Hands-On With the BlackBerry Classic
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BlackBerry’s latest phone, the Classic, has the hardy physical keyboard consumers may remember from the company’s better days. Also a trackpad and, below the touchscreen, the iconic call and hang-up buttons that evoke Bell’s original invention.
Wednesday’s launch revealed a set of features the device’s earliest users will find familiar. Chief Executive John Chen, who presided over the reveal in New York, is sharply changing the touchscreen-only course set by previous helmsman Thorsten Heins. Heins himself was reacting, or overreacting, to the swath that Apple and the Androids have cut through the smartphone market, of which the Canadian company now has less than 1 percent.