BlackBerry's 2016 Android Phone Lineup REVEALED: The BlackBerry DTEK50 Is Just The Beginning

The first BlackBerry Android phone is out of the blocks for 2016 and, once again, BlackBerry has kind of made a dog’s dinner of the handset’s name. It’s called the BlackBerry DTEK50. I know, I know — it sounds like something you’d grill a steak on and not at all like a handset you’d lust after in a phone shop. I don’t get why they don’t just stick with the codenames? They’re always good — Rome, Milan, etc,…

BlackBerry will apparently be launching three Android phones this year. And the DTEK50 is one of the lower-end models, judging by its $299 price tag. This is likely a good thing, though, because BlackBerry — once again — hasn’t scrimped on anything: the DTEK50 looks great and packs in plenty of useful specs and hardware, so you’re getting quite a bit for your buck.
BlackBerry's newest offering comes with a 5.2-inch 1080p touchscreen, a 13MP rear camera with phase detection autofocus and LED flash, an 8 MP selfie shooter, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 617 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 16GB of expandable storage, and a 2,610 mAh battery. It runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

BlackBerry says the DTEK50 is the world’s most secure phone. It also confirmed that it will be issuing monthly security updates to the phone in order to keep it this way.
So what makes the DTEK50 so secure? A few things, actually:

Rapid Security Patching: BlackBerry has a record of being the quickest to deliver security patches, setting the bar in incident response and patch management to protect your device from malicious threats.

DTEK™ by BlackBerry App: Enables users to automatically monitor their OS and apps to know when their privacy could be at risk and to take action to improve it. The DTEK app also tracks applications and notifies you when someone is: taking pictures or videos without your knowledge, turning your microphone on, sending a text message, or accessing your contacts or location.

Hardware Root of Trust: BlackBerry’s manufacturing process uses a proprietary technique that adds security from the start, allowing for the tracking, verification and provisioning of DTEK50.

Secure Boot Process: Starting with the root of trust, each stage of DTEK50’s secure boot chain must first verify that the next component is fully intact before proceeding, ensuring your device has not been tampered with since the last restart.

Android OS hardening: BlackBerry provides additional security patches, improved random number, address space generation and certificate pinning to make it more difficult for attackers to target a device by scrambling application/system memory.

FIPS 140-2 Compliant Full Disk Encryption: Protects your private information, like pictures or bank information, from being stolen if you were to lose your phone.

The BlackBerry DTEK50 is up for pre-order RIGHT NOW in the UK and US for $299.