The BlackBerry phone is back. That's good news for diehard fans of the physical keyboard, but I've never understood the attraction. First, the screen size is sacrificed to make room for the keys. Second, virtual keyboards are fine, and pop up only when you need them. Third, increasingly we just tap on icons to get things done, and finally there's voice-to-text, which is much easier.

The BlackBerry KEYone ($899) is the latest offering, an Android phone built by Chinese electronics company TCL.

Bucking the trend, the designers had no interest in making the KEYone as thin as possible, going instead with a thicker aluminium body. It's a solid device that feels good to hold, with a tactile rubberised back. But it does look like a weird elongated calculator.

There is a fingerprint reader in the space bar, which is also a camera shutter button.

It's cool to shake the device twice to quickly turn on the camera, but the photos are not as crisp and detailed as ones I took with an iPhone 7 Plus and a Samsung Galaxy S7, especially in low light.

BlackBerries were also known for their security, and the KEYone has a preloaded security app, DTEK, that works in the background constantly checking the phone's security status. For example, you can set DTEK to notify you whenever an app accesses a feature on your phone, such as your location or your contacts. You can also review an apps history to see when and how often a particular feature was accessed.

For a phone that's pitched at business people, it's unfortunate this one has no dual SIM for international travel.

Unless you are a devoted BlackBerry user, there's no compelling argument to get this phone. Even a friend who loved his BlackBerry won't go back.