Contrary to popular opinion, two months ago BlackBerry launched its second Android smartphone and I predicted that BlackBerry had no intentions of making the Android affair a short lived romance. This is when I get to say I told you so.
Rumour has it, and with good authority, that BlackBerry is launching a new Android smartphone which will likely be the company’s flagship product and its best Android offering yet. Popular phone leaker Evan Blass had done in June what he does best; he leaked the information that BlackBerry was working on three phones codenamed Neon, Argon, and Mercury. As it turns out the BlackBerry DTEK 50 was Neon and this new phone is Argon. Reports suggest that Mercury will reveal itself in early 2017.
Argon is BlackBerry DTEK60.
We know that BlackBerry likes to stand out with its products and the naming convention for its Android series of phones seems to be a poor attempt at that. Naming troubles aside, make no mistake, the DTEK60 is a quality phone in its own right. Let’s take a closer look at the leaked specifications on this phone.
Rumoured Specifications – BlackBerry DTEK60
The rumoured specifications suggest that BlackBerry DTEK60 will come with a 5.5 inch display that has a screen resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels. BlackBerry has finally started to catch up on which the top mobile processors in the market currently are and has chosen to go with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor on this phone. This will likely be a quad core processor with an Adreno 530 GPU for company.
The DTEK60 will boast of a 4 GB RAM, which is an improvement over the DTEK50. This phone will certainly be a few notches ahead of the DTEK50 in almost all respects. The internal storage on the phone could be 32 GB with an option to expand storage using a microSD card slot.
More from iSpyPrice: The expected India price of the BlackBerry DTEK60 mobile
BlackBerry has decided that this new product will be its best camera offering yet. The DTEK60 will in all likelihood sport a 21 megapixel primary camera with f/2.0 aperture, Phase Detection Autofocus, and 4K video recording. The secondary camera will not disappoint selfie addicts either. It will be an 8 megapixel unit f/2.2 aperture and 84-degree wide angle lens. The camera configuration supports dual-tone LED flash.
The BlackBerry DTEK60 will almost certainly be a single SIM (LTE) phone with 4G connectivity. According to the leaked specs, as reported by CrackBerry, the battery capacity on the phone will be 3000 mAh and it will be a 4.4V non-removable Lithium-Ion battery with support for Quick Charge 3.0. The dimensions on the phone will be 153.9 x 75.4 x 7 mm and it will weigh around 165 grams. The phone could also boast of a fingerprint sensor.
The DTEK60, much like its predecessor, will be powered by Android 6.0 Marshmallow OS.
Is BlackBerry still just pushing away the inevitable?
While BlackBerry has no doubt stepped into the Android space with apparent resolve, let’s not forget that this whole Android business isn’t BlackBerry’s forte. Several rumours suggest that much like the DTEK50, the DTEK60 is also a rebadged Alcatel TCL device. If that is true one can argue that BlackBerry is actually only trying to avoid the inevitable by embracing Android.
Having said that I don’t see BlackBerry left with any options other than turning to Android. Whether it is in the garb of a rebadged product or not is almost irrelevant. If this could help BlackBerry stabilize its dwindling fortunes and somehow get back to profitability it would serve the purpose.
While many people like watching the survival of the fittest analogy come to fruition in the business sector, most of us also have a thing for a good underdog story. What could be better then a fallen giant-turned-underdog coming back from the dead? Let’s wait and watch how this story unfolds.