BlackBerry phones: why there are no longer any new models

Can you still buy a BlackBerry?

Not new ones. The last BlackBerry to hit the market was the KEY2 LE from 2018, manufactured by TCL. That company terminated the licence on 31 August 2020, after which the American start-up OnwardMobility took over with the promise of a 5G handset with a physical keyboard. That device never materialised; the company ceased trading in 2022 without ever releasing anything. Since then, no one has taken up the brand.

You can still come across second-hand and refurbished handsets. Whether that’s a good idea depends on which model you’re looking at.

Does my old BlackBerry still work?

That varies depending on the operating system, and the difference is significant.

• BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10: as of 4 January 2022, BlackBerry shut down the infrastructure behind these systems. As a result, making calls, sending messages, data connectivity and even the emergency services may no longer work. These devices have become collector’s items, not everyday tools.
• The Android models: the KEYone, KEY2, KEY2 LE and the DTEK series run on Android and are still technically functional. However, they haven’t received any security updates for years, and many apps now require a higher version of Android. They’re fine for making calls and using messaging apps, but it’s unwise to use them as your primary device.
• Spare parts: batteries and screens are no longer officially available. You’ll have to rely on the second-hand market and parts of unknown origin.

What happened to BlackBerry

BlackBerry still exists, just not as a mobile phone brand. The Canadian company, known as RIM (Research In Motion) until 2013, now sells security software for businesses and governments, as well as the QNX operating system, which runs in millions of cars. It has not manufactured its own phones since 2016.

The patents are also gone. In 2023, BlackBerry sold its portfolio of mobile patents to Malikie Innovations, thereby severing the last tangible link to its past as a phone manufacturer.

From market leader to brand licence

In its early years, RIM mainly developed business communication products such as modems and payment terminals. The Inter@ctive Pager, launched in 1996, proved a hit because it allowed users to send and receive short messages, featuring a full keyboard rather than the ‘receive-only’ pagers of the time.

In 1999, the first BlackBerry product followed: the BlackBerry 850, which could retrieve email from a Microsoft Exchange Server via the company’s proprietary BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The first proper mobile phone was the BlackBerry 957, launched in April 2000. This was followed by many series, all of which shared the same philosophy: business email, secure, with a physical keyboard.

The first cracks began to appear in 2011. The iPhone and Windows Mobile failed to provide a solution with decent touchscreen support, and when iOS and Windows also became compatible with Exchange, business customers switched. The company parted ways with its founders and focused on BlackBerry 10, built on the QNX platform. Meanwhile, phones had become so powerful and energy-efficient that services such as BES and BIS became redundant. Revenue dried up and, in 2013, BlackBerry put itself up for sale.

The sale fell through, but the redundancies went ahead. Under John Chen, appointed at the end of 2013, BlackBerry decided to stop manufacturing phones itself. The brand name was licensed to TCL for the global market, to Optiemus Infracom for India and to BB Merah Putih for Indonesia. This arrangement lasted until 2020.

The series BlackBerry leaves behind

All the series listed below have been discontinued. If you come across them second-hand, you’ll know what you’re looking at.

• Bold, Curve and Pearl: the classics on BlackBerry OS, from the years when the brand dominated the business market.
• Q and Z series: the BlackBerry 10 generation, with the Q as the physical keyboard model and the Z as the touchscreen-only device. Largely unusable since January 2022.
• DTEK series: the first Android devices, with a large touchscreen and a strong focus on security.
• KEY series: the final instalments, the KEYone and the KEY2, featuring Android and the familiar physical keyboard. The KEY2 LE from 2018 marked the end of the line.
• Evolve series: entry-level models from Optimus for India, never officially released here.

The Porsche Design models

The Porsche Design models deserve a special mention. BlackBerry collaborated for many years with the car manufacturer’s design studio, resulting in luxury versions of existing handsets: sleeker lines, more expensive materials and a significantly higher price tag. With the brand’s decline, that collaboration also came to an end.

A phone with a physical keyboard after all?

The demand for keyboards hasn’t disappeared, but the brand behind them has. There are still three options, and none of them bear the BlackBerry name.

• Unihertz Titan 2: a modern Android phone with a full keyboard, from a manufacturer that specialises in this very niche. We previously reported that the Passport had gained an unofficial successor in the form of this device.
• Clicks: not a phone but a case with a keyboard that you click onto an existing iPhone or Android device. This way, you keep your own software and updates.
• Converted classics: the Chinese firm Zinwa is converting old BlackBerry Classic casings to house modern Android hardware. Nostalgic, but it remains a small player without the warranty and updates of a major brand.

Will BlackBerry ever make a comeback?

Nothing has been officially announced, but the rumours keep coming. Back in 2025, a mysterious post appeared on Reddit about a BlackBerry Classic running Android, though no one ever showed any actual hardware afterwards. Such posts almost always rely on anonymous sources with no verifiable evidence. Until someone produces a licence, the conclusion remains the same: the physical-keyboard phone lives on with other brands, but the BlackBerry name does not.