JerryRigEverything's KEYone Durability Test has CBK recording a Real World one tomorrow
Ouch. The BlackBerry KEYone made it into JerryRigEverything's test chambers, where it was passing the scratch and burn test with ease. It didn't fare well in the bend test though...
Update - August 17th: JerryRigEverything has posted a second durability test video. This time the KEYone has passed with flying colors. Zack has removed it from his Shelf of Shave and now gives the KEYone a thumbs up declaring it a phone that will stand up to the test of time.
Update - 2:30pm, Saturday, June 10th: So the KEYone Drop Test and Durability video is coming soon, but in the meantime BB Mobile has released a statement about the limited number of defective KEYones with display issues, which you can read about right here.
Update - 5pm, Friday, June 9th: Just finished recording a CBK KEYone Drop Test Video. My editor is going to try and work on the video over the weekend (she has some prior commitments to attend to, but she's going to try and turn around on it as fast as she can - so hopefully ready for early in the week. If you're ok with spoilers, you can read my debrief on this post in the forums. Overall, KEYone held up pretty well - and we did pry a couple apart to take a look at what's under the hood.
I'm a big fan of JerryRigEverything's YouTube channel, where he puts gadgets, including smartphones, through plenty of torture tests to see just how tough they are. For phones, that includes scratching and burning and bending them. The BlackBerry KEYone did well on the scratch tests, and recovered from the burn test in satisfactory time, but when it came to the bend test it didn't fare as well, with the screen popping out of the chassis quite easily. A further tear down revealed a lack of adhesive holding the display firmly in place. I'm pretty sure the folks at BlackBerry Mobile must be aware of this, so I expect we should hear something from them addressing this in the near future.
We've seen a handful of reports in CrackBerry's KEYone forums where KEYone owners have relayed their devices suffering a similar fate - where drops have popped up the display up. On the other hand, I've also seen the KEYone take a helluva beating and keep on ticking without issue. It's really been a solid device in everyday use. After months of using and abusing my KEYone, I've dropped it and sat on it and beat it up now a LOT without any issues (it even saved my face one night when I tripped in a hotel room and I smashed it into the bedside table with the momentum of 200lbs of drunk CBK behind it). Beyond my main KEYone, I've also had many more come through my hands as we've held the CrackBerry Meetup Tours which have held up well and are still pristine.
BlackBerry KEYone's have been precious to come by, so I haven't been in a rush to do the classic BlackBerry drop test yet, but given the attention and questions users are having around the KEYone's durability, tomorrow I'm going to put the KEYone through some real world durability testing (since that's where use the phones). I have a brand new KEYone to use for it (Rogers retail unit) and for good measure I'll put the real world testing side by side to a Galaxy S8+ and iPhone 7 Plus to see how they measure up.
If you have any ideas for real world abuse you'd like to see the KEYone take in the video, let me know and I'll see if I can make it happen.
I've been excited about seeing this movie since the first trailer was released. Still, something I missed in the latest trailer was a spotting of the BlackBerry KEYone.
While updates for most BlackBerry KEYone variants have wrapped up, AT&T has continued releasing new builds, and the latest, noted as ACG696, is now available.
