Blackberry "Venice" Android slider phone rumors grow louder

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in mobile on (#HVW4)
story imageFamed phone leaker @evleaks is at it again, this time with a few more shots of BlackBerry's forthcoming Venice handset. Venice is a slider phone that sports a large touchscreen display and runs Android instead of Blackberry's proprietary BB10 operating system. It slides up to reveal a physical QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode, giving owners of the device the best of both worlds, or so BlackBerry hopes. The Canadian outfit has been struggling for the past several years, and is hoping Venice will change that. The company built a reputation that was based in part on excellent hardware keyboards, and though the mobile market has moved to touchscreens, there are still many users who prefer the feel of a physical plank. Venice will give users a choice between the two input methods. Venice has been "confirmed" to launch in November on all four national U.S. wireless carriers -- Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint.

As one who loves BlackBerry hardware but not the software, I'm excited about the potential of a proper QWERTY phone with Android apps. Because these are leaks, the details are still up in the air. Nonetheless, it's looking more and more likely that BlackBerry will be launching an Android phone sometime this year. It's also becoming increasingly clear that the device will probably be a slider, and that it will possibly run Google Play services.

Re: Hardware keyboards, security, customer support (Score: 1)

by hapnstance@pipedot.org on 2015-08-21 13:11 (#J22P)

I think there are two things that are possibly being overlooked. A virtual keyboard on a phone is not going to be significantly bigger than a physical keyboard on a phone and also it will reduce the available screen for display of information. So saying the keys will be small would also apply to a virtual keyboard. And the second thing is with the increasing size of phone screens it seems there would be a matching increase in keyboard size for a physical keyboard on a slider phone. I have seen bluetooth keyboards that were as small as the bigger phone screens we have these days. I think with the increasing screen size, now is the time to have a return of the slider keyboard because it can be comfortably sized.
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