The BlackBerry Venice: A Rumored Slider Beauty With Curved, Usable Edges

The BlackBerry rumor mill is churning once again, this time, with leaks about the BlackBerry “Venice.”

The BlackBerry Venice is said to be a slider phone that gives a nod to slider phones of the past, such as the HTC flagships, or the iconic T-Mobile Sidekick or the Danger Hiptop, which was designed by Android founder and pioneer Andy Rubin. However, it is a slider phone with a twist: It may sport curved, accessible edges similar to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Hardcore BlackBerry enthusiasts may regard this device with possible hesitation, as BlackBerry never really did well with designs venturing out of their classic, iconic, QWERTY form factor.

However, the market is ripe for something out of the ordinary, as Android phones have become a dime a dozen, and the lineups are getting boring. With this new development, BlackBerry may change the game for smartphones, yet again.

If they price the device the way they priced the BlackBerry Passport, however, that may be a problem.

BlackBerry has been seeing a steady decline into their popularity, and more importantly, their sales, so pricing a device way out of reach of the average consumer may not be a good idea at this point. Popularity is still a major driver for sales, so doesn’t seem to be a good idea for BlackBerry to go up against the iPhone or the popular Androids for the moment. More than that, affordability-and-style player Xiaomi, currently the world’s third top smartphone manufacturer, eats up a large chunk of the smartphone-buying public. So is there really space on the market for an ultra-premium BlackBerry?

Hesitations and misgivings aside though, here are the rumored specs for the upcoming BlackBerry Venice:

Processor/Chipset: 1.8GHz hexa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 808

RAM: 3GB

GPU: Adreno 418

Display: 5.4-inch QHD display with a rumored resolution of 1440 x 2560 pixels

Cameras: 18MP Primary Camera; 5MP Secondary Camera

OS: Android, reportedly

The fact that BlackBerry is powering the Venice with Android may also be met with mixed reactions, as the reason why people prefer the BlackBerry is because of its ironclad encryption system, as embedded in its proprietary OS. However, there are haters of the BBOS 10, and BlackBerry also launched its Android Secured website, as the hub for its move towards the Android. So whether slapping the Android OS onto a BlackBerry will work or not remains to be seen.

Times are changing, and this may be the first of BlackBerry’s moves to regain a spot in the smartphone-manufacturing game.