BlackBerry announces Q20 and Z3 smartphones, BBM for Windows Phone

BlackBerry introduced two new smartphones at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Tuesday. The BlackBerry Q20 is a keyboard-equipped flagship device that’s a callback to the classic BlackBerry form factor. The BlackBerry Z3, on the other hand, is a 5-inch touchscreen device for customers in Indonesia.

Though BlackBerry hasn’t shared any images of the Q20, it sounds like the device will be a return to form — or form factor, that is. “In my first 90 days on the job, I consistently heard from our ardent BlackBerry customers that the hard buttons and trackpad are an essential part of the BlackBerry QWERTY experience, that made their BlackBerry smartphone their go-to productivity tool. I want these customers to know that we heard them, and this new smartphone will be for them,” BlackBerry CEO John Chen said in a statement.

To that end, the Q20 will feature the familiar Menu, Back, Send and End buttons, as well as an integrated trackpad for navigation. It will also feature a 3.5-inch touchscreen on top, and BlackBerry’s classic patented QWERTY keyboard on the bottom. The device will run on BlackBerry 10, but aside from that, little other information was revealed. BlackBerry says the phone will launch in the second half of the year, and more details will be revealed at that time.

BlackBerry also introduced the Z3, previously known as Jakarta. The Z3 (pictured above) is a 5-inch touchscreen smartphone that runs on BlackBerry 10.2.1. Targeted at customers in Indonesia, there’s no physical keyboard, but the phone will come loaded with local apps and content, as well as BlackBerry apps such as BBM and BlackBerry Hub.

BlackBerry hasn’t announced a price, but the Z3 is expected to be available in Indonesia in April.

Also worth mentioning is that on Monday, BlackBerry announced BBM for Windows Phone and Nokia X platforms. BBM is the company’s mobile messaging platform that has seen a sharp resurgence in popularity since BlackBerry released iOS and Android apps last year. Though the company continues to make new devices, services like BBM are a good revenue fallback in case they don’t pan out.

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