Despite not having a lot of new high end product unveilings in the last year, BlackBerry has been quietly working in the background to build its BlackBerry 10 OS, and the first elusive BB 10 device – called the “L-Series” is the first phone to receive BlackBerry’s latest operating system. If there is one thing phone manufacturers have learned, it is that new high end devices cannot seem to stay under wraps until launch any more.

Tinhte.vn somehow got their hands on a leaked unit, and it really does look like a premium handset people would want. Of course the biggest news is that this BlackBerry will not ship with any hardware keyboard, which will always make a few BlackBerry fans weary (Don’t worry – we have it on good authority there will be a keyboard based BB10 device next year as well). We played with the pre-release BB10 developer handset, and the operating system is a massive shift from the staid BB OS which was in urgent need of refreshing. We found it incredibly fast and intuitive, and the new predictive keyboard is actually something you have to use to appreciate.

We would just like to know what type of materials the phone is made of, but based on previous high end BlackBerry’s we can expect first rate materials. We cannot wait to try out the L-Series – expect it in SA by February or March 2013.