BlackBerry’s new Slider Android smart phone gets a detailed hands-on

It is no secret that BlackBerry is working on an Android device that comes with a slider keyboard. Dubbed as the BlackBerry Venice, this opens up a new opportunity for BlackBerry to tap into the Android segment where a built-in QWERTY keyboard is non-existent.

The folks at Android Authority were lucky enough to get their hands on the Venice, giving us better views of the device and some details of its new software experience.

From their hands-on, the new slider device gets a stock Android looking interface that’s shown on a 5.4″ like display. It isn’t mentioned whether it has an actual curved display but it does have a slight “Galaxy S6 edge”-like appearance from the front.

Without straying too far from its BlackBerry roots, communication is still the main focus with direct shortcuts to email, BBM messages and texting. The typical recent app interface has a slight tweak, displaying your running apps in different sizes depending on your usage.

Over at the back, the camera is said to be an 18MP shooter and it comes accompanied with 2 LED flash. According to the source, this new flagship device is powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor that’s mated with 3GB of RAM. The Venice is targeted to launch sometime in November on the big 4 telcos in the US. If it is the same as the Passport, we shouldn’t wait too long for it to launch in Malaysia.

For Android users that does a lot of email for work, would you consider making a switch to this device? or would you prefer to have a better spec-ed Galaxy Note5 or S6 edge+ with its optional Keyboard Cover?

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