Zinwa Technologies
TL;DR A Chinese company is reviving old BlackBerry Classic phones with Android.
The main board has been replaced, and so are the cameras, battery, and USB port.
The revived BlackBerry is up for pre-ordering, and the company plans to start mass production by September.
BlackBerry was more than a phone brand. It was a long-running phenomenon that would instantly shape your impression of the person using it as someone important. And so, it isn’t surprising to see so many people longing for its revival. While I never owned a high-end BlackBerry (though I always wanted the Torch with a slide-out QWERTY), there is a tiny chance I might be able to do that soon.
That’s because a Chinese company is on a mission to revive old BlackBerry devices, with a twist. A brand named Zinwa Technologies is working on resurrecting a limited number of decade-old BlackBerry Classic Q20 devices and installing Android on them. The reborn phone will be sold as Zinwa Q25 Pro.
Zinwa Technologies
To make sure the hardware is compatible with Android, Zinwa is retrofitting the BlackBerry Classic with a new main board, equipped with a more recent MediaTek Helio G99 chipset, 12GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of onboard storage. The Classic’s touchscreen also helps avoid any friction with the Android interface.
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Among other changes, Zinwa has upgraded the Q20’s original battery by almost 15% and added new cameras, including a 50MP on the back and an 8MP for the front. Meanwhile, the newer chipset brings support for 4G LTE, although the current model does not feature 5G support. The team has also replaced the micro USB port with a newer USB Type-C for faster charging and data transfer speeds.
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