The excitement over the new BlackBerry Mercury has intensified further after alleged photos of the final design have leaked from a social networking site in China.
It appeared that the Canadian smartphone giant is eyeing for a graceful exit from smartphone manufacturing by teasing its avid users with a promising last smartphone model.
Rumored Release
It can be recalled that last month, BlackBerry CEO John Chen has confirmed that it's already designing its last smartphone before the company focuses its attention to software production. This has put an end to months of speculations that BlackBerry is set to terminate its hardware-manufacturing arm.
On Monday, several photos of the BlackBerry Mercury have spread like a wildfire from a Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo, the Express reported.
After the picture leaked in Weibo, it immediately circulated outside China, fueling further the excitement for the new and last BlackBerry keyboard smartphone. According to reports, the BlackBerry Mercury would be released in 2017.
BlackBerry Mercury Features
Based on the leaked photos, the upcoming model sports BlackBerry's traditional physical keyboard that made the Canadian phone brand once a top choice of smartphone user before Samsung and iPhone eaten up the large chunk of the market.
It features a 4.5 touch capable wide screen, similar to the previous models-Privy, Passport, and Q10. BlackBerry also chose to retain the front and rear camera as shown in the leaked photos. It has an 18-megapixel main camera, which makes it a perfect for entry-level photography enthusiast.
Another noticeable improvement on the upcoming device is the loudspeaker on top of the screen as opposed to previous speakers that are traditionally located downward.
In terms of software features, the new BlackBerry also sports a powerful octa-core Qualcom processor with 3GB RAM and runs in Android Nougat OS. It is considered as a mid-range smartphone by the GSM Arena.