BlackBerry Classic goes up for pre-order, will ship in December

The BlackBerry Passport certainly got us in a stir back in September, but if you're hankering for a more traditional BlackBerry device then today brings good news.

The BlackBerry Classic has just gone up for pre-order on BlackBerry's UK and US store at a price of £349 or $449. The Canadian company says it expects to start shipping the device in mid-December.

Harking back to much-loved BlackBerry handsets like the BlackBerry Bold, the Classic brings back a physical keyboard and the well-known navigation keys.

The difference this time around is the new BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS that addresses some of the key problems with earlier handsets. Notably, a lack of decent apps. The company has forged a partnership with Amazon that means most of the big Android apps are represented on the handset through the retailer's app store.

New slang

BlackBerry's keen to point out this handset is for the "loyal customers that asked us for a very specific phone", rather than the iPhone 6 or Samsung Galaxy S5 carrying masses. But the company has still given the Classic all the components you'd expect from a smartphone in 2014.

Inside is a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and 2GB of RAM with 16GB of storage space upgradeable with a microSD card. The 3.46-inch touchscreen boasts a 720 x 720 HD resolution and a pixel density of 291 ppi.

BlackBerry has included an 8MP rear facing camera and a 2MP one on the front of the device for business-type video calls no doubt. Both LTE and HSPA+ are supported and the handset requires a thoroughly modern nano SIM despite the nostalic design.

• Want a totally different type of BlackBerry? Read our full BlackBerry Passport review.