TCL Executive Teases Return Of Physical QWERTY Keyboard For BlackBerry Mercury

BlackBerry may have stopped making phones, but Chinese manufacturer TCL is now in charge of the smartphone brand. A TCL executive recently teased a new BlackBerry smartphone showing the brand’s signature QWERTY keyboard.

President and general manager of TCL Communication Steve Cistulli shared a video on Twitter yesterday showing a four-second clip of a new BlackBerry handset. The most popular rumor is that this might be the device codenamed as “Mercury.” The video didn’t give away much, but it did show the return of the physical QWERTY keyboard featuring fretted keys.

The return of the physical keyboard might be TCL’s way of bringing back what a lot of people consider to be BlackBerry’s standout feature. The last BlackBerry-branded smartphone TCL released was the DTEK60, which ditched the keyboard in favor of an all-touchscreen design.

The short clip also confirms that the upcoming BlackBerry device will be running the Android operating system as the capacitive navigation buttons are also seen above the keyboard as well. Although the device is being called the BlackBerry Mercury at the moment, Cistulli’s tweet may also be hinting at the device’s real name.

It’s being speculated that the handset might be called the BlackBerry Press based on Cistulli saying that the device is “imPRESSively designed,” as pointed out by CNET. The executive also included #CES2017 in his tweet confirming a reveal at the Consumer Electronics Show which is ongoing in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The BlackBerry Mercury is rumored to come with a 4.5-inch display and will be powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 625 processor. The upcoming handset is also said to come with Adreno 506 graphics, 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage, according to Phone Arena. On the software side of things, the device might come with Android 7.0 Nougat straight out of the box.

TCL is scheduled to take the stage at CES 2017 on Jan. 4, Wednesday, to present the new BlackBerry Mercury smartphone.