BlackBerry Priv Successor In The Works? CEO Confirms Company Working On Smartphone With Physical Keyboard

Well, it seems we haven’t seen the last of BlackBerry’s famous physical keyboard for its smartphones. The Canadian tech company just confirmed that it’s working on a new smartphone with a physical keyboard.

Just recently, BlackBerry CEO John Chen spoke with Bloomberg TV’s Emily Chang to reveal that company is releasing another handset with a keyboard. “We have one keyboard phone I promised people,” Chen said before saying, “It’s coming.”

This announcement is very surprising knowing that BlackBerry revealed in September that it’s folding its hardware division and would henceforth focus on software for smartphones. To be clear, however, the former rival of Apple did not forget this, since the upcoming device would be its last treat for consumers who stayed loyal to the brand for several years.

Chen only gave the confirmation that it’s releasing a handset with a physical keyboard, he did not reveal if the upcoming smartphone is going to be a BlackBerry Priv successor. Should BlackBerry decide to launch a new Priv, then fans could see another candybar device with a slide-out keyboard.

If a previous rumor is to be believed, however, it’s unlikely for BlackBerry to be releasing another device with a slide-out keyboard. GSM Arena reported in June that the Canadian company was planning on releasing a smartphone that’s codenamed Mercury. At the time, the device was said to sport the trademark QWERTY keyboard that’s common among the original BlackBerry phones.

Citing its previous report about the Mercury, GSM Arena said Friday that Chen could be referring to the rumored device with a 4.5-inch Full HD display with 3:2 aspect ratio. The smartphone-centric news site also stated that the upcoming handset could come with a 2 GHz octa-core Qualcomm processor, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard memory.

BlackBerry’s upcoming smartphone is also believed to sport an 18-megapixel primary camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing selfie snapper. The handset could be powered by a 3,400 mAh battery, and it is expected to run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.