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BlackBerry Key2 gets July 13th release date, and preorders start on June 29th

BlackBerry Key2 gets July 13th release date, and preorders start on June 29th

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Starting at $649.99, $100 more than the KeyOne

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Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

TCL’s BlackBerry Key2 now has a release date: it’ll be available on July 13th in the United States starting at $649.99 ($100 more than the KeyOne cost at launch), with preorders set to start at Amazon and Best Buy on June 29th.

The Key2 is an upgraded version of the KeyOne. TCL has updated the design a bit, slimming down the bezels and making the iconic physical keyboard slightly larger. But this isn’t a radical redesign. Specs have also been boosted since the KeyOne: there’s a more powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 chip (versus the 625 from the KeyOne), and both RAM and internal storage have been doubled from the previous model to 6GB of memory and either 64GB or 128GB of space.

The front-facing camera is still an 8-megapixel shooter, but the rear camera is a new dual 12-megapixel camera system that’s become all the rage in the smartphone space these days. Other things haven’t been changed at all, like the 4.5-inch LCD screen (with a 3:2 aspect ratio because you have to have space for that keyboard, after all) and the beefy 3,500mAh battery.

Both Amazon and Best Buy will be offering the Key2 unlocked (although TCL and BlackBerry say that the phone is optimized for GSM carriers such as AT&T and T-Mobile) in silver and black options.