BlackBerry has announced that the company will release the new “BlackBerry Classic” on December 17. As the name suggests, the Classic keeps the old BlackBerry design including the QWERTY keyboard.

The twist here is that this new phone will let users access Android apps from the Amazon app store (you can’t use the regular Google store apps, unfortunately). Here are some more details about the new BlackBerry Classic, which is a good mix of both old and new.

Android Apps

The addition of Android apps might make the Classic more appealing to old BlackBerry fans and new possible users, since BlackBerry’s biggest drawback is a lack of popular apps. In order to access the available Android apps, users will have to find those apps through the Amazon App Store instead of finding apps through the Google Play store. This may mean that some popular apps are not available, though most of the apps that people want are accessible.

The Screen

The BlackBerry Classic comes with a 3.46-inch touch screen (720p high definition) that sits above the standard BlackBerry keyboard. You won’t find anything out of the ordinary with the screen or phone design, though. BlackBerry has kept everything as classic as possible to really comply with the name of the phone, and to appeal to anyone that wants the old BlackBerry design back (with the new app twist, that is).

Inside the Classic

On the inside, you’ll find a 1.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of storage space that can be expanded with the addition of a microSD card. With the Classic, you’ll also get an 8-megapixel camera on the back, and a 2-megapixel camera on the front for taking videos.

Pricing and Availability

The BlackBerry Classic will appear on December 17th, and it will retail for $450 in the U.S. That might seem like a lot for a BlackBerry, but this version of the Classic phone is directly aimed at business people that like the classic BlackBerry QWERTY keyboard, but also want access to various Android apps that aren’t currently available through the BlackBerry store.

Even though the Classic will be available in the U.S., the phone won’t work on US Cellular, Verizon, or Sprint, so take that into consideration if you live in the U.S.

A Comeback Or Something Else?

It’s hard to determine whether or not the BlackBerry Classic will be the godsend that the Canadian company has been looking for. The apps available are still limited, since they are only available through Amazon, and the phone doesn’t really bring too much to the table that hasn’t been done before.

Then again, those that are fans of the BlackBerry keyboard (and there are still many people that prefer this keyboard to all others) might just love what the Classic has to offer. In some ways, though, BlackBerry is just going back to one of its original phones and giving it a basic facelift - the company might need a lot more than that to survive in today’s competitive smartphone marketplace.