Blackberry has officially confirmed its latest device will be ditching the keyboard, once seen as a key selling point for the firm’s handsets.
TCL, the Chinese electronics company behind its manufacture, launched the new Motion gadget at the Gitex Technology Week in Dubai.
The device will initially be launched in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, before becoming available elsewhere.
It features 5.5-inch screen, headphone jack, a fingerprint reader, 12 MP camera and a huge 4,000mAh battery.
Blackberry has officially confirmed its latest device will be ditching the keyboard, once seen as a key selling point for the firm’s handsets. TCL, the Chinese electronics company behind its manufacture, launched the Motion at the Gitex Technology Week in Dubai
The mid-range Motion is powered by a Snapdragon 625 CPU, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space.
The front of the six inch tall device is mostly taken up by a 5.5-inch 1080p display, as well as a fingerprint scanning home button.
On the rear, a 12-megapixel camera with dual-tone LED flash can take high quality stills and shoot 4K video at 30 fps.
The Motion is IP67 water-resistant and comes equipped with a 4,000mAh battery, providing almost twice as much charge as the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
That means the a full day’s use without the need to top up should be a realistic prospect.
The handset will come equipped with a BlackBerry tweaked version of Android 7.0 Nougat, the predecessor to the recently released 8.0 Oreo edition.
A global launch date and price is yet to be announced for the Motion.
In the UAE, it is priced at 1,700 dirham (£350 / $460).
The mid-range device is powered by a Snapdragon 625 CPU, backed up by 4GB of RAM and 32GB of storage space
It features 5.5-inch screen, headphone jack, a fingerprint reader, 12 MP camera and a huge 4,000mAh battery
On the rear, a 12-megapixel camera with dual-tone LED flash can take high quality stills and shoot 4K video at 30 fps
A fingerprint scanning home button is located on the front facing portion of the phone
| Operating System | Android 7.1.1 Nougat |
|---|---|
| Display | 5.5-inch, 1920×1080 |
| IPS LCD | |
| 403ppi | |
| DragonTrail Glass | |
| Nano-diamond anti-scratch coating | |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 |
| Octa-core 2.00GHz | |
| Adreno 506 GPU | |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 32GB |
| Expandable | microSD up to 2TB |
| Rear Camera | 12MP (1.55 micron) f/2.0, PDAF |
| dual-tone LED flash | |
| HDR, 4K, 30fps | |
| Front Camera | 8MP f/2.2 |
| 1.12-micron pixels | |
| Selfie flash | |
| 1080p/30 video | |
| Battery | 4000mAh |
| non-removable | |
| Charging | Quick Charge 3.0 |
| USB-C | |
| Water resistance | Yes, IP67 |
| Security | DTEK security suite |
| FIPS 140-2 Full Disk Encryption | |
| Android For Work, Google Play for Work | |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11ac, 5GHz, Bluetooth 4.2 LE, NFC |
| GPS, GLONASS, Dual SIM capability | |
| Dimensions | 155.7 mm (6.1″) x 75.4 mm (3″) x 8.13 mm (0.33 “) |
| Weight | TBA |
Blackberry fan and Twitter user CrackBerry Kevin was among those to react to the launch.
Writing on the social media site, he said: ‘BlackBerry Motion goes from rumor to real… makes appearance at #GITEX in Dubai! Full touch, HUGE battery.’
The unveiling comes just days after leaker Evan Blass posted a photo of the Motion smartphone.
The image, which first suggested the keyboard was being dropped, was accompanied with the caption: ‘Goodbye, Krypton. Hello, BlackBerry Motion.’
The new device will follow Blackberry’s KEYone Android handset, which was revealed in May.
The KEYone boasts a QWERTY keyboard alongside a touchscreen display and costs $549.99 (£428.21).
The front of the six inch tall device is mostly taken up by a 5.5-inch 1080p display, as well as a fingerprint scanning home button
Blackberry fan and Twitter user CrackBerry Kevin was among those to react to the launch. Writing on the social media site, he said: ‘ BlackBerry Motion goes from rumor to real… makes appearance at #GITEX in Dubai! Full touch, HUGE battery’
A global launch date and price is yet to be announced for the Motion. In the UAE, it is priced at 1,700 dirham (£350 / $460)