A render that’s said to depict the upcoming BlackBerry Aurora surfaced online on Wednesday. This is the rumored name of a device codenamed BBC100-1 which was allegedly shown in two images that leaked earlier today. Unlike the recently announced BlackBerry-branded devices, the BlackBerry Aurora reportedly isn’t designed and manufactured by the Chinese tech giant TCL and was instead made by PT BB Merah Putih, a newly formed joint venture headed by PT Tiphone Mobile Indonesia, a major telecommunications company in the transcontinental country. BlackBerry and PT BB Merah Putih announced a software licensing agreement back in September as the joint venture company was looking to use BlackBerry’s software solutions in the mobile devices it’s retailing. While the two firms never officially announced they’re collaborating on other fronts, a BlackBerry-branded smartphone manufactured by PT BB Merah Putih seems like a natural extension of their existing partnership.
According to an industry rumor from January, the upcoming BlackBerry Aurora will feature a 5.5-inch 720p (1280 x 720) display panel and be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 system-on-chip (SoC), a 64-bit quad-core chip clocked at 1.4GHz. While the SoC fueling the device seems to be an entry-level model, the BlackBerry Aurora will reportedly ship with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Finally, the device is said to feature Dual-Sim support and a 3,000mAh that likely won’t be removable. No other details on hardware specifications of this phone are currently available, but the press render that can be seen above implies that the BlackBerry Aurora will ship with some version of Android Marshmallow. Furthermore, sources report that the smartphone was recently certified in Indonesia, meaning the device might launch in the country in the near future.
The same source that leaked the alleged press render of the BlackBerry Aurora also claims that PT BB Merah Putih will design and manufacture a number of other BlackBerry-branded devices. This report is in line with BlackBerry’s recent decision to stop committing resources to in-house hardware research and development as the Canadian tech giant opted to close down its struggling hardware division in favor of licensing its brand to third-party manufacturers like TCL and — apparently — PT BB Merah Putih. More information on all of the upcoming BlackBerry smartphones is bound to be available shortly.