BlackBerry Classic/BlackBerry Q20 to get resurrected with new internals and a new name

The BlackBerry Classic a.k.a. BlackBerry Q20 was a keyboard-toting smartphone released in 2014 and powered by the BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system. Now, 11 years later, a Chinese company called Zinwa Technologies is trying to resurrect it with new internals, and unsurprisingly, a new name.

Zinwa plans to purchase old stock of the BlackBerry Classic and then retrofit it with new internals such as a new motherboard, new cameras, and a new battery. It will keep some original components such as the screen, the keyboard, notification LED, and the outer shell.

In an interview with the YouTube channel, Returning Retro, Zinwa revealed that the refreshed BlackBerry Classic will be sold as the Zinwa Q25 which is a combination of the company's name, the Q from the BlackBerry's alternate name, while 25 represents the year 2025

The company says it is also planning to resurrect the BlackBerry KEYone and is already in the preliminary stage. It also plans to bring back the BlackBerry Passport which should be sold as the Zinwa P25 or Zinwa P26 depending on the year it will be available.

The Zinwa Q25 will retain the 720 x 720 touchscreen of the BlackBerry Classic. However, the new motherboard will feature MediaTek's Helio G99 processor, replacing the Snapdragon S4 Plus of the original. The new chipset will have a modem that has support for all LTE bands compared to the Snapdragon chip. Thus, users can rest assured that the Zinwa Q25 will work in all regions.

Another huge upgrade is the RAM and storage which will now be 12GB (LPDDR4x) and 256GB (UFS 2.x) respectively unlike the original BlackBerry Classic which was available in a single configuration with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage.

The Q25 will also have new cameras which consist of an 8MP front-facing camera and a 50MP rear camera. Other confirmed features are NFC support, a USB-C port, a single SIM card slot, a MicroSD card slot, and a 3,000mAh battery capacity. Zinwa says the phone will ship with Android 13, and while it doesn't plan to release any major Android OS upgrade, the phone will regularly receive updates that fix bugs and add new features. 

The Zinwa Q25 is already available to order for $400 with shipping expected to start in August. It is also selling a conversion kit for those who own the BlackBerry Classic and want to modify it themselves. This conversion kit costs $300 and will begin to ship in early August.

If you own a modern phone like the iPhone 16 Pro, you can purchase the Clicks Keyboard (available on Amazon for $159) which adds a physical keyboard to your device without the need for any tinkering.