U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse is taking pre-orders for the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition

Yesterday, BlackBerry Mobile announced that it would be widening distribution of the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition. On the first day of this month, the Black Edition of the KEYone was launched in India, where it has been an exclusive in the country ever since. Yesterday's announcement indicated that by the end of September, this higher spec'd variant of the KEYone will be found in North America, the U.K., Germany, France, Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Japan. Other countries receiving the model by the end of the year are found in continents such as Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Keep in mind that just because North America was listed as a destination for the handset by the end of this month, the U.S. is not included at this point. Considering that BlackBerry still has operations in Canada and the latter is in North America, there is no guarantee that the Black Edition of the KEYone will ever make it to the states.

Besides the slick Black color, demand for the BlackBerry KEYone Black Edition is driven by the upgraded specs found on the phone. While the regular version of the KEYone offers 3GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage, the Black Edition comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of native storage. The higher specs are possibly well worth waiting for if you are interested in the device. 

In the U.K., retailer Carphone Warehouse has started taking pre-orders of the KEYone Black Edition, priced at £549 GBP. That is equivalent to $710 USD based on current currency exchange rates. Carphone Warehouse says that the device will be delivered on September 13th.

Keep in mind that the Black Edition of the KEYone is not the same phone as the exclusive Space Black version of the KEYone coming to AT&T starting today. The phone coming to AT&T carries the same specs as the silver model available from BlackBerry's online store, Best Buy, Amazon and from Sprint. That version of the phone features 3GB of RAM and 32GB of native storage. AT&T is selling the Space Black model for $16.67 a month over 30 months using AT&T Next.

The KEYone has been a hit for BlackBerry Mobile thanks to the outstanding physical QWERTY keyboard on the phone, and the handset's outstanding battery life. The Snapdragon 625 chipset that powers the device is an energy sipper. Add the 3505mAh battery that keeps the lights on, and KEYone users have been bragging all Summer about the phone's impressive battery life.

source: CarphoneWarehouse via CrackBerry