While 2017 is slated to mark the advent of some of the most anticipated smartphones from leading handset makers such as Samsung and Apple, fading brand names including Nokia and BlackBerry are looking to return to the spotlight this year.

BB Merah Putih, an Indonesian company that looks after the distribution and marketing of BlackBerry handsets in Indonesia; officially announced the BlackBerry Aurora on Thursday, March 9. Aside from being the Canadian-based tech firm's first smartphone equipped with dual-SIM (Micro-SIM) functionality, the Aurora is also the first Blackberry smartphone that has been developed in Indonesia, according to a post from Alex Thurber, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobility Solutions for BlackBerry on the Official BlackBerry Blog.

It's worth noting that TCL holds the license for manufacturing and selling BlackBerry smartphones in most of the world except few countries in Asia. For instance, the license to manufacture and sell BlackBerry smartphones in India is held by Optiemus Infracom.

BlackBerry Aurora Specs, Features & Price

The BlackBerry Aurora is available in Black, Silver, and Gold color options. The device sports a 5.5-inch display with 720x1280 pixels resolution.

Under the hood, the BlackBerry Aurora packs a powerful 1.4GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 SoC paired with 4GB of RAM. The device runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out-of-the-box. In the photography front, the BlackBerry Aurora boasts a 13MP primary camera and an 8MP front shooter for the selfie addicts, Gadgets 360 reported.

Furthermore, the BlackBerry Aurora has 32GB of expandable (up to a whopping 2 TB via microSD card) inbuilt storage. The device also offers a slew of connectivity options such as Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/ n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and 4G LTE connectivity. It packs a robust 3000mAh battery and in terms of dimensions, the BlackBerry Aurora measures 152x76.8x8.5mm and it weighs in at 178 grams.

The BlackBerry Aurora has been up for grabs via pre-orders since March 3 and the smartphone will remain available until March 12 with local retailers at IDR 3,499,000, which converts roughly to about $261.

Not too long ago, BlackBerry divulged that it was hoping to collaborate with more licensing partners in order to bring a slew of its future smartphones including the BlackBerry Mercury to the rest of the world.