BlackBerry today launched its long-awaited Classic smartphone on Wednesday, a device the company hopes will help it win back market share and lure fans who prefer physical keyboard devices. The device, which bears a similarity to Blackberry's once-bestselling Bold and Curve handsets, boasts 60 percent more screen space, 50 percent longer battery life, expanded app library with access to he offerings from Amazon.com's Android App store, and a browser three times faster than the one on its legacy devices.

"We listened closely to our customers' feedback to ensure we are delivering the technologies to power them through their day - and that feedback led directly to the development of BlackBerry Classic," said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO at BlackBerry."?BlackBerry Classic is the powerful communications tool that many BlackBerry Bold and Curve users have been waiting for. It?s the secure device that feels familiar in their hands, with the added performance and agility they need to be competitive in today's busy world."

John Chen is taking the company back to its roots, re-emphasizing the physical keyboard with the recent launch of the Passport and the Classic models, rather than trying to compete directly against the touchscreen handsets of dominant rivals like Samsung and Apple.

Top features of the BlackBerry Classicinclude:

• BlackBerry Keyboard & Trackpad - AQWERTY keyboard crafted for speed and accuracy gives users the control to communicate quickly using one hand with a trackpad and classic navigation keys.
• BlackBerry Browser - The BlackBerry 10 web browser is fast - HTML5TEST.com rates it amongst the top mobile browsers for web fidelity.
• Screen & Battery - The BlackBerry Classic offers a form factor optimized for power communicators with a 3.5-inch touch screen display, 294 dpi HD resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for greater durability. It also offers a large battery capacity and battery optimization software - up to 22 hours of battery power.
• The device includes a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB of device storage (expandable by up to 128GB via uSD), and a 2MP front- and 8MP rear-facing camera with enhanced optics and upgraded imaging sensors.
• The BlackBerry Classic comes preloaded with the BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, offering a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar so that each user's most commonly accessed functions are in the center of their screen. New features include:
  • BlackBerry Blend - BlackBerry Blend brings messaging and content that is on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet. Get instant message notifications, read and respond to your work and personal email, BBM and text messages, and access your documents, calendar, contacts and media in real time on whatever device you are on, powered by your BlackBerry.
  • BlackBerry Assistant - The BlackBerry Assistant is BlackBerry's first digital assistant and can be used with voice and text commands to help users manage work and personal email, contacts, calendar and other native BlackBerry 10 applications. It's the only smartphone assistant on the market today that can access both personal and work content in your work perimeter. BlackBerry Assistant intelligently determines how to respond to you based on how you interact with it - if you type, it responds silently, if you speak, it speaks back and if you activate over Bluetooth, it speaks back with additional context because it assumes you might not have access to the screen.

BlackBerry Classic is built on BlackBerry's secure operating system, with built-in protection against viruses, tampering and data leaks. It is private by default, protecting users with encrypted email, web browsing and BBM.

The BlackBerry Classic is now available through local carriers around the world and online through ShopBlackBerry.com and Amazon.com for an unlocked price of $450.

App Portfolio

BlackBerry is also expanding its enterprise application ecosystem available on the BlackBerry Classic, including partnerships with Aderant, Bighand Inc., Bloomberg LP, Box Inc., CellTrak Technologies, Cisco Systems Inc., Entrust, GoldCare, InterAct, Onset Technology, Rekoop, Salient Federal Solutions, and SAP.

Enterprise Solutions Bundles

BlackBerry is also making available two new enterprise solutions bundles for enterprises. The Secure Productivity bundle for BlackBerry 10 smartphones and the cross-platform Enterprise Communicator bundle are available today.

The Secure Productivity bundle has been designed for organizations using BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 or BES12: a cross-platform EMM solution by BlackBerry that need to protect mission-critical business data while offering employees access to company information on their BlackBerry 10 smartphones. The bundle includes the following solutions:

• VPN Authentication by BlackBerry allows employees to use their iOS, Android or BlackBerry smartphone for two factor authentication.
• BBM Protected offers a security model for BBM messages sent between iOS, Android, and BlackBerry smartphones that protects corporate data in transit by adding an additional layer of encryption to BBM.

BlackBerry Blend for Enterprise allows employees to securely access corporate data on personal devices without a VPN, and streamlines IT administration through simple IT policies that govern how corporate data is shared across devices. BlackBerry Blend is now available for BlackBerry Classic and BlackBerry Passport smartphones, Porsche Design P?9983 smartphone from BlackBerry, and coming soon to all BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

The Enterprise Communicator bundle extends secure communications and mobile collaboration to iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices.. The bundle includes the following BlackBerry enterprise solutions:

• BBM Meetings is a collaboration app that allows voice and video conferences for groups of up to 25 people on iOS, Android, or BlackBerry 10 smartphones, and also on Windows PC or Mac.
• BBM Protected offers a security model for BBM messages, protecting corporate data in transit by adding an additional layer of encryption to BBMe. BBM Protected is now available for iOS and Android devices as well as BlackBerry smartphones.
  

