Sharper BlackBerry 10 L phone images surface

RIM's rumored BlackBerry 10 L series device, code-named London, has just come into sharper focus thanks to new images posted by Vietnamese site Tinh Te and reported by CIO.com.

If these shots and accompanying video are legit, the phone runs RIM's long awaited BlackBerry 10 software complete with the BlackBerry Hub and Flow interface. From the video and pictures it's clear that the device is smaller than the Dev Alpha developer prototype, yet looks to sport a similar if not the same 4.2-inch touch screen. Its square corners have been rounded off. The 10 L also appears to be thinner and a little shorter, hopefully without sacrificing features or capability.

Within the video, the presenter is kind enough to provide a full run-through of the BlackBerry 10 L's physical components, going so far as to compare it with the Dev Alpha device and Apple iPhone 5. He even removes the back cover, giving us a clear view of the battery, microSD card slot, and SIM card.

Honestly I'm thinking this is the real deal, or at least an almost fully baked engineering sample of RIM's top-secret hardware. On the back of the all-black phone you can see a perforated pattern that looks identical to the one you may have noticed in the teaser image RIM recently released.

Additionally the camera and LED flash are placed in the top left-hand corner, just as how they appear in RIM's officially sanctioned shot. The phone does look a little thick, but hopefully its extra girth will lend the handset a premium feel, typical for old-school BlackBerrys. RIM has announced that it will release BlackBerry 10 on January 30, 2013, and hopefully it will unveil new hardware then as well.