New BlackBerry Venice leak reveals slide-out keyboard

Just take my money, BlackBerry. Photo: Evan Blass

Just take my money, BlackBerry. Photo: Evan Blass

A new image of the BlackBerry Venice has revealed the handset’s slide-out physical keyboard for the first time ahead of its official debut. The keyboard will be familiar to long-time BlackBerry fans, but Venice’s new operating system won’t be.

That’s because Venice will be BlackBerry’s first device powered by Android. The Canadian company has turned to Google’s platform in an effort to save its ailing hardware business, which has struggled to gain traction since BlackBerry launched its BB10 operating system in 2013.

Venice is shaping up to be the handset that changes that. Not only will it be the only Android-powered device (worth owning) with a built-in physical keyboard, but according to recent reports, it will have some excellent specifications, too.

They include a curved Quad HD display, a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, and an 18-megapixel rear-facing camera. Venice will also offer a number of BlackBerry features that aren’t currently available on Android, including the company’s excellent BlackBerry Hub.

According to the ever-reliable Evan Blass (@evleaks), who posted the images above and below on Twitter, Venice will launch in November, and it will be available on all four major carriers in the U.S.

Venice will have Google Play and BlackBerry Hub. Photo: Evan Blass

Venice will have Google Play and BlackBerry Hub. Photo: Evan Blass