It is no secret that BlackBerry is preparing for a huge shift in its approach to smartphones by unveiling a smartphone running Android. In fact, if the rumour mill is to be trusted, it won’t be one BlackBerry smartphone running Android Lollipop. There will be two of them. One, which has leaked extensively in recent days, is what we’ve come to know by the name Venice.
BlackBerry Venice is a slider smartphone and according to serial device leaker Evan Blass, it will go on sale as the BlackBerry Priv.
At retail, Venice transforms into the…
BlackBerry Priv
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) September 23, 2015
Priv doesn’t particularly sound interesting for a phone that has generated a lot of interest among otherwise hardcore Android fans and former BlackBerry diehard fans who’ve since moved on to other mobile platforms after the company’s offerings in the wake of Android and iOS dominance failed to excite.
Here are the BlackBerry Venice/Priv’s expected specifications:
- Display: 5.4-inch (2560 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD display
- Processor: 64-bit processor hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 with Adreno 418 GPU
- Memory: 3 GB RAM, 32GB of internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
- Camera: 18 megapixel main camera with dual LED Flash, optical image stabilization (OIS), Point Detection Auto-Focus (PDAF); 5 megapixel selfie camera
- Operating System: Android Lollipop
- Network: 3G, 4G LTE
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (2.4GHz and 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS + GLONASS
- Battery: 3,650mAh
- Other: A 4-row BlackBerry slider keyboard
BlackBerry takes great pride in its secure software that has for long made it a darling of the enterprise world and it will be seeking to marry this with Android to deliver a product that will appeal not just to old BlackBerry users but also the young that have so far been attracted to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android thanks to their modern look and feel and huge selection of applications.
