New BlackBerry phone with 64-bit octa-core chip to launch in September?

Believe it or not, a new 64-bit BlackBerry phone may be around the corner with a chip to match the likes of the iPhone 5S and soon-to-be-announced Samsung Galaxy S5.

This device is said to have a 64-bit octa-core processor at the heart of its specs, and will be ready for September of this year, reports Pocket-lint through a trusted source.

BlackBerry was previously rumored to be working on an octa-core handset with a Snapdragon MSM8994 chip on board. It would pack an Adreno 430 GPU and 1600MHz 4GB RAM LPDDR3.

However, prior to today, this MSM8994-equipped phone was expected to release in 2015.

Now it's looking like the next flagship BlackBerry may be several months ahead of schedule and that it'll come with OpenGL support for bumped up graphics, shading and 3D visuals.

BlackBerry at MWC

If true, this would be good news for the struggling Canadian smartphone maker and its dwindling tactical keyboard fans who support BlackBerry 10. It's down to 3.3% market share.

Even though BlackBerry had pledged to stay committed to making smartphone hardware, it ended up inking a deal with Foxconn for low-end devices.

We may see something much more exciting from the company at MWC 2014, which kicks off February 24.

BlackBerry has already begun upgrading its software ambitions by releasing a feature-filled BlackBerry 10.2.1 update and expanding its iOS and Android BBM chat client.

Now it needs new hardware that is a true sequel to the BlackBerry Z30 and BlackBerry Q10.

• But can it compete with what we're hearing about iPhone 6?