Black is Back in Singapore. BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition, which was announced in September at IFA 2017, will be going retail from 21 Oct 2017 at S$858 with 12 month local warranty, available from StarHub Online Store and M1 Retail Store (SingTel is available only to Business customers). This is according to the press release issued to me during the private session (on 10 Oct).
BlackBerry devices are licensed to TCL Communication who designs, manufactures and markets the handsets. TCL who is ranked as a Top-10 global smartphone manufacturer by IDC, also sells Alcatel OneTouch smartphones and its in-house TCL smartphones. Despite its drastically shrunk mobile market share, no one can deny the influence BlackBerry has in the majority of business users in the previous decade. The name itself exudes a lot of nostalgia.
I was invited to a private session where Travis Bell, Sales Director of TCL Communications, briefed me on the product and shared some insights to BlackBerry’s planned resurgence. Prior to KEYone, TCL produced BlackBerry PRIV (2015), DTEK50 and DTEK60 (2016). The KEYone which was originally launched in February 2017 in silver, marks the return of hardware keyboard.
Full experience write-up is available here. Thanks to TCL Communications for the loan unit to allow Music Photo Life to be one of the first in Singapore to review the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition. Units available from 21 Oct 2017 with 12-month local warranty. The authorised service centre is TOM (Total Outsource Management) located at 5 Little Rd #05-05, Cemtex Industrial Building.
Update 12 Oct: I received news that the official launch date may not be on 16 October itself, but rather, on the week of 16 Oct. It means that the actual date of sale is some time within the week. We will update this page when we receive new information, and apologise for the disappointment.
Update 21 Oct: The KEYone is officially available at StarHub, M1 and limited retail outlets like Mobile Hardware Shop.
Chester, back to my question raised on Oct. 14, did they mention if this will be eventually available to Singtel consumers and if so, when?
The model number for Singapore is BBB100-1.
Hi do you know when singtel will release??