BlackBerry Classic launches in States with UK shipments starting in mid-January
Company’s return-to-form smartphone starts making its way to consumers
As promised, BlackBerry launched its Classic handset today, which blends the company’s iconic design philosophy with upgraded internals. It’s shipping in North America, and now we know when to expect it in the UK.
BlackBerry is taking orders for the Classic on its UK webstore for £349 unlocked, and orders placed now are estimated to arrive in mid-January – so about a month away still.
The company held a launch event in New York City today, and interested parties in the States can order the phone now from BlackBerry or Amazon for US$449. Leading carriers Verizon and AT&T have pledged to carry the device starting in early 2015, as well.
The BlackBerry Classic aims to recapture the spirit of the company’s past core devices before it haphazardly tried to reinvent itself, featuring a full QWERTY keyboard with navigation keys along with a 3.5in 720×720 display and a hearty 2515mAh battery.
It arrives with BlackBerry 10 installed, which helps provide some levels of functionality that the old-school BlackBerry phones could never offer – like BlackBerry Assistant voice control, and the ability to download and run Android apps via the Amazon Appstore.
And vitally, it’ll fit in both one hand and one pocket, unlike BlackBerry’s gargantuan Passport. But the company isn’t done exploring non-traditional handset designs.
[Source: BlackBerry]
READ MORE: BlackBerry Classic due out 17 December at £349, with pre-orders available now
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
