BlackBerry seems to be preparing to bring the next smartphone to the market this year. The company launched the BlackBerry KEYone last year with a price tag of Rs 39,990.

Blackberry Athena. TENNA

The new smartphone by BlackBerry, spotted on Chinese regulator website TENAA looks similar to 2017's KEYone. The smartphone comes with a display and a keyboard at the bottom of the screen. According to a report on GSMArena, the smartphone is codenamed "Athena" and will likely launch as the KEYewo or the KEYone (2018) this year.

The KEYone and the Athena are visually similar. Most notably, the KEYone's camera ring is gone, replaced by a more familiar dual camera bump that is now common on most phones today. The images show a single flash beside the dual-camera and the keyboard of the Athena also looks redesigned when compared to the KEYone. The images show that the plastic or rubberised pattern seen on the rear side of the smartphone extends till the top. The front speaker grill also appears to have been redesigned slightly.

Blackberry Athena. Image Credits: TENNA

The display looks familiar, with the previous phone's 3:2 aspect ratio. The 3.5 mm headphone jack remains, as does the USB-C port. The BlackBerry Athena bears a model number BBF100-4 which is similar as the model number of KEYone BBB100-X.