Almost a month ago, we passed along a leaked image
of a rumored new BlackBerry that will supposedly be manufactured by Optiemus, a
company in India that licenses the BlackBerry name and its version of Android.
The phone was said to be called the BlackBerry Ghost, and appeared to feature
an edge-to-edge screen with a near bezel-less design. The device would most
likely have limited distribution in India, and the smart money says that it
wouldn't be offered in the U.S.
Today, a render of a new handset was disseminated
via tweet from tipster extraordinaire Evan Blass. The prolific tipster says
that this is the BlackBerry Ghost Pro from Optiemus. It appears that this
device will also sport razor thin bezels, and an 18:9 aspect ratio. Without any
buttons in front, the fingerprint scanner is either in back, or embedded under
the display. To be honest, the two renders (Ghost and Ghost Pro) look quite
similar, and the placement of the antenna lines on the two phones line up. This
could indicate that the Ghost Pro is a premium version of the Ghost series,
with a bump up in specs.
There are two other BlackBerry licensees, TCL and BB
Merah Putih. TCL is expected to release two new BlackBerry models this year,
which could include a sequel to the BlackBerry KEYone.
