Dec 26, 2016 03:58 AM EST By Xien Palacios, UniversityHerald Reporter

Canadian company BlackBerry is slowly getting back on track in the smartphone market as the long rumored Mercury with codename DTEK70 is spotted in GeekBench recently. Find out the feature and specs of the mid-range turned flagship smartphone that is slated to release in 2017. Read more details here!

BlackBerry Mercury (DTEK70) Rumored Features and Specs

Rumor mills have started to grind again for the BlackBerry Mercury with codename DTEK70 as the renders of the said smartphone have reportedly spotted online. According to GSM Arena, previously the phone has not been much on the news since the attention was focused on the two devices with monikers Neon and Argon, DTEK50 and DTEK60 respectively.  

However, after the acquisition of TCL (owner of Alcatel Brand) to BlackBerry, the development of Mercury is speeding up thus, resulted to the leaked renders of the phone in GeekBench. Feature-wise, according to the leaks, the phone sport the trademark physical QWERTY keyboard as popularized by BlackBerry years ago.

Furthermore, the flagship smartphone also features a fingerprint sensor integrated on the spacebar where users need not to enter any password when accessing their phone or accessing websites that need their identity confirmation. Under the hood is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset attributable to the phone's faster performance coupled with 3GB of RAM, according to UberGizmo.

Furthermore, BlackBerry Mercury is reportedly running Android 7.0 Nougat; thus, the phone is expected to feature functionalities that are common to Android-operated devices such as quick app switching, multi-task windows, notification bundles and many more. In addition, BlackBerry Mercury presumed to have a curved 4.5-inch screen display and a physical body that looks like a candy bar.

BlackBerry Mercury (DTEK70) Release Date

When the President and General Manager of TCL North America Steve Cistulli confirms via Twitter about the launching of new BlackBerry phones in CES 2017, many have concluded that BlackBerry Mercury is one of them. As added by UberGizmo, the new smartphone is expected to be more competitive than its predecessors since TLC is not new in the mobile industry. 

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