Midrange Blackberry Motion officially announced, no physical keyboard but it has a home button

GITEX 2017 (Gulf Information Technology Exhibition) started today, and Blackberry have kicked off their presence by officially announcing the Blackberry Motion which was leaked shortly before the weekend. The device will be another TCL manufactured product using Blackberry branding and software. With the official announcement, we now have confirmed specs to put the device into context.

Specifications include:

• A midrange Snapdragon SoC (SD 645 rumored)
• 4 GB RAM
• 5.5-inch 1080p display
• 4000 mAh battery
• IP67 water and dust resistance
• Quick charge 3.0

The design language is similar to the Blackberry KEYone, minus the physical keyboard. There appears to be a physical home key between two permanent navigation buttons and a less slippery material on the rear panel. The initial release is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, with other markets to follow later this year. Since the device has been announced at GITEX, it may never make it to western markets, but it appears to be an attractive phone that is worth keeping an eye on if you’re interested in Blackberry hardware and software running on Android.

The MSRP price is 1699 Dh in the UAE and 1699 Riyal in Saudi Arabia, which translate to around US$450 to 460.