BlackBerry 10 Release Date Nears: Price Allegedly Leaked For Z10 Phone Via UK Electronics Retailer [VIDEO]

The unlocked BlackBerry Z10, one of the flagship models set to launch alongside RIM’s updated mobile software, may sell for £479.95, which equates to about $755. This price was listed as part of an alleged screenshot of an inventory list, which came from UK retailer Carphone Warehouse, according to Slash Gear.

This is the second time a screenshot from a smartphone vendor was believed to leak online ahead of the phone’s launch. The Z10 was initially rumored to cost $799 without a SIM card, when a snapshot of Best Buy Canada’s inventory reportedly surfaced online, but this rumor was never addressed by the electronics store or RIM. The newly discovered screenshot from Carphone Warehouse doesn’t mark much of a price difference, but does suggest that users may be able to save $44 on the handset.

For those looking to purchase the Z10 with a two-year contract and carrier subsidies, another rumor suggests that the BlackBerry 10 flagship would be available for under $200 with a contract in the U.S., as Slash Gear also reported.

Although we’re expecting to see the handset officially revealed at the end of this week, no release date for the Z10 has been set yet. Previous rumors have suggested two potential launch dates, each about one month apart at Feb. 28 and March 27. A more recent rumor, according to gadget news source, indicates that the BlackBerry Z10 could launch a few weeks earlier on Feb. 5. We’ll know more about the Z10’s launch date in just two days when RIM holds a New York City event.

RIM’s BlackBerry platform paved the way for the modern smartphone when it commercialized the idea of mobile email back in 1999, and now BlackBerry 10 can be just what the company needs to become relevant once again in today’s mobile market. BlackBerry has been largely overshadowed by mobile heavyweights Android and iOS, which currently control the lion’s share of the smartphone market share.

We’re still waiting to get a good look at the Z10, but the rumor mill has painted a picture of what BlackBerry fans may be able to expect from the forthcoming flagship. The BlackBerry Z10 is rumored to come with 4G LTE connectivity and a 4.2-inch display with a resolution of 768 x 1280, packing 355 pixels per inch. Additionally, the smartphone may feature a microSD card slot that can hold up to 32GB of storage, an 8-megapixel camera, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage space, and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor.

If these rumors turn out to be true, we could be seeing a fresh take on mobile touch-centric software from RIM, alongside some mid-range to high-end hardware to go along with it. Moreover, if speculation about the Z10’s price proves to be accurate, value shoppers will have another option when shopping for a 4G LTE smartphone in the $200 price range. This is the same price as Google’s Nexus 4 when it’s subsidized with a two-year contract, although the price for an unlocked Nexus 4 is significantly lower than the Z10’s rumored SIM-free cost.

We’ll be looking forward to seeing what RIM has to offer later this week at its BlackBerry 10 launch event, but in the meantime check out this allegedly leaked video of the upcoming BB10 user interface.