The Chinese outfit, which is best known for making budget televisions, bought the rights to the Blackberry name and wants to release as many as three phones this year.

TCL Communications Nicolas Zibell said the company is working on an all-touchscreen version, a spiritual successor to the DTEK 50 and DTEK 60 phones, which it also built for Blackberry itself. TCL is likely to dump the DTEK branding.

TCL wants to revive the Blackberry phone brand. Its first go, the KeyOne was shown off at a press conference on Saturday ahead of the Mobile World Congress trade show.

TCL hopes that a full portfolio of Blackberry devices will serve as proof of its support for the brand, something it believes carriers didn't previously see. It also has the rights to the Palm brand but not done much with that. It does not have the WebOS platform which LG snaffled up and is used the platform in its televisions and one of its smartwatches.

Just don't hold your breath waiting for something to happen with the Palm brand soon. Zibell said this year TCL will be focused on reviving Blackberry.