackberry have done in making the industrious and business-oriented key1 design no other device in the mainstream smartphone game quite looks like this and it manages to be pretty sturdy too I dropped this key1 a couple of times in Taipei and aside from a few scuffs the phone is working beautifully but of course with the design comes the main part of the phone the physical keyboard and one of the main facets of having that keyboard is extra input now if you know me from the Android authority podcast and also from even previous videos I love the physical keyboard and I also love when there are extra inputs on phones the reason why is because it provides a different experience than the full touchcreen even just one more button can make all the difference in a phone but you get more than 26 in the Blackberry key1 and that leads to more than 50 two different shortcuts and I actually rarely use the ab drawer or even my docked folders to get to my most used applications I have C for calendar k for Google keep y for YouTube long press y for Yelp long press f for Facebook Messenger I for Instagram the list goes on now even though the screen is a little bit smaller the fact that you're doing a lot of the work on the keyboard itself means that you have the entire 4.5 in screen to look at all the content you want and that includes scrolling up and down because you can use the keyboard as a swipeable trackpad it allows you to go through a number of places like Instagram and not have to worry about accidentally liking any photos Edgar our fellow Andro Authority brother and also a Blackberry fan made the point that typing with real Keys isn't about typing really fast it's about typing with confidence because you have to physically type the right letters for the most part your overall typing accuracy actually goes up and even though this might be a little bit headyy I actually think that there's a benefit to typing out the words that end up appearing on the screen there are some studies out there that say that writing in a notebook can can be more beneficial than just typing it onto a laptop and I think that the key1 keyboard is kind of a happy medium I'm actually thinking about the letters I'm typing and thus the notes the journals the tasks the calendar events that I create tend to be a little bit better Remembered in my mind and it's not like you have to sacrifice that much speed in order to type what you want to type swiping to the left deletes whole words so that that level of speed is provided on a physical keyboard I know this all sounds a little bit unbelievable to you guys but honestly the Blackberry key1 provides everything that I need in my smartphone device now it's not going to have the Snapdragon 835 and yes I can feel the difference with the Snapdragon 625 but for most applications I don't really need to have the highest end specifications there are some times when the phone might get bogged down when I'm watching YouTube videos or playing some games but for the most part my main reason why I love this phone is because of the level of productivity I've been using the Blackberry as a way to get better at calendaring jotting notes responding to emails and just generally getting things done audio in the form of music and podcasts is a big yet secondary need that this phone still fulfills without many problems and watching YouTube or TV hasn't been a problem despite the smaller screen even then I don't do it so often unless I have no other way of watching and the same thing goes for the camera the camera on the BlackBerry key1 is essentially the pixel camera and it does a pretty good job I know that I have said in the past that the LG G6 would be my smartphone shooter of choice but as a vlogger type and as someone that actually really enjoys photography I tend to have a compact camera on me at all times anyway so I usually have those bases covered it's all about honing into exactly what kind of user you are and I think I've done a good job of figuring out what it is I really need and the Blackberry key one just happens to provide all of that specialization is simply underrated these days in the tech world and for the Blackberry key one knowing exactly what it is meant for means that the design the keyboard and the overall experience are honed in and if you know me as a reviewer by now you know that I love it when a piece of tech does just just that and that is why the Blackberry key1 is my daily as always thank you guys very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this video of me just kind of recounting why the Blackberry key1 is my daily driver don't forget to check out our other videos including the full review of the Blackberry key1 and you can also see all of our other coverage here at Android authority don't forget to follow us on social media as well and to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because we are your source for all things Androidyou clicked on the title and you saw the thumbnail so I'm sure a lot of you users out there are wondering why well it's Joshua varara what's going on everybody and I'm here to talk to you about my daily driver on the daily I use the Blackberry key1 now I'm going to get into my reasoning in a little bit however if you haven't seen lawn's video about the Galaxy S8 and why that phone is his daily driver you should definitely check it out he does a good job of explaining exactly what a daily driver means to him and I agree mostly with those points the only other thing I would add to it is that well this is the phone that I would actually pay for if I was just a general consumer and not a reviewer now a lot of you out there swear about the Galaxy sa and the fact that a lot of you even have one is actually part of my first reason exclusivity the Blackberry brand was really easy to find back in the day you had people using bolds and curves and everyone was exchanging BBM pins but back then much of what