BlackBerry Returns To Its Roots With "Classic" BB10 Smartphone

For many years, one thing in particular worked well for BlackBerry: building phones with physical keyboards and fantastic battery life. It's a very different mobile world these days, with BlackBerry trailing almost everyone else in terms of both mind and market share, but that's not stopping the slimmed-down outfit from producing yet another product that harkens back to its glory days. The BlackBerry Classic is exactly what you'd expect: a phone that doesn't provide any outlandish new design cues, but instead relies on the formula that made it so important to business travelers the world over.


The Classic is up for pre-order now, with shipments expected to start in mid-December. Outside of the black chassis and physical keyboard, you'll also find the latest version of BlackBerry OS 10.3.1. Users can install both Android and BlackBerry apps, and the squared  display is a touch-sensitive one. By and large, this is a speedier version of the handsets that once made BlackBerry so popular, but at $450 off-contract, one has to wonder if that ship has truly sailed for good. The company still hasn't revealed a detailed specifications sheet just yet, but given that the first orders will hit the streets in around a month, we're expecting those tidbits to land shortly.