This is not the BlackBerry Q20. It’s the Q10, released in 2013. The reason we can’t show you a photo of the upcoming Q20 is that no photo exists just yet. Not even computer renderings of the Q20 are available. The newly announced BlackBerry smartphone, just unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2014, won’t be available in Australia until the second half of 2014.
BlackBerry’s new CEO John Chen, in the position since November last year, said that he realises the company needs to return to its roots: “In my first 90 days on the job, I consistently heard from our ardent BlackBerry customers that the hard buttons and trackpad are an essential part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience.” With that in mind, the upcoming Q20 will have a trackpad and key design inherited from the now-four-year-old BlackBerry Bold.
Despite its physical, tactile keyboard, the Q10 and the cheaper Q5 didn’t quite strike a chord with BlackBerry’s traditional customer base. A full-touch 3-inch display made for easier navigation around the new BB10 operating system, but what the BlackBerry Businessman wanted was the return of his beloved trackpad. The Q20, also being introduced as the ‘Classic’, brings it back — with a combination of trackpad, tactile keyboard, and 3.5-inch touchscreen, it should be just about as versatile as a modern smartphone can be.
The long delay between announcement, production and availability is a problem; we’ll have more info on pricing and a release date later in the year. According to BlackBerry, all those details will be available on launch — we just hope that BlackBerry as a company makes it that far on its existing smartphone portfolio. [BlackBerry]