MWC is round the corner folks, and so are multiple smartphone announcements and launches. While we may have received a setback of sorts with reports coming up about Samsung not launching the S8 at MWC this year, there’s some good news for whatever fan following Blackberry has.
This year, BlackBerry has decided to take stage earlier at Mobile World Congress 2017 at Barcelona. The company has announced that it is going to launch its latest smartphone, dubbed as “Mercury” on 25th February, the very first day of the MWC. An early pre-production unit of the BlackBerry Mercury was shown off earlier this month at CES in Las Vegas.
Unlike the all-touchscreen BlackBerry DTEK50 and DTEK60 smartphones that were released last year, the Mercury will be bringing back the physical QWERTY keyboard back to BlackBerry. However, it won’t slide in and out of the device.
TCL, the Chinese company which is in charge of BlackBerry’s hardware, has not revealed anything related to device’s specifications. However, rumors are making rounds that the device might come with a 2.02GHz Snapdragon 625 processor with 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 18MP and 8MP cameras and a 3,400 mAh battery.
25.02.17 #MWC2017 #BlackBerryMobile pic.twitter.com/uChVjp62TJ
— BlackBerry Mobile (@BBMobile) January 24, 2017
The phone is said to have a 4.5-inch 1080p full HD display. Another cool feature on the keyboard is that the fingerprint sensor is actually embedded in the space bar. Users can also use swipe gestures on the space bar for navigating the user interface. Some reports suggests that the device will primarily be aimed at enterprise customers, but will also be sold unlocked to others through retailers.
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On the software side, the device is expected to run Android Nougat straight out of the box along with BlackBerry’s signature security software. The BlackBerry Mercury is expected to be affordable with some speculating that it might come with a price tag that’s closer to the $300.
BlackBerry isn’t the only smartphone brand that is hoping to reignite some glory from its heyday. Nokia Mobile, which has also licensed its brand to HMD, has made a re-entry in the market with the launch of Nokia 6 smartphone. Nokia is also hosting an event at MWC this year.
