The BlackBerry Classic smartphone now has a new Non Camera counterpart, launching exclusively on Verizon Wireless in the U.S.
The QWERTY BlackBerry Classic has stirred lots of interest since its debut, particularly due to its iconic BlackBerry form factor. The company has now announced a new variant of the smartphone, ditching the camera but retaining the rest of the specifications. This new model may be more suitable for working professionals who are not allowed to bring smartphones with cameras to work due to fears of leaking documents and sensitive information.
Other than the camera aspect, the two BlackBerry Classic models share virtually identical specifications. This means a 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 720 pixels at a pixel density of 294 ppi, a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor clocked at 1.5GHz, and 2GB of RAM. Other specs include 16GB of built-in storage capacity, microSD support for additional memory of up to 128GB, and a 2,500 mAh battery to keep things up and running. The battery on the BlackBerry Classic Non Camera is slightly smaller than the 2,515 mAh unit found on the original model, but the difference is minor.
In terms of connectivity, the smartphone supports Wi-Fi, 4G LTE, GPRS/EDGE, GPS/ A-GPS, Glonass, NFC, and Bluetooth. Sensors include gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, ambient, light, proximity, and hall sensors. On the software side, the BlackBerry Classic Non Camera comes with the newly-released BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS.
As expected from a BlackBerry 10 smartphone, both models of the BlackBerry Classic handset come with BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Assistant, Adobe Reader, Dropbox, Evernote, BlackBerry Blend, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), BlackBerry World, Amazon Appstore, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and YouTube pre-installed out of the box.
The BlackBerry Classic Non Camera has already gone up for pre-order at Verizon Wireless, sporting a price tag of $99.99 with a two-year service agreement and $399.99 outright. The handset is also available for $16.66 per month with Verizon Edge.
"The BlackBerry Classic Non Camera features a physical keyboard and familiar navigation keys, with the power of the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Stay productive with a unified inbox, fast web browser and a battery that puts in the hours, as well as plenty of Android apps for work and play. The BlackBerry Classic Non Camera comes in 16GB and is available in black. (Subject to availability)," reads the product description on Verizon's pre-order page.
The $99.99 price tag on contract seems to be promotional, down from a regular $149.99. As a reminder, the BlackBerry Classic made its debut back in December 2014, sporting a $499 price tag. Verizon lists the availability date as March 31, 2015.
