At IFA 2018, Blackberry unveiled the new Blackberry KEY2 LE, a QWERTY smartphone for the price conscious consumer. It has the same design as the KEY2 but with different materials and lower spec internals.

Inside, the phone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636, a step-down from the KEY2’s 660. Even so, one can expect great battery life with this processor; Blackberry claims up to 22 hours per charge. The 3000mAh battery can be topped with Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0. It can fill up the tank to 50% in 36 minutes.

The 4.5-inch display is largely unchanged from the KEY2. The biggest hardware change however is the keyboard. It is about 10% larger than the KEYOne, but it lacks the capacitive touch. What this means is you can’t use it as a touch pad – like the KEYOne and KEY2. Fortunately, the keyboard is as clicky as ever. Plus the fingerprint sensor is still in the spacebar button.

Blackberry paired the Snapdragon 636 with 4GB of RAM and up to 64GB of internal storage, which can be expanded with microSD. Like the KEY2, all 52 keys on the QWERTY keyboard can be assigned as shortcut keys. The back of the phone sees a dual camera layout. However, it is different than the KEY2. This time it is a 13MP and a 5MP sensor working in tandem. No zoom capabilities here.

This phone also includes DTEK by BlackBerry for a secure Android experience, coupled with Firefox Focus for a more secure browsing experience on the internet. The new polycarbonate body comes in three different hues – Slate, Champagne, and Atomic.

BlackBerry will begin shipping the KEY2 LE out this September and will be priced at US$399 (~RM1649) for the 32GB storage variant and US$449 (~RM1846) for the 64GB storage variant. No Malaysian availability has been announced.