BlackBerry, which had recently announced QWERTY keyboard and touchscreen bearing BlackBerry Q10 smartphone with BlackBerry 10 operating system, has now announced to bring a new series of Qwerty devices that will be placed in the mid-range segment under its new BlackBerry R series.
The BlackBerry R series devices are expected to replace the existing Curve series. BlackBerry OS website posted an image of purported BlackBerry R series smartphone.
BlackBerry has plans to bring the BlackBerry 10 based devices for all segments and started off with the top of the line flagship – premium segment. The company continues to sell the BlackBerry 7 OS based Curve series of smartphones across the globe. But soon those devices will be superseded by the new BlackBerry 10 OS based R series.
The new BlackBerry R series smartphones will feature Qwerty keyboard with keys similar to the previous generation Curve series devices. The R series devices will feature less RAM than the Q10 and will feature 8 GB on-board storage. There is expected to be a micro SD card slot on the devices which will be located on the left side just above the SIM slot. By default the BlackBerry R Series will run the BlackBerry 10 OS but we are not sure if any features would be stripped down to deliver smoother experience.
The BlackBerry R series smartphones are expected to be unveiled in the second half of this year.
Image credit: BlackBerryOS.com