Blackberry launches Classic in India, new phone to cost Rs. 31,990

The new smartphone goes back to Blackberry's roots -- productivity on the go with a great physical keyboard and trackpad. With a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, redesigned QWERTY physical keyboard, trackpad and navigation keys, it runs on BB's latest OS.

Blackberry-Classic-was-launched-in-India-on-Thursday-Reuters-Photo

You can now buy the Blackberry Classic, the latest smartphone from BlackBerry, for ₹ 31,990 in India. The device, which was launched in New York in December, was unveiled in India on Thursday.

The new phone goes back to Blackberry's roots -- productivity on the go with a great physical keyboard and trackpad -- and is designed as 'a response based on consumer feedback', according to Sunil Lalvani, managing director of BlackBerry India.

The BlackBerry Classic has a 3.5-inch touchscreen display, a redesigned QWERTY physical keyboard, trackpad and navigation keys, the BlackBerry's latest operating system, BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1. It has two app stores: BlackBerry World and Amazon's Android Appstore.

The Classic targets enterprise users and physical keyboard loyalists. Indeed, Blackberry is making a special effort to keep existing users of the platform from decamping to the Android or the iPhone camps in India: people who own the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone can get ₹4,500 off on the device on Snapdeal.com, Blackberry's launch partner, when they exchange their Bold devices for the Classic.