After teasing bits and pieces of the device recently at the CES 2017, BlackBerry has now confirmed the date of the unveiling of the new BlackBerry device. As per the latest tweet by ‘BlackBerry Mobile’, the smartphone will be revealed on 25th February 2017 at MWC (Mobile World Congress) to be held in Barcelona next month. Although no specific name has been stated by the company as yet, the device is rumoured to be codenamed ‘Mercury’.
If you are not aware, TCL and BlackBerry entered into a licensing deal which allows TCL to design, manufacture, sell and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices.However, as per the recent report, TCL has confirmed that it will not bring the new smartphone (codenamed ‘Mercury’) to theIndian market. This is due to the terms and condition of the licensing deal signed between the two companies which give TCL exclusive rights to sell the future BlackBerry products around the globe except for India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Nevertheless, we will try to keep you updated with all the happenings related to this device, in case you are interested.
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As far as the specifications are concerned, not much was revealed at the CES 2017, but based on hands-on experience of some of the critiques at the trade show, the smartphone is powered by a 2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, Adreno 506 GPU, 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. In the camera department, it features an 18-megapixel camera at both front and back.
The new smartphone from TCL is based on Android Nougat operating system and sports a trademark BlackBerry QWERTY keypad. In terms of the design, the device looks premium and looks to be made out of metal and rubber all around. Apparently, the target audience of this device are professional and business people and it also comes with some of the traditional BlackBerry apps such as Hub+. The display on this new device is said to be a 4.5-inch display and is in a ratio of 3:2 to the QWERTY keypad. This keypad is touch sensitive and is covered with a glossy like finish to give it a feel of glass material. The smartphone also comes with a fingerprint scanner which is embedded into the space bar. The traditional capacitive trackpad has also made a comeback with this device.