BlackBerry "Ontario" handset spotted on benchmark site, quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor in tow

A handset codenamed the BlackBerry "Ontario" was discovered at the Geekbench benchmark site. This could be the high-end device that CEO John Chen said that BlackBerry itself was developing for the U.S. market. The unannounced model is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.15GHz. No released BlackBerry handset is powered by a quad-core CPU. The device also has 2GB of RAM and has BlackBerry 10.3.0.92 installed.

The beleaguered Canadian handset manufacturer has inked a deal with contract manufacturer Foxconn. The latter will design, manufacture, and warehouse low-end BlackBerry models over a period of five years. BlackBerry will provide the software for the new phones.

Early last month, Chen said that most of BlackBerry's new models would come with a physical QWERTY, something that has been linked to BlackBerry going back to its early days. The new high-end model is expected to feature a physical QWERTY, which should make most BlackBerry faithful happy. We could see this model appear in the second half of the year.



One of the first low-end models expected to roll-off the Foxconn production line is the BlackBerry "Jakarta," which is headed first to Indonesia, sans a physical QWERTY.

Unannounced BlackBerry "Ontario" is benchmarked