Blackberry has been very dormant over the past couple of years, only releasing a product here and there. So it came as a surprise to a lot of people that Blackberry is planning to release a flagship smartphone this year. At the company’s Mobile World Congress press conference Blackberry revealed that it plans to launch a new touchscreen slider device later this year. The new phone doesn’t have a name, price, or exact release date but it will take on the big boys of 2015…
The new device will have what BlackBerry calls a “dual curved display” that appears similar to that of Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 Edge. It’s similar in appearance to the old BlackBerry Torch or even Dell’s Venue Pro from 2010.
Alongside the new slider phone Blackberry will launch a new Porsche Design device and another keyboard-based phone. As with the slider phone no further details were given for these new models. What they did release however is their new low-end touchscreen phone called the “Leap”. The Leap is a 5-inch, 720p slate-style smartphone with an ancient dual-core Qualcomm processor. It has roughly the same specs as the Galaxy S4 or HTC One X from two years ago. It will sell for around $275 and will first go on sale in emerging markets such as Brazil and Indonesia. Here is a hands-on video of the Leap:
The Balckberry announcements and reveal of the “Leap” comes on the back of another announcement made by Blackberry earlier this week. The company plans to bring more of its software to other platforms, including iOS, Android, and Windows. In addition to BBM, which has been available since last year, the company says it will release apps like the BlackBerry Hub and calendar for the other platforms. The entire Blackberry experience will be available later in this year.
Source: TheVerge
Follow Jaco on Twitter: @Jaco_vdWalt
