The KEYone has a dual purpose. It should appeal to all fans of the BlackBerry keyboard, those who were convinced, for example, by the Passport. And it was to affirm the legitimacy of TCL, the Chinese manufacturer behind Alcatel, in the high-end market, after having succeeded in establishing itself in the premium mid-range with the Idol 4s. If reviews of the product have been overwhelmingly positive. Something is missing to achieve the two goals mentioned: the availability of the telephone. Because all this is not much use if the mobile is not sold.

A few days late

Last May, during the French presentation of the phone, three months after the global announcement at Mobile World Congress, TCL confirmed the launch of the KEYone in June. The manufacturer had even promised that it would be available from June 1. It wasn't entirely true and it took a bit of a delay. But, everything comes at the right time to who knows how to wait. And now the KEYone lands on store shelves at a price worthy of BlackBerry's reputation since the mobile is sold, as advertised, at 599 euros.

It is at this price that you will find it for example at Darty, Fnac, Materiel.net, RueDuCommerce or Amazon. It is available at practically all the aforementioned brands, except Darty where it takes a short week. This is also the case at LDLC, for example. Remember that some online stores will charge you shipping costs, even on an order of nearly 600 euros: Fnac, Materiel.net, LDLC in particular. And a bad surprise too: the KEYone is totally absent at the time of writing these lines from the catalogs of operators. No subsidy therefore for this mobile.

Premium, but not always high-end

Under these conditions, you are certainly wondering, more than if you had to pay for it even only half its price, if it is worth its weight in nougat? In a way yes, since the smartphone benefits from beautiful equipment (full sensitive keyboard with fingerprint reader, Full HD display with Corning Gorilla 4 mineral glass, 3505 mAh battery, bright 12 megapixel photo sensor, Android 7.1 preinstalled, metal frame). But its real problem is the accuracy of its platform: a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. This is its only big flaw, but it is significant, especially for users of demanding applications (which are certainly even fewer among BlackBerry users).