BlackBerry Venice QWERTY Slider Android Phone Coming To 'Big Four' US Carriers
Famed phone leaker Evan Blass (you might know him better by his Twitter handle, @evleaks) is at it again, this time with a few more shots of BlackBerry's forthcoming Venice handset. According to Blass, Venice has been "confirmed" to launch in November on all four national U.S. wireless carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.
Venice is a slider phone that sports a large touchscreen display. It slides up to reveal a physical QWERTY keyboard, giving owners of the device the best of both worlds, or so BlackBerry hopes. The Canadian outfit has been struggling for the past several years, and despite releasing several hyped up handsets, it hasn't been able to reclaim its former glory.
BlackBerry is hoping Venice will change that. The company built a reputation that was based in part on excellent hardware keyboards, and though the mobile market has moved to touchscreens, there are still many users who prefer the feel of a physical plank. Venice will give users a choice between the two input methods.
While nothing is yet official, rumored specs for Venice include a 5.4-inch Quad HD (2560x1440) curved glass display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 System-on-Chip (SoC) clocked at 1.8GHz with Adreno 418 graphics, and 3GB of RAM. There's also been chatter of an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera.
As seen in the leaked photos, Venice will run Google services, giving users access to the Play Store. What's not so clear is which version of Android Venice will ship with. The pictures seem to indicate Lollipop, though with Google announcing Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it will be interesting to see if BlackBerry goes in that directions.
Venice is a slider phone that sports a large touchscreen display. It slides up to reveal a physical QWERTY keyboard, giving owners of the device the best of both worlds, or so BlackBerry hopes. The Canadian outfit has been struggling for the past several years, and despite releasing several hyped up handsets, it hasn't been able to reclaim its former glory.
BlackBerry is hoping Venice will change that. The company built a reputation that was based in part on excellent hardware keyboards, and though the mobile market has moved to touchscreens, there are still many users who prefer the feel of a physical plank. Venice will give users a choice between the two input methods.
While nothing is yet official, rumored specs for Venice include a 5.4-inch Quad HD (2560x1440) curved glass display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 System-on-Chip (SoC) clocked at 1.8GHz with Adreno 418 graphics, and 3GB of RAM. There's also been chatter of an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera.
In case there was any doubt... pic.twitter.com/yfFfyqEg5v
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 19, 2015As seen in the leaked photos, Venice will run Google services, giving users access to the Play Store. What's not so clear is which version of Android Venice will ship with. The pictures seem to indicate Lollipop, though with Google announcing Android 6.0 Marshmallow, it will be interesting to see if BlackBerry goes in that directions.
