Older Article on Neon, Argon, Mercury

[ToniCipriani]

Here's an older article from Evan Blass (@evleaks). BlackBerry is working on 3 new Android phones, codenamed Neon, Argon, and Mercury | VentureBeat | Mobile | by Evan Blass

In particular this bit:

Mercury
Stretching the roadmap into Q1 2017, Mercury is the only one of these handsets to sport a physical QWERTY keyboard, as Priv does. But unlike Priv, which is a vertical slider, Mercury’s board is not concealable — think BlackBerry Passport.

It’s got a 4.5-inch screen with full HD resolution in a squarish 3:2 aspect ratio, with the entire enclosure made of aluminum. Internally, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 sits at the heart of the device, alongside 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage capacity.

Its battery apparently weighs in at 3400mAh, while its rear- and front-facing cameras offer 18-megapixel and 8-megapixel resolutions, respectively.

Given how it's spot on about the DTEK50 and 60, I think it should be fairly accurate on what the Mercury is. This place it hardware identical to the Moto Z Play, plus a PKB.

Currently that phone goes for $449 unlocked, hopefully BlackBerry will price it accordingly, i.e. under this target. I'm guessing $529-$549 CAD, right where the Classic used to be.

 

[ToniCipriani]

Also did a little reading on some reviews of the Moto Z Play, which has the same specs. 8 hour SOT with a 3510mAh battery. I think Mercury's battery life should be impressive, especially when the Priv can only manage 4-5 hours with a 3410mAh.