Android-powered BlackBerry Venice reportedly headed to AT&T

Reports have been surfacing for some time about a rumored Android-powered handset made by BlackBerry, and those rumors began to really pick up steam just a few weeks ago. This mystery handset will supposedly come with a slide-out keyboard and will be launched sometime this fall, though not many other details have been revealed quite yet. With that said, we might have just received a few more tidbits of information, courtesy of retired leaker, @evleaks.

According to the tweet sent out earlier today, BlackBerry Venice will be the name of the smartphone, and it will, in fact, feature a slide-out keyboard. Not only that, but apparently the device is also headed to AT&T. We’re not sure if this means the device will be an AT&T-exclusive or not, just that the carrier is planning to sell the device.

Read more: 4 ways BlackBerry can be unique on Android

While BlackBerry still has yet to confirm the existence of the Android device, John Chen, the company’s CEO, explained in an interview that the company is not opposed to building an Android device, as long as it’s secure.

It’s certainly been a long time since we’ve seen a notable Android handset come with a full QWERTY keyboard, so we wouldn’t be surprised if BlackBerry’s new slider becomes a hit among smartphone users, if and when it launches. For now, all of these are just rumors, so we’ll need to wait until we hear more from the company to know anything for sure.

What do you think? Would you be interested in an Android-powered slider built by BlackBerry? Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.