BlackBerry reveals new smartphone, the ‘London’

London’s calling. From the leaked slideshow of the BlackBerry Roadmap of 2012 comes the revelation of the anticipated BlackBerry “London”.

November 2011 saw the first photo of the BlackBerry London bubble to the surface, but it was a dummy phone which resembled the ultra-expensive, Porsche-designed P’9981.

The BlackBerry London in the leaked slide seems to resemble a smartphone version of the disastrous PlayBook. Flat, with iPhone 4S-like rounded corners and rocking a similar interface to the PlayBook, the London looks dramatically different to BlackBerry’s usual designs.

The launch strategy sees BlackBerry target the UK first, with the US looking to get two other models of the London, named “Lisbon” and “Laguna”. BlackBerry is still the UK’s most popular smartphone, it would bode well for RIM if it could capture the hearts of the US smartphone customer as well.

Hardware-wise, the BlackBerry London looks like it will run with either the Qualcomm or TI OMAP5 chipset, as RIM is testing the viability of a 1.5Ghz dual core CPU. While the PlayBook came with a 1Ghz CPU, a 1.5Ghz phone would turn the London into one of the fastest smartphones around.

The slideshow itself comes with standard PR babble such as “dramatic shift in UI”, “exceptional power and efficiency” and “quality apps and content story”. What does this mean for the BlackBerry London user? That perhaps RIM is finally giving its users what it wants. It could be a clean device, with an advanced UI and apps which are actually useable.

Other phones pulled from the leaked slideshow include a new PlayBook with HSDPA+ and a fresh Curve aimed at the lower spectrum of the smartphone loving market. One of the new and soon to be hyped features of the new Curves is a dedicated BBM button.

Look forward to a November or December release of the BlackBerry London.

Image care of CrackBerry.com