In the past CES 2017 held as every year in Las Vegas, BlackBerry officially showed and we could almost say that half the new BlackBerry Mercury, a new mobile device that attracts attention by combining a large screen with a physical QWERTY keyboard and also with features and specifications that would take it directly to the so-called high-end market.
We do not know why the official and complete presentation was not made at CES, reserving it for the Mobile World Congress that will start in a few days in Barcelona. There we will be able to know the new terminal of the Canadians, manufactured by TLC and of which today we will tell you everything we know a few days after its presentation and premiere on the market.
Remember that this will be the second smartphone, after the BlackBerry DTEK60, which will bear the TLC seal and with which BlackBerry will finally find a place in the complicated mobile phone market. It is not that until now I had not looked for it, but seeing the devices presented, with outdated processors and pulling on resources from the past, failure as it happened seemed assured.
Metallic design with a large screen and physical keyboard
The new BlackBerry Mercury will have a very different design from the last two devices of the Canadian company, and it is that both the DTEK50 and the DTEK60 did not have the physical keyboard so characteristic of the BlackBerry, and with which it will have the new terminal that we will meet at the MWC. In addition, its design will be metallic to offer us a successful touch and very similar to that offered by other manufacturers present in the market.
As we see in the image that we show you below, this BlackBerry Mercury will have a design that undoubtedly attracts attention both the large touch screen, as well as the physical keyboard, which is undoubtedly one of the BlackBerry hallmarks. The advantage of this keyboard over others, like the one we saw for example in the BlackBerry Priv, is that it will be visible at all times and will not be sliding, something that in many cases was really uncomfortable.
Continuing with the keyboard of this BlackBerry Mercury, it will offer us a tactile response, so that we can make gestures on its surface to, for example, move through the menus or scroll. Also in the space bar we will find a fingerprint reader, which we will have to test how it works and it is that we have never seen this reader located in this position before.
Power for high-end calling
Unlike the previous BlackBerry that were coming to the market, this BlackBerry Mercury, this one can boast of being a terminal called to be part of the high-end range. And it is that it will have in the first place a category processor such as Snapdragon 625, although the first rumors suggested that it could have mounted a Snapdragon 821 supported by a 3GB RAM.
As far as the software is concerned, as is well known, it will have Android Nougat 7.0 installed inside it, with the security measures of the Canadian firm, and which gave it so much recognition in the past, and also with some of the best BlackBerry features including BlackBerry Messenger or the BlackBerry Hub.
Camera with the same sensor as the Google Pixel
BlackBerry or rather TLC have spared no resources when it comes to mounting a camera at the height of the circumstances, and that is It will mount the 378 megapixel Sony IMX12 sensor, which is the same as the Google Pixel and how many good opinions it got.
At the moment this information has not been officially confirmed, but surely the MWC will talk a lot about the camera of this new Canadian smartphone. This rear camera will also support video recording in 4K resolution.
Regarding the front camera, there are still some doubts, although it is believed that depending on the market it could mount a sensor Samsung S5K4H8 or an Omnivision OV8856, in both cases with 8 megapixels. As with the rear camera, we will be able to resolve all these doubts in Barcelona in the next few days, where finally, and once and for all, the official presentation of this new mobile device will take place.
The price, one of the great unknowns
One of the great unknowns that remain to be resolved about the BlackBerry Mercury is the price with which it will reach the market and also the countries in which it will be sold. No device from the Canadian company has been exactly cheap, but many hope that this new terminal will reach the market with a very interesting price, to be able to fight in the competitive mobile phone market, and also to be able to seduce the large number of users disenchanted with the so-called high-end smartphones that in many cases have an exorbitant price.
In my humble opinion I think that the new BlackBerry Mercury will be a good smartphone, but that once again it will be far from being able to compete in the market for its price, which I believe will be above 700 euros. Hopefully I'm wrong, and if this device is released on the market with a low price and not too high, surely many will be the users who acquire it, and without a doubt I will be the first. The seal of quality and security of BlackBerry is still very present, although their devices have been very far in other respects from being a real alternative.
What do you think of the new BlackBerry Mercury and at what price do you think it will hit the market once it is officially presented at the next MWC?. Tell us your opinion in the space reserved for comments on this post or through any of the social networks in which we are present and where we are eager to hear your opinion.