Summary
BlackBerry hasn’t been around for nearly 10 years, but the brand name still holds some weight today. There’s a growing group of people who long for the days of simpler devices with physical keyboards. A company is hoping to cash in on that by modding the BlackBerry Classic with Android and selling them online.
A brand called Zinwa Technologies out of China is trying to bring back the old BlackBerry Classic Q20 with new components and the Android operating system in place of BB10. This was one of the last major phones launched by BlackBerry, back in 2014. So updated components are absolutely needed to get this thing running on Android.
The updated specs include a new main board, a more recent MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, 12GB of RAM, up to 256GB of onboard storage, a bigger 3,000 mAh battery, and new 50MP and 8MP cameras. For reference, the original Classic Q20 had a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor, only 2GB of RAM, a measly 16GB of storage, a 2,515 mAh battery, and 8MP and 2MP cameras. Oh, and the Micro-USB charging port has been replaced with USB Type-C. Here’s how the changes look side-by-side.
Zinwa has two options for how you can get one of these devices into your hands. First, you can buy the full retrofitted “Zinwa Q25 Pro” for $420. However, if you happen to have an old BlackBerry Classic Q20 already, or you’d like to buy a used one on your own, Zinwa is also selling aDIY kitwith all the components for $320.
The company is hoping to start shipping the first 100 orders by the end of this month. Mass production is being planned for mid-September. Of course, projects like these are notorious for missing deadlines, so take all of that with a grain of salt. Ultimately, the urgency will most likely depend on how much interest there is in this. If you’re a fan of the idea, you can join theDiscord channelfor more information and updates.
