BlackBerry Dakota Pictured, Specs Leak Along With it [Updated]

The BlackBerry Dakota has managed to shy away from the lens of a camera for quite some time, but it looks like anyone looking for their next top-of-the-line BlackBerry device might be staring at their next device. Boy Genius Report has managed to get the first shot of the device, which features a capacitive touchscreen along with the company's trademark physical keyboard below.

Research In Motion have managed to throw in plenty of features, if the listed specifications pan out to be true. Though, as we've seen in other devices in the past from the company, the Dakota doesn't stand as the king of the smartphone hill, but strictly at the head of the BlackBerry lineage for a short time. Features like a 2.8-inch capacitive touchscreen display, but with a VGA resolution of 640 x 480.

The device will also feature Near Field Communications (NFC) built-in. It is a Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device, with a 5MP camera on the back. RIM has included 4GB of internal memory, along with 768MB of RAM. The Dakota will have Bluetooth connectivity, integrated 802.11 WiFi b/g/n, an accelerometer, proximity sensor, and a magnetometer. Perhaps one of the device's best features is the ability to use it as a 3G mobile hotspot. It will use a microUSB port for charging.

The Dakota is reported to be launching with BlackBerry OS 6.1, so we imagine there will be new features within the mobile Operating System (OS) itself, but details regarding those are not available at this time. What carrier exactly the new Dakota will launch on is up in the air, but it is likely that the device will launch on AT&T some time in the future. No exact date is available.

[Update]: It looks like BlackBerry OS 6.1 just broke cover over at DevCon Asia over in Bali late last night. Some of the new features in the OS will be the new magnetometer listed above, and APIs for digital compass usage. There will also be support for OpenGL-ES 2.0, Window API, and event-based geo-fencing location APIs.

[via Boy Genius Report]