Category:
Model:
PRD-63117-003
Manufacturer's Website:
http://www.blackberrymobile.com/specifications/
Short Description:
qwerty keyboard phone.
Physical Description:
Dimentions: 7.2 x 0.9 x 14.9 cm
Screen size: 4.5 in,
materials: mat plastic,
Inputs: usbc, 3.5 mm headphone jack,
physical buttons: power, volume, quick access key,
Speakers: one mono bottom facing,
What's in the box: don't remember now.
Accessibility Features:
Comes with the stock accessibility features, but nothing extra
Experience:
I think this device could work for some one who needs a blackberry for work as long as the user has patience. See comments for my full review.
Comments
First impression of the Key One screems “utilitarian at best”.
Blackberry Key one strikes me as a work phone. If your company buys you one, expect to be able to use it but don’t expect a rich and seemless accessibility experience.
On the upside, what little I’ve seen of the blackberry apps indicates that they more or less work with android’s accessibility features. Blackberry launcher loads apps snappily and has accessible icons, but doesn’t have actions built in, so let new apps fall where they may. There’s a programmable button which you can set for your mostest favouritest need to do thing on your phone as long as blackberry thought of doing it first. The button can’t be configured to close all apps for example because that option isn’t in the list of bb approved actions. The alt key can be used in conjunction with the keyboard keys to launch apps and perform tasks as well.
My first smart phones were hp ipaq devices with keyboards, and I loved typing on them. Typing on the key one brought back fond memories for me. TTTTTTThe keys are bigger than those on the old ipaq’s and the press and release action is superb. Unfortunately, some users may be interested in buying this device to use as a completely tactile phone using the keyboard to cut out gesturing, and this won’t work. The built in keyboard is missing a control key, tab key, and set of arrows. I was able to navigate a webpage by headings using alt h and alt shift h, but I couldn’t use control alt h to go to home screen, and without tab, I couldn’t navigate the system. With no arrow keys, I got no talkback navigation at all. There are no markings for f and J, but there is a mark on the D so you can figure out where the five is. I’m not happy with that at all. I would probably choose to mark f and j with puff paint or something.
The keyboard includes a heat sensor that allows the user to perform gestures on the keyboard. There is a feature called cursor navigation which toggles when the keyboard is double tapped or when two fingers are moving across the board at the same time. Talkback interupts keyboard echo to announce these toggles and they are frequent. If some one is using this device on a regular basis, please post a tutorial for disabling this feature.
The capacitive buttons on the key one are nonstandard and activate on a touch instead of waiting for a double tap from explore by touch. It works, but it will take most users a while to get a feel for where each button is placed and where they can perform gestures. Between the touchy keyboard and capacitive buttons, the learning curve on this device can be very steep.
Accessibility aside, there’s nothing compelling about the hardware or the firmwhare that justifies the high end price tag of this device. The main justification for buying one would be if you need blackberry software such as bbm or security. as far as accessibility is concerned, blackberry seems to feel they can program to spec, farm out the tools to google, and not have to pay the slightest attention to user experience. It works, but clearly no one cares whether or not it works well. There is still time. Hopefully improvements are made and things are a bit more user friendly in future.
Full Review Coming
Hey,
I've been using this phone for 3 weeks now and will write a full review soon. The only reason to buy this phone is the keyboard and, in my case at least, I do not regret the choice one bit. Most of the downsides highlighted in this quick review can be mitigated or negated altogether. The phone is very highly usable. That said, if you don't care for a physical keyboard that much, then look elsewhere as the device is indeed priced high for the midrange specs. Stay tuned...