The BlackBerry Venice, largely believed to be the very first Android smartphone to be unveiled by BlackBerry, has reportedly appeared in a live photo taken at the Toronto Film Festival.
The photo, which was first published by BlackBerry-centric blog Berry Flow (via BlackBerry OS), has started making the rounds online, prompting further speculations that the device is almost ready to be unveiled by the Canadian smartphone maker in November.
Although the photo does not provide a whole lot of details about the rumored smartphone, it does appear to be running an app that looks to have Google's signature Material Design interface for Android Lollipop. BlackBerry OS speculates that this is Android's stock Messenger app, showing off a thick, bright blue navigation bar at the top and the search and settings icons on the right side of the bar.
The device also looks very similar to what we have so far seen in earlier renders of the BlackBerry Venice. Just on top of the display panel and below the earpiece is the unmistakable BlackBerry logo, while along the sides of the device are two buttons just like we've seen in earlier leaks. The device also appears to be in a case, and is thicker than most premium smartphones today, further fueling rumors that the BlackBerry Venice will be a slider phone, with a physical keyboard sliding out from under the screen.
So far, all we know about the upcoming handset is that it will be a 5.4-inch phone with a capacitive touchscreen and a Quad HD display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440 pixels. It will reportedly have a huge 18MP primary camera with optical image stabilization, autofocus and dual-LED flash. It is expected to run on Qualcomm's hexa-core Snapdragon 808 and 3GB of RAM.
BlackBerry has not officially confirmed that it is working on BlackBerry Venice, but the firm has earlier said that it will make Android devices if it can make them securely. Presumably, the company hopes developing Android smartphones will bring back its glory days of old, when BlackBerry was one of the biggest mobile phone companies before Apple and Samsung took over, or at least capture a tiny sliver of the market to stay afloat.
