Where smartphones are concerned, Google and BlackBerry are two of the most popular names, and it is quite heartening that these two companies are allegedly releasing in 2017 budget-friendly phones. These less expensive smartphones reportedly are to be marketed also outside of the US, which means more enthusiasts can have the chance to own either a BlackBerry or a Pixel.

Reportedly, the BlackBerry Mercury may be the most awaited BB phone to come in this year, but the company is also rumored to announce a different smartphone soon. Accordingly, it has been leaked that a mid-range BlackBerry device, a certain BB100-1 smartphone will be introduced in the near future, and it would purportedly come with a 5.5-inch 720p display.

Seemingly to-date, only little is known about the new BlackBerry Mercury device. It is rumored that there is a front mounted touch-sensitive QWERTY keyboard, that can also be used as a trackpad. Apparently, a fingerprint sensor has also been incorporated as part of the space bar. The device is alleged to be stuffing both a 3.5mm headphone port and a USB Type-C port,

Reports say that new BlackBerry Mercury phone will also be equipped with a 3,400 mAh battery and a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset that is supported up by 3 GB of RAM. Rumors further say that the main camera would probably be an 18-megapixel unit, similar to the 18-megapixel camera used on the BlackBerry Priv. Gossips are further saying that it will possibly be the same 12-megapixel unit as seen on the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL smartphones.

On the other hand, Pixel and Pixel XL were seemingly celebrities when they were released last year. Accordingly, Google's decision to change its smartphones' name from Nexus to Pixel was also quite of a big surprise to its followers. Google is rumored to be going ahead to launch new Pixel devices, and apparently will be releasing the Pixel 2 alongside a budget-friendly Pixel 2B smartphone. Reportedly, it is Google's objective that in its next Pixel release, the Google experience will be brought to other markets.