The BlackBerry KEYone BLACK Edition landed at IFA 2017. The handset features more RAM and storage and new, all-black, design.

The handset will run Android, like its predecessor, but will not be getting a release in the USA, apparently – this could change, however.

The BlackBerry KEYone BLACK Edition, like BlackBerry handsets of old, is completely black and the effect looks very attractive. I was a big fan of the original KEYone and it will always have a special place in my heart as it was the phone I was testing when I got engaged.

This one isn’t all that different, though you should be able to feel a slight difference with an extra 1GB of RAM. Beyond this, everything else remains the same – save for more storage.

Still, 64GB is hardly a large amount of storage on a flagship these days. Samsung and Apple are now well into three-figure storage, and the rest of the players in the market will follow suit. Even the Essential Phone ships with 128GB of storage as standard.

Inside you still have Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 625 CPU, Qualcomm’s X9 modem, a 12MP camera, and a 3500mAh battery. And while that might now sound too impressive; the performance of the original KEYone was very, very competitive.

The camera was also brilliant – it completely took me off guard with how good it was. You can read more about the handset and its performance in my full review of the BlackBerry KEYone.

The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition will be available starting from September in the U.K., Germany, France, Canada, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Japan starting at €649/£549/$799 CAD/2,299 AED/ ¥79,800.

If you're in the UK, you can now pre-order the handset at Carphone Warehouse – prices start from £31 a month. 

That makes it cheaper than Apple’s current and incoming iPhones, the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8, the LG V30, and the Essential Phone. Though given its specs, BlackBerry could have gone even lower with this one.

I don’t think this phone will convince anyone over from Apple or Samsung, but for BlackBerry purists, the The BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition is almost certainly worth a look – its predecessor was the best phone BlackBerry has made in years, and this one is even better, so that certainly bodes well.