BlackBerry will release a few Android smartphones this year, according to insiders familiar with the matter.
At the BlackBerry Security Summit held in New York City, John Chen, the head of BlackBerry was asked about the upcoming handsets. He replied that he is keeping the lid on the future releases and pointed out that his company is involved in much more than handsets.
"We are becoming a strong professional services provider," Chen said.
He did note, however, that his company's handset department is doing okay and offered some hope to those who were curious about the new phones from BlackBerry. Chen mentioned that Ralph Pini, chief operating officer and general manager for devices, will answer questions about the handsets' development next week.
Fans of the company are on their toes to learn about the new Android phones that are in tow. However, you should keep in mind that executive Marty Beard stated recently that BlackBerry never renounced the idea of crafting a new BB10 powered phone.
Here is what we know so far about the future devices that BlackBerry has in store.
Rumors are that one of them will be dubbed BlackBerry Neon, and will be a revamped variant of Alcatel Idol 4. Another is said to sport the code name Argon, and should be a flagship ready to roll out in October.
The Argon will come packed with specs appropriate for a 2016 flagship. It will take its processing power from a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 CPU backed by 4 GB of RAM. Standard storage will be 32 GB. Its screen will be a 5.5-inch quad HD, which will display the photos or videos captured by the camera combo. Speaking of which, the Argon will carry a strong 21-megapixel rear-facing main sensor and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera apt for selfie snapping.
The juice will keep running through the device thanks to a 3,000 mAh battery that has a Quick Charge 2.0 support. The device also holsters USB Type-C and a fingerprint scanner.
Another purported smartphone is called Mercury, and sources say that it will feature the trademark physical QWERTY keyboard of the OEM. Mercury should holster the keyboard in the fashion of classic BlackBerry smartphones, such as the Passport, and not in the slide-manner that BlackBerry Priv uses.
Until next week when we get more details, take the speculations about BlackBerry's intentions with a grain of salt.
