Jan 06, 2017 08:00 AM EST By yasi bilangel, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Blackberry Mercury could be the phone that TCL revealed in CES, which is a smartphone with a definite Blackberry design featuring a QWERTY keyboard. Moreover, the Mercury may be the last in-house project of Blackberry after announcing its exit from the phone market with TCL now taking over the release and media announcements of its devices.

Blackberry announced last year that it will be exiting the phone market by ceasing to make smartphone hardware and focusing instead on software. It will be outsourcing the Blackberry label to TCL, the Chinese electronics company, now handling the release and media announcements of the Blackberry devices like the Blackberry DTEK line.

Blackberry Mercury Key Specs

In CES 2017, TCL revealed a smartphone with undoubtedly Blackberry design featuring a QWERTY keyboard sliding out from the bottom. TCL did not give its official name, but president and GM Steve Cistuli referred to it as the Blackberry Press, which observers say is very similar to previously leaked smartphone codenamed Blackberry Mercury.

According to ArsTechnica, the Blackberry Mercury has a 4.5-in. display, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor and runs Android Nougat 7.0. It also has a metal body with a soft touch back, featuring the USB type-C port at the bottom and has a fingerprint reader smartly hidden in the space bar.

Blackberry Mercury QWERTY Keyboard

The Blackberry Mercury in CES looks like any standard smartphone, but fits in a full QWERTY keyboard at the bottom without the use of a Priv-like slider, Android Central has learned. The screen appears to be shorter to make way for the keyboard, which is a typical Blackberry design that is convenient for typing and includes capacitive swiping gestures.

Blackberry Mercury Launch

TCL has not given any definite information on the Blackberry Mercury and is saving its launching at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) on February 27, 2017. Official specs, features, and pricing will be elaborated by TCL on the said event.

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