BlackBerry Mercury unmasked in public AGAIN ahead of MWC 2017 release date

20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION • ABC

BlackBerry Mercury, due to be unveiled at MWC later this month, featured prominently in the show

BlackBerry Mercury – the latest flagship smartphone from BlackBerry – will be announced at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow later this month.

And the device sounds like it could be one of the most impressive phones of 2017, if the latest rumours are to be believed.

The flagship phone was briefly teased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, after BlackBerry pushed out a number of mysterious, dimly-lit teaser videos.

And now, ahead of the final BlackBerry Mercury announcement at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona later this month, the highly-anticipated smartphone has been spotted on television.

The hotly-anticipated new BlackBerry phone made its debut on prime-time television in episode 15 of US sit-com Last Man Standing.

The half-hour comedy show, which stars Tim Allen as the director of marketing for a chain of sporting goods stores in Colorado called Outdoor Man.

Michael Baxter, the character played by 63-year-old Allen, uses the BlackBerry Mercury in the latest episode of the sit-com.

20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION • ABC

The upcoming BlackBerry flagship was clearly visible in the show

The BlackBerry Mercury got plenty of screen-time during the show, with special attention given to the physical QWERTY keyboard.

The news comes days after as-yet unannounced phone was spotted in use in the wild.

Posting in the user forum of prominent BlackBerry-themed blog Crackberry, one user shared photograph of what appears the BlackBerry Mercury.

"Saw this phone on my flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen yesterday," the forum user, identified only as Jorgie714, has shared.

"The guy didn't want to talk about it. Good looking phone!"

BlackBerry Mercury – Everything we know so far Tue, January 5, 2016

BlackBerry is gearing up to launch its latest smartphone – here's everything we know so far about the new BlackBerry Mercury

Play slideshow WEIBO 1 of 10

BlackBerry is gearing up to launch its latest smartphone – here's everything we know so far about the new BlackBerry Mercury

The BlackBerry Mercury sports a slick new industrial design that appears to blend the svelte aluminium body of modern Android smartphones with the traditional physical QWERTY keyboard seen on classic BlackBerry devices.

But unlike these traditional keyboards, the new Mercury keys will allow phone owners to swipe over the physical keys to interact with items on the display.

So users will be able to swipe across the keyboard to scroll down web pages or emails, saving your thumbs from constantly reaching between the physical keys and the touchscreen above. There’s also a fingerprint sensor built into the keyboard’s space bar, allowing users to unlock the device quickly.

It will boast a 4.5inch multi-touch display – smaller than the current generation iPhone or leading Android phones.

Related articles

• Windows 10 Mobile is basically DEAD, and this proves it
• BlackBerry Mercury – here's everything this new smartphone needs

However, it will have a very respectable 1920 x 1080 resolution.

And according to new rumours from WinFuture's Roland Quandt, the BlackBerry Mercury will sport the same Sony IMX378 camera sensor that Google used in the Google Pixel and Pixel XL. The 12MP sensor is capable of recording 4K Ultra HD video and, given its stunning performance in the latest Google smartphone, takes staggeringly good photos.

The Google Pixel and Pixel XL cameras have been showered with praise.

In our Google Pixel review, we praised the quality of images from the phone, writing "pictures taken on the Pixel look incredible – particularly impressive considering the small size of the lens. When the light is good, photographs taken on the Pixel look crisp, colourful and packed with detail."

Google Pixel – Camera Samples Thu, October 20, 2016

Pictures taken on the Pixel look incredible – particularly impressive considering the small size of the lens

Play slideshow EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS 1 of 17

Pictures taken on the Pixel look incredible – particularly impressive given the small size of the lens

With any luck, BlackBerry owner TCL will be able to recreate the feat with the BlackBerry Mercury.

WinFuture has also claimed the front-facing camera on the BlackBerry Mercury will sport an 8MP sensor, either from Samsung or Omnivision.

Both will feature a 1.12μm pixel size and can shoot video at 1080p at 30fps, he claims.

BLACKBERRY • TWITTER

The space bar in the QWERTY keyboard doubles-up as a fingerprint scanner

Sources within TCL have also claimed the upcoming BlackBerry Mercury will be powered by the Snapdragon 625, and not the flagship Snapdragon 821 as some rumours had pointed to.

That will be coupled with a respectable 3GB of RAM, as well as a 3,200mAh battery powered by USB-C.

The device is expected to run Android 7.0 Nougat, with additional security and productivity tools powered by BlackBerry.

BlackBerry Mercury's final specs and release date will be announced at a press conference at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow on February 25th.

Original Article