We’ve been hearing murmurings regarding BlackBerry’s plan to release an Android powered smartphone some time in the future. The speculated device has been discussed in industry circles for quite a while now and is supposedly based on a phone that was initially introduced to the world during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in March of this year. And today, to our luck, we have a render of an alleged BlackBerry Android powered smartphone, leaked in all its glory.
Up until now, no one managed to get hold of any visuals of the purported device other than a terrible quality image that was doing the rounds after being captured at the aforementioned MWC event. However, Evan Blass, better known to some by his @evleaks Twitter handle, has today posted a beautiful render of the device for the world to see, and in the process has also revealed “Venice” as the internal codename of the device.
Before this image leak, it was speculated that Venice would come equipped with a dual curved display akin to the screen that is served up on Samsung’s Galaxy S6 Edge. And today’s leaked render of BlackBerry’s latest attempt to claw back some smartphone market share seems to confirm that speculation. Part of the initial rumor package also suggested that the display would slide up to reveal a very BlackBerry-esque hardware keyboard that would still offer appeal to business users. The posted image of the device doesn’t immediately corroborate that suggestion, but more importantly, it doesn’t rule it out either.
If you take a look at the above render, you’ll immediately notice that the device is running stock Android, with no sight of BlackBerry’s customization whatsoever. Along with a number of popular apps being displayed, such as BBC News and Evernote, the display is also ladened with Google’s favorites, which could mean that Venice will come with full access to the search giant’s very-own services as well.
If this is the device that BlackBerry is pinning its hopes on, then there’s nothing in this render that immediately makes us doubt that it will be successful. It looks as beautiful as any device currently operating in the Android market, and according to Blass, it is also coming to AT&T, so it should have an immediate adoption rate, given it is marketed right.
(Source: Evan Blass [Twitter])
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