If you’re in the market for a new smartphone there’s probably a 99.999995% chance the BlackBerry isn’t even on your radar anymore. That’s totally understandable, but the company obviously wants to change that. Even though BlackBerry is already planning on halting production of its own phones in-house, the company is sticking with its QWERTY dreams with the new BlackBerry DTEK70, better known as the BlackBerry Mercury. Steve Cistulli, President of TCL Communication — which now handles all development and manufacturing duties for the BlackBerry brand — just tweeted out a teaser that shows the Mercury phone in greater detail than ever before.
Tagged with #CES2017, the tweet is a brief glimpse at the keyboard-equipped handset which is expected to get a proper reveal during the conference itself.
One more look… #BlackBerryMobile #CES2017 pic.twitter.com/dSjVuMWd35
— Steve Cistulli (@SteveCistulli) January 4, 2017
The BlackBerry Mercury is expected to ship with the latest version of Android, Nougat, and rumors have suggested the device will boast a 4.5-inch touchscreen, 18MP rear camera, and a front-facing “selfie” cam for all the Snapchat aficionados who also need a physical keyboard.
With its rounded edges and distinct antenna lines, it’s actually got something of an iPhone flavor to it, which could really only help BlackBerry’s appeal at this point, as it’s clear nobody is really buying the devices as they were. As of December 2016, just 16 million people were using BlackBerry devices globally, which is a fraction of the 80 million users the platform boasted at its peak in late 2012.