The Secure Productivity bundle is available for $6 USD per user per month. The Enterprise Communicator bundle is available to customers with iOS, Android and BlackBerry smartphones for $12 USD per user per month.

Specifications

Size:

• Height 131 mm / 5.16 in
• Width 72.4 mm / 2.85 in
• Depth 10.2 mm / 0.40 in

Weight: 178g / 6.28 oz

Navigation: QWERTY keypad, Capacitive touch screen with intuitive gestures, optical trackpad and classic navigation keys

Keyboard: 35 key backlit physical keyboard

Dedicated keys:

• Front: Send, End (Power), Menu, Escape
• Top: Lock/Power (On/Off)
• Side: Volume Up/Down, Mute

Resolution:

• 294 PPI
• 720 x 720 resolution
• 24-bit colour depth

Screen size:

• 3.5" diagonal
• 1:1 aspect ratio

Operating system: BlackBerry 10 OS

Desktop software:

• BlackBerryBlend software to bring the power of your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet
• BlackBerryLink software for your computer to enable synchronisation of data and media

Processor: Qualcomm MSM 8960 1.5GHz

Memory:

• 2 GB RAM
• 16 GB Flash

Expandable memory: Expandable memory via hot-swappable MicroSD memory card (up to 128GB)

USB Ports:

• Micro USB 2.0 high speed port—allows charging and data synchronisation of the device with a USB cable
• Physical Video out via SlimPort

Battery:

• Up to 22 hours mixed battery life
• 2515 mAh (minimum) non-removable Lithium Ion battery

Battery Life:

• Up to 17.2 hours GSM talk time
• Up to 15.2 days GSM standby time
• Up to 11.7 hours UMTS talk time
• Up to 14.5 days UMTS standby time
• Up to 70 hours audio playback
• Up to 13.7 hours video playback

Rear camera:

• 8 megapixel auto-focus camera
• Backside Illumination
• Flash, continuous and touch to focus
• Image and video stabilization
• 5 element F2.2 lens
• 5x digital zoom
• 1080p HD video recording at 30 fps
• 2DOF video stabilization

Front camera:

• 2 megapixel fixed-focus camera
• 720p HD video recording
• 3x digital zoom

Image formats: BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG, SGI, SVG, TSG, TIF, WBMP Audio & video formats: AAC, AMR, AWB, FLAC, M4A, MKA, MP3, OGG, WAV, WMA, 3GP, 3GP2, ASF, AVI, F4V, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG4, WMV

Audio & video encoding/decoding: H.264, MPEG-3, H.263, AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, WMA 9/10, VC-1, VP6, PCM, LPCM, MPEG-2, FLAC, GSM, Vorbis, QCELP, MJPEG

Pre-loaded apps:

• Multimedia: Music, Videos, Pictures, Camera, Picture Editor, Story Maker
• Productivity: BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Assistant, Calendar, Contacts, Browser, Text Messaging, Clock, Calculator, Documents To Go, File Manager, Box, Dropbox, Adobe Reader, Remember (memos/tasks combo), Evernote, BlackBerry Blend, Password Keeper
• Other: Phone, BBM, BlackBerry World, Amazon Appstore, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Weather, Maps/Navigation, Smart Tags (NFC), Compass, Setup, Settings, Help, Tutorials

Security: Password protection, screen lock, and sleep mode

Voice input/output:

• Three microphones for noise cancellation
• Hands-free headset capable
• Bluetooth headset capable
• Integrated hands-free speakerphone

Network bands

• Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia
  • LTE : 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20 (2100/1900/1800/850/2600/900/800 MHz) - Cat 3
  • HSPA+ : 1, 2, 5/6, 8 (2100/1900/850/900 MHz)-DC 42Mb DL(Cat 24), 5.76 Mb UL(Cat6)
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Canada, Latin America, United States (LTE/HSPA+)
  • LTE : 1, 2/25, 4, 5, 7, 13, 17 (2100/1900/AWS/850/2600/700/700 MHz) - Cat 3
  • HSPA+ : 1, 2, 4, 5/6 (2100/AWS/1900/850 MHz) – DC 42Mb DL (Cat 24), 5.76 Mb UL(Cat6)
  • Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

Wi-Fi

• 802.11 bgn 2.4GHz
• 802.11 an 5GHz
• 4G Mobile Hotspot
• Miracast

FM Radio: FM Radio receive (headset as antenna) GPS

• Assisted, Autonomous and Simultaneous GPS and GLONASS
• Preloaded with BlackBerryMaps Maps application
• Support for User Plane and Control Plane A-GNSS

Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE) and EDR

NFC: BlackBerryTag with NFC technology enables communication between BlackBerry smartphones and other NFC-enabled devices with a tap

Advanced Sensors

• Accelerometer
• Magnetometer
• Gyroscope
• Proximity
• Ambient light
• Hall sensor