Canadian company BlackBerry had earlier revealed that they are working on at least two new smartphones for 2018. Now according to recent leaks and reports, the company is allegedly making the successor to its BlackBerry KEYone. The project has allegedly been codenamed “Athena.” The BlackBerry Athena leak also suggests that the smartphone could be allegedly called BlackBerry KEY2.
The alleged device surfaced on China’s TENAA certification website. Allegedly its testing unit has also been leaked. The company hasn’t officially announced anything regarding the leaks. The TENAA listing mentions a dual rear camera module. Its predecessor had a single rear camera sensor. The BlackBerry Athena leak shows that the device has the model number BBF100-4. Meanwhile, the leaked images provide a closer view of the smartphone’s design. It shows the key differences between the BlackBerry Keyone and the upcoming smartphone.
The BlackBerry Athena leak shows that the device has a total rubberized, textured back panel. It is in contrast to the BlackBerry KEYone.
The smartphone seems to be similar to the KEYone. It is equipped with a full QWERTY keyboard. The phone will probably support gestures. It has a multitouch-supported display. It will supposedly also come in a 3:2 aspect ratio. The device also has a 3.5mm headphone jack. It also has a USB Type-C port at the bottom. The leak also states that it will have 4G LTE and will be dual-SIM.
Also read – BlackBerry Motion Launched Without Keyboard – All You Need To Know
There have been images also leaked on CrackBerry. The leak shows that the device will have a plastic built. It has a full QWERTY keyboard and a matte finish. The image showed the smartphone with a “Not for Sale” tag. It suggests that it is a testing unit.
Neither of the leaks confirms any kind of specifications. There have been speculations that the handset will be launched in June 2018. It is speculated to be powered by a Snapdragon 660 SoC, backed with 6GB RAM and Android Oreo.
The KEYone was revealed in India in August 2017. It was priced at Rs. 39,990. It is dual-SIM supported. It runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The device sports a 4.5-inch IPS LCD panel and a 3:2 aspect ratio. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm’s octa-core Snapdragon 625 SoC. It is backed by 4GB RAM. It sports a 12MP camera sensor on the rear with an f/2,0 aperture. The device also has 64GB storage, expandable via microSD (up to 2TB). It is also backed by a 3,505mAh battery pack.
BlackBerry executive Lejeune has also mentioned that BlackBerry KEYone and BlackBerry Motion garnered strong interest, and have set a “solid foundation” for the company.
(Image Sources: TENAA, Crackberry)
