Featured Image Credit: Bloomberg / Contributor / Getty
BlackBerry wasn't just a phone brand, it was a cultural phenomenon that instantly marked its users as someone important.
The device was such a status symbol that celebrities like Madonna reportedly slept with one under her pillow, while Eminem has been spotted still using his BlackBerry in recent years.
Before Apple's announcement of the iPhone changed everything, BlackBerry was the phone that freed people from their desks.
You could finally send emails from anywhere, and the full QWERTY keyboard made typing messages and emails incredibly easy compared to the painful T9 texting everyone else was stuck with.
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Now, the revival of the device might be closer than we think.
A Chinese company called Zinwa Technologies is taking decade-old BlackBerry Classic Q20 devices and retrofitting them with modern Android capabilities.
The result is the Zinwa Q25 Pro – a limited-edition revival that maintains the Classic's beloved physical design while running contemporary software.
To make the ageing hardware compatible with Android, Zinwa upgrades the original internals with a new main board featuring a MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage.
The Classic also comes equipped with the familiar Android navigation interface, making it easy to use for today's smartphone users.
Meanwhile, several improvements have been made to the Q20's specs.
The phone's cameras offer a 50MP rear sensor and an 8MP front-facing camera, while the battery gets a 15% capacity boost.
Zinwa also modernised connectivity by adding 4G LTE support (though not 5G) and replacing the old micro USB port with USB Type-C for faster charging and data transfer.
Most importantly, BlackBerry's signature capacitive trackpad works like a charm on the Android-powered device, according to demos shared by the team.
The Q25 Pro currently runs a basic version of Android 13, though Zinwa hasn't committed to future Android updates unless there's sufficient customer interest to justify continued development.
For those wanting to return to their BlackBerry lifestyle, the Zinwa Q25 Pro is priced at $400. However, for those interested, the company is also selling a DIY kit to transform your old BlackBerry Classic yourself for $320. Both options are available through Zinwa's online store, which also sells individual camera modules and batteries.
Zinwa plans to ship to the first 100 customers by the end of August, with mass production targeted for mid-September. If the Q25 Pro succeeds, Zinwa might expand to other BlackBerry models, including the Passport and KeyOne – the latter being one of the few BlackBerry devices that originally shipped with Android.
Anyone who's intrigued by the BlackBerry's revival journey can join Zinwa's Discord channel for updates on shipping and information about other potential BlackBerry revivals in development.
