While this year has seen all the usual rumors and speculation from the likes of Samsung, LG, HTC, Motorola and Nexus coming through, this year has been a little different thanks to the rumors from the less than orthodox Android world manufacturers. Most notably, the rumors around Nokia and BlackBerry both bringing to market their own Android devices. While the former seems to be a long way off arriving, the BlackBerry option almost looks to be upon us. This is thanks to the abundance of leaks, rumors and images that have appeared of late.
In fact, it was only a few days ago when some of the clearest hands-on images of the device appeared online and showed the BlackBerry Venice in all its glory. Well, at the time the source of those images remained unknown, however, the same source has now released a hands-on video of the BlackBerry Venice and it makes for some interesting viewing. Of course, when it comes to the Venice, the biggest talking point so far has been round the use of the QWERTY keyboard. This is something which is synonymous with BlackBerry devices and a feature which seems to cause debate among the Android community. Well, the video clearly shows that the QWERTY keyboard does seem to be one which offers the user a much more Android like experience than you might expect. As well a offing the physical keyboard for BlackBerry-like typing and offering touchscreen functionality, the video highlights the Venice’s keyboard has built-in biometric sense touch which allows the user to swipe up and down on the keyboard to control the scrolling feature.
Additional features noted in the video include touch to wake, microSD card slot, a full-width bottom located speaker grill, a near stock Android experience with the usual BlackBerry services and features deeply integrated, but in a less obtrusive way. For instance, swiping up from the bottom not only presents Google Now, but also the BlackBerry Hub and BlackBerry Global Device Search. There are still no firm details on when the Venice will become available, although if evaluation units are already reaching some people, it does look like it is creeping closer to a launch. You can check out the video for yourself below.