A new BlackBerry has broken cover and you’d be mistaken if you thought the new handset was running Android.
The BlackBerry Venice is a slider phone, featuring both full touchscreen functionality and also the mobile maker’s trademark physical keyboard which slips out from beneath. Newly leaked and official looking images of yet-to-be-announced new handset have been kindly shared by one of Twitter’s most notorious tech informers Evan Blass (@evleaks) and we’re surprised by the amount of Google we’re seeing here.
Underneath an abundance of Google apps such as Maps, Chrome and Hangouts there’s still a resemblance to the BlackBerry 10 OS but on passing glance this could very well be a Android 5.1 Lollipop device. Most surprising of all is that the Google Play Store looks like it comes as standard with no trace of the BlackBerry World app store.
This shows that Canadian company BlackBerry – the former RIM (Research in Motion) – may have actually been paying attention to mobile trends and since stepping away from its former image and heavy dependence on its own branded wares which started to prove a bit costly.
In case there was any doubt… pic.twitter.com/yfFfyqEg5v
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 19, 2015
Aside from the Androidy-ness of the BlackBerry Venice these leaked images (served as always with a pinch of salt) suggest there may also be more than a hint of Windows Phone about it too with Bing, Evernote and Skype included on the home screen. Also, we think the slightly squared off edges of the handset makes it look a little bit Lumia.
This “Franken-phone” is said to be released in November in the US and if anything it’s got us talking about BlackBerry again.