14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry is expected to announce a new smartphone on February 25, one that would have a physical QWERTY keyboard and quite powerful specs. BlackBerry Mercury will be the last smartphone designed by the company.
The official retail name of the upcoming BlackBerry smartphone is unknown, but the rumored Mercury phone seems to have made an appearance on ABC’s Last Man Standing show, according to Crackberry. Tim Allen’s character is seen using the phone multiple times for browsing the Internet or placing calls.
BlackBerry Mercury was originally showcased during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month. BlackBerry showed off a pre-production device that still needed some work, especially in the software department. It’s not surprising that the phone appeared on the show, considering that Tim Allen recently used a BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Priv in other episodes of the series.
The BlackBerry DTEK60 was also featured in the Last Man Standing show on ABC. Needless to say, such product placements are quite advantageous for BlackBerry, especially since they help create hype before the phone is officially released.
Physical QWERTY keyboard and 4.5-inch display
BlackBerry Mercury is expected to come with a 4.5-inch display and 4:3 aspect ratio. It will have a physical QWERTY keyboard, which can be used as a trackpad and a fingerprint sensor embedded in the space bar.
The smartphone will have a 3.5mm headphone jack and USB Type-C port. Battery capacity might reach 3,400mAh and the phone is expected to run a Snapdragon 625 chipset and 3GB of RAM. Some reports have pointed to the fact that the Mercury will incorporate an 18MP rear camera, similar to the one on the BlackBerry Priv.
More recent rumors say that the device could have the same rear camera as Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL phones, dubbed the best rear camera on a smartphone. Google equipped its Pixel phones with Sony sensors, but it remains to be seen if BlackBerry will do the same.
