TCL today announced the BlackBerry Motion, a follow-up to the KEYone that drops the keyboard in favor of a larger touch screen.
The Motion boasts a 5.5-inch full HD screen that’s covered in a nano-diamond coating to prevent scratches. TCL says the phone is the first BlackBerry to carry an IP67 rating for protection from dust and water. The Motion ships with the largest-ever battery for a BlackBerry. The power cell rates 4,000mAh and TCL says it is good for two full days of use. It supports Quick Charge 3.0 for rapid recharges when needed.
Other notable hardware features include a programmable convenience key, fingerprint sensor, USB-C, and a standard headphone jack. Under the hood, the BlackBerry Motion is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, with support for microSD memory cards.
The rear camera has a 12-megapixel sensor with an f/2.0 lens, flash, and phase-detection autofocus, while the front camera has an 8-megapixel sensor with an f/2.4 lens, flash, and wide-angle field of view. The Motion runs Android 7.1 Nougat with BlackBerry’s hardened DTEK software, BlackBerry Hub, and other business-friendly apps on board.
A new tool called Locker allows Motion owners to protect photos and other files in a locked folder that can only be opened with a password or fingerprint. The BlackBerry Motion is initially going to be sold in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for about $460.
TCL said the phone will eventually be sold in other regions, though it didn’t specifically say if that includes the U.S.
