BlackBerry Rome and Hamburg: New leak reveals mid-range Android phones

BlackBerry wants to go mid-range with two Android devices, and a leak has revealed what those new devices might look like, be called, and cost.

Earlier this month, BlackBerry said it thinks the high-end phone market has gone soft, so it plans to launch two new Android phones this year aimed at the mid-range segment. Even though it just launched the Priv Android phone at the end of 2015, the company is eager to offer more devices, as it feels the $700 Priv is probably too expensive for people.

John Chen, BlackBerry’s CEO, has already said the upcoming new devices will include a keyboard-equipped model and a full-touch model, and now, thanks to image leaks spotted by PhoneArena, we’re getting our first glimpse of these devices. We also learned what they might be called: Hamburg (full-touch model) and Rome (keyboard-equipped model).

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As you can see from the images, Rome looks somewhat similar to the BlackBerry Vienna, sans the grille design and camera placement. Rome is also thought to feature a Priv-like curved-screen OLED panel. As for the Hamburg, all we can decipher from the leaked images is that it could have a big bottom speaker. It’s also thought to cost around $400.

That price would would of course be in line with BlackBerry CEO’s previous comments about the company going mid-range.

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