The new BlackBerry phone brings the old-school keyboard back from the dead - here's what it's like

Here's what I think is going to happen to smartphones.

Today, most name-brand smartphones look and feel about the same. The trend with the latest top-end phones is to shrink the borders around the display, but that's well on its way to being commoditized as well.

But for most phone makers, the "follow the leader" strategy isn't working. Apple and Samsung are, for the most part, the only ones who consistently sell to a mass market. 

Eventually, these other companies will have to stand out or go away. If they do the former, I think we'll see a new wave of hardware that plays to specific niches. There'd be a phone for gamers, a phone for camera fiends, maybe even a modular phone. Would all of these be good? No. It's also worth noting that many companies have tried and failed on this route before. But with better tech to work with, augmented reality coming, and a much larger pool of people to sell to, it may be time to try again.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying the BlackBerry KeyOne is a quality phone, but only for a very particular group of people. More specifically, the new $549 device - which is technically built by Chinese brand TCL but uses BlackBerry's branding and software - should align well with anyone who misses the feel of a physical keyboard. What's more, it's the only good phone for that group.

For everyone else, though, it's probably overpriced.

I've been using a pre-production unit of the BlackBerry KeyOne for the past two weeks - here's what it's like: