It is no surprise that BlackBerry is working on a slider device that packs a dual edged display. This is the same great display that we’ve seen on the Samsung Galaxy S6 and for obvious reasons, it immediately piqued our interest in the device. More importantly, it is believed that this will be the first Android running handset from the company that has historically stuck to their roots and marched on with various iterations of the not so stunning BlackBerry OS.
With today’s leak, it appears that the Android running handset might not be all that far off. Evan Blass (@evleaks) has a stellar reputation when it comes to device leaks and today’s render gives us our first proper glance at the handset. The phone is believed to incorporate a slide out keyboard which is something unheard of on a modern Android handset. We can see a microUSB connector at the bottom as well as a 3.5mm audio jack in addition to what appears a rather gigantic speaker grille.
The render ties in quite well with the single glimpse of the handset that we caught way back at MWC. Back then, the handset was running BlackBerry OS 10 but today’s render lends further credence to rumors that the phone will be powered by Android and will have Google Apps on board as well which is a welcome relief to anyone who was dreading a Fire OS like Android experience. All said and done, our own sources have confirmed that we should be hearing a lot more about the handset in the 3rd Quarter of this year which has just begun. We sure are intrigued by BlackBerry and their effort to create what could possibly be the most unique Android handset at the moment and can’t wait to get some more official information about the device.