The BlackBerry Venice is an interesting device. Not only is the slider form factor basically nonexistent in today’s mobile market, but the Venice will reportedly come to market running Android, making it BlackBerry’s first Android phone. We’re still waiting for BlackBerry to officially announce the Venice, but the rumor mill is here to keep us entertained while we wait.
Evan Blass, aka @evleaks, says that the BlackBerry Venice will be released on T-Mobile. There’s no word on when that launch might happen, but Blass did previously say that the Venice will launch on AT&T in the US as well.
Moving on to the phone itself, several images that claim to show the BlackBerry Venice have leaked out. Posted by CrackBerry, the first render allegedly shows an Android version of the BlackBerry Hub, which is BlackBerry 10’s universal inbox feature that gathers all of your messages and mentions in one place. There’s also a render that shows the Venice with an 18-megapixel rear camera, and a third that hints at Chromecast support.
Finally, a fourth Venice leak offers an extremely blurry look at the phone in the plastic. Because of the photo’s blurriness, though, it’s tough to make out any real details of the hardware.
Despite offering Android apps through the Amazon Appstore and being some of the only modern smartphones with physical keyboards, BlackBerry’s recent BB10 offerings haven’t exactly set the world on fire in terms of popularity. The Venice could give BlackBerry a jolt of sales, though, by combining BlackBerry’s physical keyboard with a full-on Android OS.
Will you check out the BlackBerry Venice if the rumors of it being an Android device become true?