First BlackBerry 10 device unveiled

02 May 2012

But BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha is strictly for developers

Good news and bad news. The good news, of course, is a first glimpse of a next-generation BlackBerry 10 device. But the bad news is that you'll need to be developing for the new BlackBerry platform to get your hands on one.

But we'll park that concern for now, as the unveil does offer a glimpse of just what RIM will be offering with BlackBerry 10 later this year, even if there's some way to go before we see the finished model. Right now, this is very much a 'now' smartphone. By that, we mean slim and touch-screen, with a 4.2-inchdisplay and 1280x768-pixel resolution. That's right, no keyboard. But RIM is promising keyboard-based smartphones eventually. A second developers handset will be launched later in the year, which just might have those iconic keys.

Not a lot is known about the inner workings, only that the phone has a micro SIM slot, headphone jack and mini-HDMI, along with up to 16GB of onboard storage. But the star of the show here isn't really the hardware, it should be the operating system.

Sadly, it looks like that still has some way to go, with the demonstration device currently using the PlayBook 2.0 OS for its media debut. There are a couple of screenshots on the page showing that, but we expect the finished product will be different. Although, with this being a developer phone, perhaps not all that different. Time will tell.

Talking of time, still no word on an official launch for the first BlackBerry 10 phone. With another developer phone still to come, that 'late 2012' timescale still sounds about right.

Sources: Engadget and Pocket-lint