14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry already announced two smartphones in the DTEK line this year, the DTEK50 and DTEK60, which offer sleek design and enhanced security capabilities. However, BlackBerry is still expected to announce another phone in the line, the DTEK70, codenamed Mercury.
The DTEK70 will be the last smartphone that BlackBerry releases by itself, as the company has recently announced that it’s selling its business arm to TCL, the owner of Alcatel-branded phones. The DTEK70 brings a change in design and a return to the element that has made BlackBerry phones popular, the physical QWERTY keyboard.
Renders spotted by GizmoChina show that the phone will be coming with a fingerprint sensor integrated into the space bar. The sensor could also be used for unlocking access to apps and personal information, while its location is quite convenient and doesn’t require users to change their hand position.
DTEK70, codenamed Mercury, might have a 4.5-inch screen
Seeing how the QWERTY keyboard takes some space on the front panel, the phone’s display might measure just 4.5 inches, compared to the 5.5-inch AMOLED screen on the DTEK60. The smartphone is also said to come with a curved screen, to make it more appealing and enhance user experience, but it remains to be seen if BlackBerry will actually go with such a design.
Rumors say that the DTEK70 or BlackBerry Mercury might run the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor and draw power from a highly-capable battery, which is said to last up to two days. Some reports show that the smartphone might have 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, but take this information with a grain of salt, as the final spec-sheet could be quite different.
The DTEK60 was announced back in October and it came with Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC, Adreno 530 GPU and 4GB of RAM, with 32GB of internal storage. Camera capacity was quite impressive at 21MP and 8MP in the front.