Jan 04, 2017 07:58 AM EST By Pretty Abegail Pacilan, UniversityHerald Reporter

The phone everybody is waiting to see peeked itself to the public recently in a short video uploaded by TCL President and General Manager Steve Cistulli. It can be recalled that last November, TCL divulged that it will introduce its new smartphone that will raise the BlackBerry legacy.

Although it was a short video, but the phone gave everyone a glimpse of its usual physical keyboard. It is thought to be codenamed Mercury and be launched as the BlackBerry DTEK70, Gadgets 360 reported.

Cistulli described the phone as impressively designed and distinctly different in a Twitter post. Past reports claimed that the company will divulge more news surrounding BlackBerry Mercury at CES especially around its plans as being the bearer of the BlackBerry smartphone legacy.

TCL Communication said that the CES presentation will include a first look at how the BlackBerry brand legacy will live on in a new generation of smartphones. Reports said that the development is a building block of the new growth strategy the company is trailing.

It will also give a glimpse into what new BlackBerry smartphones will offer as part of the company's bold new brand portfolio within TCT. While rumors had suggested that the device will be powered by Snapdragon 821 chipset, GS Marena reports that it will likely pack in Snapdragon 625 Soc instead and will have a 3GB of RAM, and 32GB of inbuilt storage.

In terms of optics, BlackBerry Mercury is expected to come with an 18-megapixel rear camera and an 8-megapixel camera at front for taking selfies. It also house a 4.5-inch display and will run an Android 7.0 Nougat with BlackBerry's own customizations for security.

One feature that might make it distinctly different as Cistulli claimed it would be is perhaps the unusual 1080x1620 pixel screen resolution along with its 420ppi pixel density, sources added. It is worth noting that China's TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd is now the fourth-largest handset maker in North America after BlackBerry Ltd took off its global brand rights. This is the first licensing deal made by BlackBerry since its transition to a software company.

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