Following last year's debut of the BlackBerry PRIV - the first Android BlackBerry phone - CEO John Chen confirmed that the company will create two new Android-based smartphones, the Hamburg and Rome, in 2016.
According to 9to5Google, the BlackBerry PRIV is a good device but a tough sell due to its high price tag. While BlackBerry estimated sales of 850,000 units in Q4 of 2015, it was only able to sell around 600,000 in total. Know Your Mobile reports that when it came out, the PRIV was quite a big deal. It was the first BlackBerry device to run on Google's Android and it made itself a niche inside the Android space.
The PRIV is a pretty decent handset, but BlackBerry realized it could be improved in quite a few ways. Chen has said in interviews that the flagship BlackBerry phone was relatively well-received, however the sales are not so great since the device is aiming for the premium segment in terms of pricing and specs.
The core demographic for BlackBerry's PRIV is made up by businesses looking to buy in bulk for their employees. In this context, a device positioned in the mid-range segment could have achieved better sales figures.
The website 51blackberry.com has also published leaked images and details of the two handsets codenamed the Hamburg and Rome, based on Chinese sources. It appears the Rome will come with a physical QWERTY keyboard, while the Hamburg will be a touch-only handset.
The new BlackBerry Android handsets planned for this year are unlikely to be top-range phones. GFXBench has published a new set of benchmarks claimed to be from the upcoming BlackBerry Hamburg.
According to this, the upcoming Hamburg device will feature a 1080p 5.2in display and will be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 processor working at 1.5GHz. It will also come with an Adreno 405 GPU, 16GB of storage and 3GB of RAM. The device will feature a 12MP primary camera and an 8MP secondary camera and will run on the Android version 6.0.1.
The sources also suggest that the Hamburg will be launched in the second half of 2016 and will cost $400. For the Rome there is no information on the specs, release bracket or price.
