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R you ready for a new BlackBerry? Rumours are pointing to a new smart phone with the latest BlackBerry 10 software and a good old-fashioned BlackBerry Qwerty keyboard, purported to be named the R10.
If BlackBerry Empire is to be believed, the R10 is a lower-cost model than the first BlackBerry 10 phones, the Z10 and the Q10. The Z10, available now, has a touchscreen, but the Q10, on sale soon, has a Qwerty keyboard to keep those old-school BlackBerry purists happy.
The R10 is also alleged to have less RAM than the Q10, pictured above. Full specs are unknown as yet, but it seems the R10 will be the cheapest phone yet to bring us BlackBerry 10 goodness.
The purported specs of the Qwerty-packing R10 include a 1,800mAh battery and 8GB storage for your movies and music. It has slots in the side for your SIM card and microSD memory card, suggesting quick access to your SIM rather than having to pull the battery out.
Word on the street is that the R10 won’t arrive until autumn or winter this year — which doesn’t seem so far off, given the current weather — but it’s not clear whether that rumoured date is an international or US release date. Bearing in mind the Z10 came to the UK and other countries before the US, fingers crossed we’ll see the R10 sooner.
Is BlackBerry right to continue the Qwerty tradition, or should keyboard connoisseurs just get over it and join the touchscreen revolution? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.