Taking the Blackberry Key2 LE for a spin
Not long after I posted my review of the Blackberry Key2, TCL (who now owns the Blackberry brand and produces their devices) announced the Key2 LE. The LE is a less expensive little brother to the Key2. But how does it compare? I’ve been using it for about two weeks now and have the goods.
The ‘full’ Key2 weighs 168g but the LE comes in at 156g and feels really good in comparison making it the perfect pocketable phone while still feeling solid like it’s heavier big brother. While they look similar, the weight difference seems to make it just feel better in the hand (to me)…it’s got the same curved ‘U’ shape (squared top and rounded bottom corners) and basically the same thickness but I just like holding it better than the Key2.
The drop in weight is likely due to the slightly smaller 3000mah battery (compared to the Key2’s 3500mah) but doesn’t seem to greatly decrease battery life…you should easily be able to go for a few days with moderate usage thanks in part to the smaller and less power hungry IPS LCD display. Blackberry claims 22.5 hours of usage per charge which actually seems fairly accurate.
The LE can quick charge up to 50% in 36 minutes with the right (Quick Charge 3.0) charging block.
The backlit keyboard is obviously back with the same fingerprint-reading space bar, SYM key, customizable shortcut keys and on-screen Android nav buttons.
The dual account mode (on dual sim card models) allows you to clone some of the most popular social media apps that are tied to a phone number allowing you to separate work and personal logins which is pretty great.
Interestingly, the LE’s dual rear cameras are 13 megapixels + 5 megapixels vs the Key2’s 12+12 megapixel cameras. The front facing camera on both models is 8mp. Still not mind blowing but a decent set up nonetheless. Here’s some photos taken with the LE to give you a feel for it’s abilities (click through for full resolution) – I chose some tricky lighting situations to see how it holds up:
I’m probably the last to discover that the LE (and the Key2) also has a FM radio built in…it uses the headphones as its antenna which is a nice bonus feature.
The onboard memory is also different on the LE which comes in 32 and 64gb flavors with 4gb of ram. The other main difference (albeit not terribly noticeable in my tests) between the LE and Key2 is the processor in the LE which sports the Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 vs the Key2’s 660. As I said in my Key2 review, these devices aren’t powerhouses in the processor department but good enough for the average user and their daily usage of surfing, email, social media and photography.
Other than the above, everything the Key2 has is there in the LE – super clean, stock Android 8.1 Oreo operating system, minimal bundled apps, USB C charge port, and a headphone jack.
At the end of the day, Blackberry has made a solid Android smartphone with a keyboard slightly less powerful than its other model to give consumers (and presumably business which is likely their main target) some price point choices with their various models. I will say that the LE surprised me in a number of ways and has become my ‘daily driver’ Android device.
