BlackBerry has sent out notifications to the press confirming an event later this month, at which it will officially announce full details of its new premium Android handset. The device, developed under the codename "Mercury", was briefly teased by the company in early January.
The new phone will make its formal debut at an event in Barcelona, just ahead of the annual Mobile World Congress industry expo. The event will be held on February 25 at:
- 10am PST
- 1pm EST
- 6pm GMT
- 7pm CET (Barcelona local time)
- 11:30pm IST
- 3am JST (February 26)
- 5am AEDT (February 26)
While the new device will carry the BlackBerry logo, it will actually be manufactured by TCL, which has taken over responsibility for designing and building devices under the BlackBerry brand.
With its move away from building hardware, BlackBerry itself is now focusing more heavily on services and software, including a "hardened", more secure version of Android for use on its branded devices. Mercury - which is expected to have a different name when it goes on sale - will launch with Android 7.0 Nougat onboard.
Aside from its fixed QWERTY keyboard - unlike the slide-out keyboard on the Priv - few details are known for certain about the new device. It"s believed to be an upper-mid-range phone, rather than a "true" flagship, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600-series chipset, 3GB RAM, 32GB of onboard storage, and an 18MP camera.
Neowin will be at the BlackBerry launch event, so stay tuned for full coverage of the new handset.