Reports have surfaced on Neon, Argon and Mercury, which are the codenames for the next three devices being developed by smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry.
According to reports, the three Android-powered smartphones will be built by Alcatel, which was recently acquired by TCL.
The first smartphone that will be produced by the partnership between BlackBerry and Alcatel will be the Neon, which is pegged to be a midrange device with a full HD 5.2-inch display. The Neon will not be coming with the iconic physical keyboard found on BlackBerry devices, but it will have an aluminum chassis and will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor.
The Neon is also said to be packing 3 GB of RAM with 16 GB of internal storage, in addition to a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2,610 mAH battery and compatibility with Quick Charge 2.0 technology.
If these specifications look familiar, it is because the Neon is allegedly the BlackBerry Hamburg, which is rumored to be a rebranded version of the TCL Alcatel Idol 4. The device will go on sale within July or in August.
The second device that will be released is the Argon, which will have a 5.5-inch quad HD screen with a 21-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera, but still with no physical keyboard. The smartphone will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset and 4 GB of RAM, with 32 GB of internal storage and a 3,000 mAh battery with Quick Charge 2.0 compatibility. The device, which will also come with a USB Type-C charging port and a fingerprint scanner, is said to be released in October.
The third upcoming BlackBerry smartphone is the Mercury, which will finally feature BlackBerry's trademark physical QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard will not be like the BlackBerry Priv, which has its keyboard slide out below the device's screen, as it will be similar to the older BlackBerry smartphones such as the BlackBerry Passport with an always-present keyboard.
The Mercury will feature a 4.5-inch full HD screen with an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. It will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with 3 GB of RAM and a storage capacity of 32 GB, along with a 3,400 mAh battery. The device is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2017. An alleged image of the handset has also been leaked.
The pending launch of the three devices will see BlackBerry dive deeper into the Android smartphone market, which it first entered with the release of the BlackBerry Priv.
