BlackBerry has got a new face in their product lineup, a smartphone that is going back to basics for the company, since it it “…designed to deliver its full and distinctive QWERTY experience on BlackBerry 10”.
The Canadian company’s new Q20 flagship device will be returning their QWERTY keyboard to prominence as well as bringing back the “…Menu’, ‘Back’, ‘Send’ and ‘End’ buttons and the integrated trackpad” that has been a major feature of the device’s looks in the past.
Actual specs for the BlackBerry Q20 are thin on the ground but the company has revealed that the smartphone will run BlackBerry 10 (of course) and that it will have a 3.5-inch touchscreen display. A larger battery and an overall tougher design are all promised as well.
On why BlackBerry has shifted back to more or less what they’ve always done, design-wise, CEO John Chen said “I consistently heard from our ardent BlackBerry customers that the hard buttons and trackpad are an essential part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience, that made their BlackBerry smartphone their go-to productivity tool. I want these customers to know that we heard them, and this new smartphone will be for them.”
The BlackBerry Q20 is expected to launch in the second half of 2014. No pricing has been announced yet.
