BlackBerry's all-touchscreen 'Motion' phone has leaked

If you weren't too taken with the new flagship handsets from Apple, even the iPhone X, or Google's Pixel 2 – hey, anything's possible – there's always BlackBerry to turn to. 

Earlier today reputable leaker Evan Blass took to Twitter to post a photo of what he says is the BlackBerry 'Motion', which the rumor mill had previously been calling the BlackBerry Krypton. In an age when phones explode and health concerns still lurk, it’d probably a good thing that name was ditched.

Much like last year’s budget-friendly BlackBerry DTEK50, it chucks the tactile keyboard that’s been a hallmark of BlackBerry devices for years in favor of the touchscreen interface used for most modern smartphones.

Beyond that, we don’t know much, except that it’ll be made by TCL (who makes all of BlackBerry’s phones these days). 

TCL’s global head of sales François Mahieu said last August that the then-unnamed device would launch sometime this month. Mahieu also told Engadget around the same time that the keyboard-free device would (likely) be certified water-resistant.  

All other information is rooted in rumor, and often sketchy rumor at that. As CrackBerry reports, it’ll likely have a 1920x1080 display, 4GB of RAM, a 4000 mAh battery, and a Snapdragon 625 or 626 processor. It’ll also likely have a home button with a fingerprint scanner, which Blass’ photo seems to confirm. 

In other words, it’s tempting to dismiss it as a fairly ordinary Android phone, with little to distinguish it apart from the waterproofing and (likely) a comparatively secure Android system as we saw with the DTEK50. Yet BlackBerry, of course, has surprised us in the past, and there’s always a chance they will again.

• Can't imagine a BlackBerry without the physical keyboard? There's always the BlackBerry KeyOne to consider.