After recently unveiling the Blackberry KeyOne at the MWC 2017, a new android based device has quietly been launched. However, it is an Indonesia only Blackberry Aurora, manufactured by BB Merah Putih, a company which has obtained the licence from the Canadian giant to officially manufacture and sell Blackberry branded devices in its home country.
The Blackberry Aurora supports dual-microSim cards and unlike other BB devices, doesn’t feature a physical keypad. Specs include a 5.5-inch display with 1280 x 720 resolution, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 that is surprisingly backed by 4GB of RAM and 32GB of on board storage (expandable). Optics include a 13MP rear camera with PDAF and an 8MP front camera with LED flash. It has been priced at IDR 3499000, which translates to Rs.17,478 approximately.
While Blackberry already has a Global licensing agreement with TCL Communications, for India, the once famous phone maker has inked a deal with Optiemus Infracom for manufacturing Blackberry branded Android phones in the country. This new partnership with Optiemus is in line with their strategy to licence hardware development to third parties. This deal will allow Optiemus Infracom to design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide after sales support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices that offer a legit BlackBerry experience, including the BlackBerry for Android secure software, in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. However, BlackBerry will continue to control and develop security and software solutions and maintain the BlackBerry security software, including regular Android security updates.
