It looks like a powerful new BlackBerry phone is on the way
Business Insider/Jeff DunnThe BlackBerry DTEK50, which launched in July.A recent listing on BlackBerry's website appears to have leaked the company's latest Android handset.
As spotted by CrackBerry, a since-removed page - with the extension "donotpublish.html," no less - temporarily detailed a new "DTEK60" smartphone.
Given that BlackBerry launched an Android phone called the DTEK50 earlier this year, this would seem to be a natural follow-up.
Unlike that decidedly so-so device, though, the DTEK60 appears to be a much higher-end device. BlackBerry's page tipped the phone to feature a big and sharp 5.5-inch, 2560x1440 display, a generous Snapdragon 820 chip with 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a 3,000mAh battery.
Beyond that, we're looking at a 21-megapixel main camera, a fingerprint sensor (something the DTEK50 lacked), a programmable side key (something the DTEK50 included), and a USB Type-C port.
Though no pictures of the phone were leaked, one thing that wasn't mentioned was a QWERTY keyboard, as we've seen on past BlackBerry phones like the Priv. It's also not clear if the device will simply rebadge another company's reference design, as the DTEK50 did to Alcatel's Idol 4 phone.
BlackBerry/GSMArenaA screenshot of the now-deleted DTEK60 specs document on BlackBerry's website, as spotted by GSMArena.Regardless, all of this lines up with previous rumors. Noted phone leaker Evan Blass reported in June that BlackBerry had three phones on the way, codenamed Neon, Argon, and Mercury. Neon turned out to be the DTEK50, while Mercury is said to bring back the physical keyboard early next year. So, this would be Argon.
In any case, a new BlackBerry phone would have to face the same hurdles the company has struggled to overcome for the past several years. Though the company has embraced Android, it's still mostly reliant on the name recognition generated by its former mobile dominance. It's unlikely that a high-end, probably expensive phone like this would do much to turn that around, but it looks like it could be enticing for those still on the BlackBerry train (looking at you, Kim Kardashian West).