BlackBerry Venice, the first ever BlackBerry smartphone that is believed to run on Google's Android instead of BlackBerry's own platform, is rumored to become available via T-Mobile in November.
Twitter tipster Evan Blass, known for his history of accurate leaks, says the magenta carrier will be selling the Venice. Although Blass does not mention anything about when we can expect the device to come to market, rumors earlier pointed to a November release. This follows earlier reports that the phone will be an exclusive device sold through AT&T.
BlackBerry Venice slated for T-Mobile lineup, as well.
— Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 8, 2015
The BlackBerry Venice is believed to be the Canadian smartphone maker's last-ditch attempt at reviving its flailing business in the cutthroat mobile industry. Even though BlackBerry has shown little signs of life with the unveiling of BlackBerry Classic and BlackBerry Passport, the numbers are not enough to make BlackBerry able to stand up to the iOS and Android duopoly in the United States. While BlackBerry has made no mention of the Venice, multiple reports have allowed us to paint a clearer picture of what the smartphone might have in store. The phone will reportedly be a slider phone so that BlackBerry can still put in its iconic QWERTY keypad that is supposed to slide out from under a 5.4-inch Quad HD display with a resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels. Leaked renders of the smartphone, also from Blass, show off the device's slightly curved sides, somewhat akin to the edges of the Galaxy S6 Edge. The render also appears to confirm earlier rumors that the Venice will have an 18 MP primary camera with optical image stabilization. This will reportedly be paired with a 5 MP secondary front-facing camera.
.@akrnsv Not at all -- Venice is actually quite the looker. pic.twitter.com/ToFgYNOuLw — Evan Blass (@evleaks) July 3, 2015
Under the hood, the Venice is expected to run a Snapdragon 808 chipset from Qualcomm with a hexa-core CPU and an Adreno 418 for its GPU. Another notable thing about the render is that it shows many Google apps, including Chrome, Google Drive, Maps, Hangouts, Keep and the Google Play Store, which further reinforces the rumor that this will indeed be an Android device.
To push it even further, Crackberry believes the Venice will have support for Chromecast, Google's streaming TV dongle for Android. However, not everyone is bent on the idea that BlackBerry is outing an Android smartphone. At best, some cautiously optimistic industry watchers believe, BlackBerry could launch two variants of the smartphone, one that runs on Android and another on BlackBerry 10.
