BlackBerry Venice release date, specs news: Internal renders leak

Twitter courtesy of BlackBerry

A new set of leaked internal renders for the BlackBerry Venice have surfaced, courtesy of CrackBerry, and these images reveal that the device may have several new features unseen in any BlackBerry phone before, including Chromecast support and a look at the notifications hub. 

The BlackBerry Slider got a lot of attention when it was revealed at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and rumors have since flown that the Slider is also the heavily rumored BlackBerry Venice, which is touted to be the first BlackBerry device to run on Google's Android OS.  

One image showcases an icon similar to the Chromecast icon used in many Android phones. This allows Android users to stream directly from their phone to other devices such as compatible TV sets, laptops, and tablets. BlackBerry users, even with the latest BlackBery 10 OS, cannot do this without third-party apps, many of which are not officially supported. 

The other image showcases what the hub will look like. This hub is where notifications are handled and it showcases that a right swipe allows a user to set a reminder while a swipe to the left lets them delete the notification. There is also a "compose" icon hovering over which is said to allow users to instantly create messages for apps featured in the hub. 

One thing that is made clear from this render is that the BlackBerry Venice may be running a BlackBerry skin on top of the official Android OS. It's still Android but it will be customized to look and feel more like BlackBerry. 

Finally the third image showcases a breakdown of the phone's camera. The image indicates that the Venice will feature an 18 MP camera using 7 lenses underneath a protective glass. Speculations run that this may be the most powerful BlackBerry camera yet, hopefully allowing it to take pictures and videos with the same quality akin to iOS devices.

BlackBerry has yet to confirm if these renders are accurate to the actual design of the phone or not.