BlackBerry Mercury expected to feature Google Pixel's class-leading camera sensor

Now that BlackBerry has set a date for the launch of its Mercury smartphones with a hardware Qwerty keyboard, what continues to remain a mystery are its specifications and of course the name. According to the latest leak, it appears that BlackBerry has taken a step forward in the camera department; this is because the Mercury apparently packs in same camera as the Google Pixel .

Tech journalist Roland Quandt seems to have dug into the details of some BlackBerry camera files and it turns out that the upcoming BlackBerry device codenamed ‘Mercury’ packs in the same sensor, namely the 12MP Sony IMX378, which is found in the Google Pixel smartphone.

We reviewed the Google Pixel not too long ago. The one detail that caught everyone’s attention was its class-leading (across operating systems) image and video recording capabilities that somehow helped justify its premium price tag. And imaging is exactly what BlackBerry seems to be gunning for with its upcoming flagship.

While this is not the second time someone else has hooked up the same sensor (Xiaomi Mi 5s), it is clear, that BlackBerry is looking at an all-rounder with camera performance in mind as well. This comes as a surprise as the Mercury appears to be a more of a business device, with its hardware keyboard and squared out display than one that’s built for common consumer for multimedia and entertainment.

But even with its hardware camera chops in place, one cannot conclude that the performance would be the same (or anywhere close) to the Google Pixel. This is because a majority of the work with the Pixel’s camera performance depends on software processing and algorithms. In fact, in our tests, it did an even better job than the iPhone 7 Plus with two cameras on board. So let’s not jump to conclusions yet.

BlackBerry’s flagship smartphone is all set to launched  at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. The device is also expected to go on sale globally shortly thereafter.