BlackBerry’s Rio Z20 is all touchscreen in leaked pictures, may launch in 2015

By Malarie Gokey December 24, 2014

blackberry ceo apple encryption passport press announcement — Image used with permission by copyright holder

BlackBerry may have launched two smartphones with full QWERTY keyboards in the past few months, but that doesn’t mean the company plans to abandon touchscreen devices forever. Its first few attempts to introduce touchscreen-only devices fell flat in most markets, mainly due to the lack of apps. Now it seems that BlackBerry may take another swing at all-touchscreen devices with the BlackBerry Rio Z20.

Full specs for the budget device popped up on N4BB in late December. Based on the leaked spec sheet, the Rio is expected to sport a 5-inch, 720p touchscreen and no physical QWERTY keyboard. An 8-megapixel shooter and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera will reportedly grace the Rio’s frame. Two GB of RAM, a 2,800 mAh battery, and 16GB of built-in storage, which is expandable via a MicroSD card slot, are also mentioned in the report.

Leaked render of the Rio Z20 via N4BB — Leaked render of the Rio Z20 via N4BB Image used with permission by copyright holder

One of the more bizarre specifications in the list is the processor, which will supposedly be the very outdated 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor from Qualcomm. It’s likely that this particular spec rumor is false, though the rest of the information seems plausible enough.

The same publication also managed to get its hands on leaked renders of the device. The Rio Z20 looks like a traditional BlackBerry phone from the back, and follows in the tradition of the Z30. Pictures show the Rio in both black and white color options.

BlackBerry will reportedly launch the Rio Z20 in February 2015, and sell it for around $300. The Rio will most likely make its way to select countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia, where the market for budget phones is strong.

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