BlackBerry Key2 smartphone to be unveiled on 7 June

BlackBerry Key2 to feature a Qualcomm 660, 6GB RAM, 64GB storage and Android Oreo 8.1

The latest BlackBerry-branded smartphone will be unveiled at an event in New York on 7 June. The BlackBerry Key2 will, hopefully, address some of the criticisms of the Key1 - specifically, that it was underpowered.

However, it has not revealed any details about the handset's specifications or features.

The tweet just consists of a plain image that details the date of the event within a dark background. But it does contain a potential clue in that it says "an icon reborn".

It will succeed the KeyOne, which launched in 2017. The latter is a high-end Android smartphone kitted out with the firm's iconic QWERTY keyboard. While it was popular up to a point, critics claimed that it was underpowered for the price.

The specifications so far leaked indicate that the Key2 should be a more powerful device, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 SoC, which features an octa-core Kryo 260 CPU, Adreno 512 GPU and Qualcomm's X12 LTE Modem.

The device will be able to connect to WiFi networks via both 2.4GHz and 5GHz wavebands.

A post on Chinese technology website TENAA goes into more detail, suggesting that the handset will offer a 1,080×1,620 4.5-inch screen, a reasonably meaty 3,360mAh battery, 6GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage and Android Oreo 8.1.

With BlackBerry now targetting the corporate market, rather than consumers, its unlikely that they will be sold in great numbers, and the company was keen to point out that the device has been designed and produced by its licensing partner TCL - BlackBerry has had very little to do with it.

Images published on TENAA indicate that the device will be similar in look and form to the KeyOne. That means the touchscreen will have a physical keyboard sitting underneath its screen. The leaked images also indicate a dual camera set-up.

Meanwhile, Dutch technology website TelefoonAbonnement has been able to get hold of benchmarking results for the device, which contain the model number BBF100-1.

According to leaked Geekbench benchmarking results, a device codenamed BlackBerry BBG100-1 posted respectable scores of 698 in single-core and 3656 for multicore. As such, while a step-up from the KeyOne, it won't be challenging any flagship smartphones in terms of outright performance.

Price, though, will be all-important in evaluations and reviews of the forthcoming device.

Updated, 20.48, 15/5/18