A leaked BlackBerry 2014 product roadmap was the latest to indicate that BlackBerry will renew its partnership with Porsche to release a new BlackBerry Porsche Design smartphone codenamed Khan. The BlackBerry P’9983 as it is better known has been rumoured before but N4BB has now obtained an image of what could well be the first BlackBerry 10 Porsche Design smartphone.
The image shows the Porsche Design P’9983 next to the older P’9981. As rumoured in the past, the two devices share very similar looks although the P’9983 will come in matte black rather than silver. The keyboard has been overhauled and looks more like the ones found on other BlackBerry smartphones with physical keyboards. Unlike the BlackBerry Passport, it will not sport a capacitive keyboard. Cosmetic changes include repositioned Porsche Design and BlackBerry logos.
Past rumours also indicated that the P’9983 would come with a 1.7GHz dual-core processor, BlackBerry OS 10.3, a 3.5-inch touchscren display, 3GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage. You can also expect that it will sport premium materials like a leather backplate.
The BlackBerry P’9983 will likely launch later this year. Aimed at “the affluent and wealthy,” it will likely sell for upwards of US$2,000. It will be one of four BlackBerry devices to launch before the end of the year. The others are the BlackBerry Passport, BlackBerry Classic, and BlackBerry Z3 LTE (or Z20?)