BLACKBERRY LEAKS ON BLACKBERY LEAKS
A set of photos leaked on Vietnamese tech sites techrum and tinhte get really up close and personal with the anticipated Blackberry Venice smartphone for the first time.
Plans for the phone were announced in March, and Blackberry promised a release sometime this year. But since then, the company has kept incredibly quiet on details. The press surrounding the Blackberry Venice has all happened in sneaky leaks like this one, with the company neglecting to respond officially for comment at all.
ANDROID OS CONFIRMED
The photos confirm that the Venice will debut as a sliding smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard and will, as expected, run an Android operating system. The images also show the phone with an 18-megapixel rear camera, a dual LED flash, and SIM and microSD ports on the top of the body (instead of on the side). Also rumored is a 5MP front-facing camera.
Internal specs have been leaked, too, although they aren’t visibly evident in the photos. Consumers have been told to expect a 5.4 inch 2560×1440 pixel touchscreen display, optical image stabilization for the camera, a Snapdragon 808 processor, and 3GB of RAM.
A RETURN TO PRACTICALITY?
Loyal Blackberry users and fans of the physical QWERTY keyboard are especially excited about the marriage between Blackberry hardware and Android software. The Blackberry Venice release and the mysteriousness surrounding it are promising as a means of returning the once-dominant tech company to some semblance of relevance, after having Apple and Google decimate its market share down to below 1%. If the leaks and silence are a calculated marketing strategy by the business, they might prove a successful one.
The tech community is still waiting for official statements of confirmation from the company for the Blackberry Venice. Until then, its specs and rumored November release still classify as rumors.
But a picture is worth a thousand words, and the internet now has at least ten of them. This is looking like the real deal. The question is, can the Blackberry Venice really compete in an Android/iPhone market? It might be nice to see some more competition among smartphone producers, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
