BlackBerry introduced its 'Classic' smartphone Wednesday in Manhattan in response to requests from fans asking for the return of the old-school physical keyboard.
John Chen, CEO of the Canadian smartphone maker, has released teasers through the year for the new handset, which comes with a full QWERTY physical keyboard, physical navigation keys and a design similar to that of the Bold and other older BlackBerry phones, according to The Verge.
Additional features include a 720 x 720, 3.5-inch touchscreen that lets you use the phone in one hand, a dual-core Qualcomm processor from 2012, 2GB of RAM, a 2-megapixel camera on the front and an 8-megapixel camera on the back.
Chen said fans wanted the command bar functionality to make a comeback because it made it easier for them to navigate BlackBerry's legacy phones, The Times of India reported. Most fans felt alienated by the BlackBerry 10 operating system and phones that debuted in 2012 because they focused more on touchscreens. Command keys like the Menu, Back, Send and Edit buttons were no longer featured on the more modernized versions.
The Classic's debut is Chen's way of avoiding a touchscreen competition with Samsung and Apple, and taking the company back to its roots will place more importance on the physical keyboard.
BlackBerry also gave the new phone a longer battery life, an expanded app library that provides access to Amazon's Android App store and a browser that is three times faster than that of the company's legacy phones.
"The conversation about BlackBerry has changed in the last year," Chen said during the phone's launch. "We are here to stay, there is no question about that. Now we have to engineer our growth."
The Classic is available now through carriers around the world at BlackBerry's online store, as well as Amazon's, for $449, The Verge reported. AT&T and Verizon will begin selling the phone in 2015.
