BlackBerry KEY2 Black Unlocked GSM Android Smartphone 4G LTE, 64GB

I have been a BlackBerry user for over 10 years (I supported them at work) and was upgrading from the BlackBerry Classic. I needed a phone that could support apps that are available today and the BB10 browser just didn't cut it.I did have some issues getting the phone set up. When I received the phone it was well packed but I was surprised to find an international power adapter in the package. I opened the factory sealed box and used my existing BlackBerry charger to charge the phone. (I didn't realize that the included charger - in international version - had a pull out "earth" pin. Once I sorted that out the included charger works well).Much surprise came when the screen displayed everything in Chinese!!! I poked around the various screens hoping to find the screen that would let me change to language. No luck. I did find information on line but all of the videos were presented on phones that were already set for English. The seller was not much help getting me set up. They told me that "other people received these phones and had no problem figuring it out". After several emails I was provided a link to a YouTube video (that I had already seen). They said to just touch the places on the screen and I should be able to get to the right screen. I did eventually get to the right screen and set the phone for U.S. English. I then did a Factory Reset and when the phone booted I was presented with a screen that allowed me to select the language. I expected that this screen would be what I first saw on initial power up. Apparently the Chinese load some of their apps on the phone and that is why the language is set to Chinese. The Factory Reset get rid of all of that stuff - whatever it was.I inserted the SIM card and my SD card in the phone and I was up and running. It took a few days to get all of my contacts and calendar updated and other options configured. BlackBerry has a nice app for Content Transfer built into the Key 2 and all I needed to do was download the Content Transfer app onto the Classic and in no time all of my information was transferred,I wanted to use different ringtones than what were provided and in order to do so I needed to download a file manager. (Found that out from reading the User Guide). Did that and all as well. The access to my music library on the SD card is not as easy to access as it was on the Classic but I have it figured out. Also, this phone has a built-in FM radio which works very well.I'll save the best for last. The phone is FAST!!! The browser loads very fast and displays all of the content I need to see. The design of the phone is beautiful. Everyone who has seen it remarks on the great styling and they LOVE the fact that it has a real keyboard. Battery life is great and I charge it about every two or three days. It may take some time to get used to the Android operating system but once you do you will like it. The learning curve is not that steep.

A solid phone, operates well - no lagging, bugging, system errors etc. within the first month I owned it.I bought the phone from the amazon.com US site, but it has worked flawlessly for me in Canada, on Freedom's network.I would rate battery life 3.5 stars - it'll last you the day and meet your expectations, but it won't stand out you as a phone that lasts forever. Charges quickly with the cable that comes included in the box, though, so that brings it up to 4 stars.The selling point of this phone is the keyboard. If you haven't owned a BlackBerry before, then the keyboard will meet all of your expectations - it's very typeable, feels nice in the hand, and the swipe features on the synaptic keyboard work reasonably well. There's a fair number of customization options, the 'speed key' lets you open new apps in less than a second, and the '$' key can be switched to function as a Ctrl key, so that you can use the same keyboard shortcuts that you would use on a Windows PC (though this doesn't work in all apps). However, if you have had a BlackBerry with a keyboard before, there are some features that are surprisingly not present in this device, that you will miss if you've grown accustomed to them. When you're scrolling through Hub, you can no longer use the 'backspace/delete' key to delete emails, you have to swipe to delete them. In the default browser (Chrome), you can no longer hit 't' to go to the top of the page or 'b' to go to the bottom; you have to scroll manually. You can't hit 'f' to 'find in page', or 'r' to reload - all those need to be done with the fiddly mobile Chrome interface. Whenever you open the browser or a new tab, you can't just start typing a url or a set of search terms, you need to bring your thumb up all the way from the keyboard to the address bar at the top of the screen to start typing. So although BlackBerry has brought in several new, high-tech features with this keyboard, it's simultaneously scrapped some of the features that gave previous keyboards such an integrated feel with the device. Two steps forward, one step back. Everything I've mentioned could be easily updated with an OS update, or by BlackBerry asking mobile Chrome to add support for keyboard shortcuts like the desktop version has. Time will tell.Overall, if you're looking for a phone with a keyboard, this is easily the one I'd recommend out of the current options. This phone's specs feel fast and powerful enough to last 4-5 years before slowing down or falling behind the software curve (as of the end of 2018) - whereas you can expect the cheaper KeyOne or KeyTwoLE to last about half of that. The added features, better specs, and greater futureproof potential justifies the price difference.