There was a time when the name Blackberry was inseparable from the world of phones and the Blackberry Bold and Curve editions were the cynosures of all eyes. Those days may be in the past now, but Blackberry seems to have one last ace up its sleeve: the Blackberry DTEK 70, set to succeed the DTEK 60, and codenamed ‘Mercury’. This will be the last smartphone Blackberry will release by itself before TCL starts producing & selling Blackberry phones worldwide.
The DTEK 70, or the Mercury, is a QWERTY phone with a 4.5-inch display and is therefore very user-friendly. This report states that the Blackberry Mercury will sport a hyperbolic or curved display screen in order to differentiate the phone while also enhancing the feel of the set and viewing experience. No official word on the Mercury has been forthcoming, but it is expected that the next-generation Snapdragon 821 quad-core processor will power it. A heavy-duty battery, expected to have a maximum life of 2 days, is also expected. The physical QWERTY keyboard will also be a very specific feature on the Blackberry Mercury.
The Snapdragon 821 is slated to deliver a 10% performance increase over the preceding Snapdragon 820 with the Qualcomm Kryo quad-core CPU, reaching speeds up to 2.4GHz. Earlier in September, Blackberry parent company Research in Motion (RIM) stated its intentions to be a software-only company and sold its handset business to TCL, the Chinese major, which also owns the Alcatel brand. TCL will produce and sell all future Blackberry phones, except the DTEK 70 or the Mercury, in all countries barring India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. Indonesia, incidentally, is the largest market for BlackBerry phones. Also in September, Blackberry signed an agreement with Indonesia’s BB Merah Putih allowing it to produce and sell BlackBerry phones locally.
In summation, Blackberry will look to take the last bow with the Mercury. We have previously covered the flagship DTEK 60, which was rather unimaginatively named. That set came for around $600-$700 in the US when it launched in October. The Mercury has no release date or price listed as of now, but we will keep you abreast of the latest developments as and when they emerge.