alcatel One Touch Fire

The difference isn’t massive by any means but as we criticised the Key2 for being a little on the unwieldy side, any reduction is welcome. The move to plastic makes the Key2 LE warmer and more inviting to the touch, especially in conjunction with that rubberised rear panel. It’s another dated element but there’s no denying its practical function, nor the blissful lack of visible fingerprints when you handle it. This use of plastic has also enabled BlackBerry to offer the Key2 LE in some rather eye-catching colours. The soft gold colour of our test model isn’t particularly to my taste, nor is it hideously garish (for a more eye-catching finish, the red-on-black model seen in our initial hands-on might fit the bill).

Most importantly, it doesn’t feel too cheap, with virtually no creaking or flexing. As has been the case with every BlackBerry device from the post-iPhone era, the one feature that defines the BlackBerry Key2 LE will divide opinion. Few people still prefer typing with a physical keyboard these days but some still do and if that’s you, then you need to ask yourself whether you’re still willing to sacrifice significant screen space to facilitate your preference. To your average smartphone user, the keyboard here will feel like a weird vestigial organ, leaching precious viewing space.

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Literally, every other smartphone manufacturer is doing precisely the opposite right now, shaving off every possible millimetre of non-screen real-estate. Overall, the keyboard itself is actually slightly smaller than the Key2’s but it’s still 10% bigger than those on the KeyOne. Even to a committed software keyboard user, it’s very pleasant to type on, once you’ve jogged the part of your muscle memory that used to engage with such tactile things (age permitting).

BlackBerry has put that permanent keyboard to full use with a useful speed key that lets you jump into apps when it’s combined with the rest of keyboard. Meanwhile, the LE’s fingerprint sensor is stashed into the space bar and it’s both fast and reliable. One downer is the fact that there’s no capacitive trackpad function in the keyboard as there is on the Key2. That’s a real shame, as it makes navigating on the phone’s hiked-up display even more awkward than it was to begin with. I’ll say one thing for BlackBerry’s focus on function over form though – it means we still get a headphone jack.

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Also handy is the provision of a mappable shortcut button on the right-hand edge, right below the textured power button. USB-C is the chosen charging standard, so not everything here is a throwback to previous times either. BlackBerry Key2 LE – Screen The Key2 LE has been fitted with a 4.5-inch 1080 x 1620 display, much like the Key2. If that sounds awfully small for a modern smartphone screen, that’s because it is. The ‘small’ Google Pixel 3 model has a 5.5-inch display, for goodness’ sake.

That unorthodox resolution should tell you something about where the size has been lost here. The Key2 LE’s physical keyboard has taken a huge chunk out of the available screen space, resulting in a stubby 3:2 aspect ratio. There’s obvious brightness drop-off when viewing the Key2 LE off-axis Again, this runs completely counter to current trends, where other manufacturers are spreading out to 18:9 and beyond.

To be fair, this shorter display doesn’t have a massively negative impact in standard portrait activities like home screen navigation and web browsing. Sure, there’s less space for stuff but it doesn’t look particularly weird. It’s almost like a cropped-in iPad experience. Where you really lose out is in media performance. Put simply, if you spend any regular amount of time watching video content or playing games on your phone, don’t buy the BlackBerry Key2 LE. Just don’t.

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