by Muyiwa Matuluko

Blackberry today announced the Blackberry Classic, a shiny new Blackberry 10 device which bears striking physical resemblance with “old school” Blackberry 7 devices – especially the Blackberry Bold Touch 9900.

In this age of humongous, all-touchscreen devices, one would think a company such as Blackberry would focus on winning back users it has lost to rival platforms on Android and iOS. However the OEM is banking on nostalgia to draw old Blackberry lovers back to the platform, and perhaps lure Blackberry 7 die-hards on to Blackberry 10.

And boy, does the Blackberry Classic remind us so much of legacy Blackberry…

So what’s different?

Judging only by  the obvious physical resemblance  – similar form factor, physical QWERTY keypad and the ever trusty trackpad, for good measure – a casual observer would be forgiven to pass the Blackberry Classic off as a refurbished Blackberry Bold. But it’s much more than that. It’s an all out upgrade on the Blackberry Bold experience.

First there’s the shiny new Blackberry 10 OS 10.3.1 – which comes with many cool new features – versus Blackberry 7 OS on the Blackberry Bold. While the Blackberry Bold spotted a single 5MP camera, the Blackberry Classic comes with an 8MP camera plus a 2MP front camera. It’s the selfie age afterall. The Blackberry Classic also boasts with 50 percent longer battery life, bigger screen size and more than twice the RAM allocation (2GB). Specheads can reel off the full list of specs right here.

Blackberry die-hards will be happy to find that they relive their Brickbreaker escapades on the (appropriately named)Blackberry Classic.

BlackBerry says the Classic is available starting today “through local carriers around the world. Currently selling for around $499 in US, there’s no info so far yet about availability on these climes.

Muyiwa