Blackberry was doing actually permeates into today's version of Android you have endtoend encryption from device all the way to the BB servers and you also have BBM send receipts on top of other great messaging features now Blackberry is a fringe brand it's not one that you find too often and you might actually go up to someone and ask them wow is that a Blackberry when they're using it and that's actually part of the fun we always talk about Android being a place where you can personalize and customize the operating system in order to make it more individualistic well I think actually using the Blackberry key one is kind of a sign of who I really am and it's another level of individualism and part of the reason why the the phone is even head turning is because of the design a lot of Flagship devices these days go for the Glass and Metal designs but since Blackberry is a French product like I mentioned before they could experiment a little bit more with what their main phones look like I love what TCL and blackberry have done in making the industrious and business-oriented key1 design no other device in the mainstream smartphone game quite looks like this and it manages to be pretty sturdy too I dropped this key1 a couple of times in Taipei and aside from a few scuffs the phone is working beautifully but of course with the design comes the main part of the phone the physical keyboard and one of the main facets of having that keyboard is extra input now if you know me from the Android authority podcast and also from even previous videos I love the physical keyboard and I also love when there are extra inputs on phones the reason why is because it provides a different experience than the full touchcreen even just one more button can make all the difference in a phone but you get more than 26 in the Blackberry key1 and that leads to more than 50 two different shortcuts and I actually rarely use the ab drawer or even my docked folders to get to my most used applications I have C for calendar k for Google keep y for YouTube long press y for Yelp long press f for Facebook Messenger I for Instagram the list goes on now even though the screen is a little bit smaller the fact that you're doing a lot of the work on the keyboard itself means that you have the entire 4.5 in screen to look at all the content you want and that includes scrolling up and down because you can use the keyboard as a swipeable trackpad it allows you to go through a number of places like Instagram and not have to worry about accidentally liking any photos Edgar our fellow Andro Authority brother and also a Blackberry fan made the point that typing with real Keys isn't about typing really fast it's about typing with confidence because you have to physically type the right letters for the most part your overall typing accuracy actually goes up and even though this might be a little bit headyy I actually think that there's a benefit to typing out the words that end up appearing on the screen there are some studies out there that say that writing in a notebook can can be more beneficial than just typing it onto a laptop and I think that the key1 keyboard is kind of a happy medium I'm actually thinking about the letters I'm typing and thus the notes the journals the tasks the calendar events that I create tend to be a little bit better Remembered in my mind and it's not like you have to sacrifice that much speed in order to type what you want to type swiping to the left deletes whole words so that that level of speed is provided on a physical keyboard I know this all sounds a little bit unbelievable to you guys but honestly the Blackberry key1 provides everything that I need in my smartphone device now it's not going to have the Snapdragon 835 and yes I can feel the difference with the Snapdragon 625 but for most applications I don't really need to have the highest end specifications there are some times when the phone might get bogged down when I'm watching YouTube videos or playing some games but for the most part my main reason why I love this phone is because of the level of productivity I've been using the Blackberry as a way to get better at calendaring jotting notes responding to emails and just generally getting things done audio in the form of music and podcasts is a big yet secondary need that this phone still fulfills without many problems and watching YouTube or TV hasn't been a problem despite the smaller screen even then I don't do it so often unless I have no other way of watching and the same thing goes for the camera the camera on the BlackBerry key1 is essentially the pixel camera and it does a pretty good job I know that I have said in the past that the LG G6 would be my smartphone shooter of choice but as a vlogger type and as someone that actually really enjoys photography I tend to have a compact camera on me at all times anyway so I usually have those bases covered it's all about honing into exactly what kind of user you are and I think I've done a good job of figuring out what it is I really need and the Blackberry key one just happens to provide all of that specialization is simply underrated these days in the tech world and for the Blackberry key one knowing exactly what it is meant for means that the design the keyboard and the overall experience are honed in and if you know me as a reviewer by now you know that I love it when a piece of tech does just just that and that is why the Blackberry key1 is my daily as always thank you guys very much for watching and hope you enjoyed this video of me just kind of recounting why the Blackberry key1 is my daily driver don't forget to check out our other videos including the full review of the Blackberry key1 and you can also see all of our other coverage here at Android authority don't forget to follow us on social media as well and to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because we are your source for all things Android\n"
