TCL teases BlackBerry Android smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, will be announced at MWC 2017


tcl-blackberry-phone

TCL Communication Technology (TCT) today shared its plans for an industry-first brand portfolio business model, which now enables the company to offer an entire suite of mobility products, including new BlackBerry smartphones. It also introduce a new BlackBerry smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard as rumored earlier, but it doesn’t have a name yet. Codenamed Mercury, TCL doesn’t want to reveal the specifications of the smartphone yet.

[HTML1]

It has a fingerprint sensor in the spacebar, comes with a unibody metal design and a dimpled soft-touch back. It also has a USB Type-C port and runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), but the final version might run Android 7.1 (Nougat).

TCL will reveal all the details about the smartphone at the Mobile World Congress, which kicks off February 27th.

Steve Cistulli, President and General Manager for TCL Communication (TCT), North America, said:

Our industry is in the midst of an evolution, where consumers are now demanding greater functionality and value from their mobile devices than ever before. To meet these growing demands, both carriers and retailers need a more diverse product offering, requiring portfolio efficiencies that were previously unavailable from a single manufacturer – until now. We’re boldly evolving our business, offering end-to-end efficiencies from sales, through R&D, manufacturing and logistics. This business evolution will provide greater value to our customers in the premium post- paid and affordable no-contract tiers.

We look forward to unveiling details around this distinctly different and impressively designed BlackBerry smartphone around the Mobile World Congress timeframe next month.


Author: Srivatsan Sridhar

Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. He uses the phones he reviews as his main phone. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram