Gone are the days when BlackBerry and Nokia ruled the smartphone markets. Now, both the brands have been surpassed by even the newcomers like Xiaomi because they could neither compete with iOS and Android, nor did they release proper Android smartphones.
BlackBerry's sales have hit a record low, and only corporate users or those who absolutely need smartphones with physical QWERTY keyboards.
BlackBerry did add support to install Android apps in some of its devices, but there are a lot of Android apps that don't work properly on those devices. To solve this problem, it was rumoured for quite some time that BlackBerry was thinking of releasing a full-fledged Android smartphone. A few weeks ago, press renders of a BlackBerry smartphone were leaked stating that it will run the latest version of Android.
Now, clear images of BlackBerry Venice, an upcoming smartphone from the company running Android Lollipop, has surfaced on the Internet. It can be clearly seen in the images that the device is running Android 5.x Lollipop along with Google Mobile Services (GMS). GMS includes things like Google Play Store as well as all other Google services that are required to make a device an officially certified smartphone from Google.
Apparently, Samsung helped and assisted BlackBerry in using an 18-megapixel camera with OIS as well as the dual edge curved display on the BlackBerry Venice. If you can remember, the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge was the first smartphone to use a dual edge curved Super AMOLED display. If you didn't know already, Samsung partnered with BlackBerry to bring enterprise-level security to its smartphones and tablets through KNOX and SecuSUITE.
According to recently discussed rumours, BlackBerry has plans to announce and release this smartphone by the end of 2015. The rumoured specifications of the BlackBerry Venice include a 5.4-inch curved QHD display, a QWERTY keyboard, a 64-bit hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM, a microSD card slot, an 18-megapixel primary camera with dual-tone LED flash, fast autofocus system, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a custom-designed Android skin.
The BlackBerry Venice would most probably come with a custom Android skin with additions such as BlackBerry Hub that will integrate all the IM, mail, social, and other ways of communication into a simple and intuitive way. Also, it seems that the QWERTY keyboard would also come with touch scrolling feature that was present in the BlackBerry Passport.
If you loved or owned BlackBerry products in the past, would you buy a BlackBerry Venice? What are your thoughts on the device? With all that high-end hardware, and taking into consideration the price of the BlackBerry Passport, it is safe to assume that the BlackBerry Venice will not sport a pocket-freindly price tag. Do you think that BlackBerry can take a lead in the market with such devices? Let us know your thoughts on the BlackBerry Venice through the comments section below.
