BlackBerry Motion Leaks With Water Resistant Design Running Android

The company that once upon a time was known as Research in Motion (RIM) is getting ready to release a new smartphone, the BlackBerry Motion. Known internally as Krypton, what looks to be an official press rendering of the new handset has found its way to the web, courtesy of Evan Blass (who else?), otherwise popularly known on Twitter as @evleaks.

In an exchange on Twitter that follows his post, Evan alludes to the BlackBerry Motion not being a flagship handset. Previously leaked specs back the assertion—the BlackBerry Motion is said to feature an all-touch front display with a Full HD 1080p (1920x1080) resolution powered by a mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 or newer 626 processor and 4GB of RAM. It will also have a 4,000 mAh battery.
There is no physical keyboard on the BlackBerry Motion, either built into the bottom or as a slide-out accessory. However, it does have a physical home button with a built-in fingerprint sensor. From the press rendering, we can also see that it is running Android—no surprise there, as BlackBerry ditched its own homegrown operating system for Google's mobile OS last year.

The BlackBerry Motion is the second phone built by TCL for BlackBerry through a licensing agreement, the first one being the KeyOne. For the time being (and foreseeable future), BlackBerry is concentrating its efforts on software and security, while leaving the hardware aspect up to TCL, a company that is perhaps best known a lower cost television brand.

In this case, the BlackBerry Motion is not a flagship device, but does have a premium look to it. The handset also features a water resistant design with IP67 certification, a first for a BlackBerry device.

It is not yet known when and where the BlackBerry Motion will release first, or how much it will cost.