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It's no secret that RIM's planning to release a flip phone version of the BlackBerrry. Rumors and leaks regarding such a smartphone, known as the BlackBerry Kickstart, have been making the rounds through the Internet rumor mill for months now. What's not clear is when this radical redesign of the BlackBerry will hit the market or for how much.

While we still don't know anything regarding the latter, we're a little more enlightened today regarding the former. That's because grey-marketer expansys is now listing a pail of flip phone-styled BlackBerrys: the 8220 with Wi-Fi and the 8210 with GPS. The online UK retailer doesn't mention a price for either model. Nor does it say exactly when they'll ship. But the postings could mean an official announcement regarding the Kickstartt may happen sooner than later.

Expansys is taking pre-orders for both editions of the new BlackBerry. And, under the Details tab, it lists the most detailed specs to appear regarding the Kickstart yet.

Like the BlackBerry Pearl model, the Kickstart sports a keypad/keyboard combo rather than a full QWERTY thumb-keyboard. So Kickstart uses RIM's SureType predictive text software to help text entry along. The Kickstart's keyboard rests on the bottom half of the clamshell, along with a trackball navigation system and four additional buttons, while the screen takes up the top portion. A camera is also present.

Like many other flip phones, Kickstart sports a small external display (160 x 128 pixel resolution) for delivering time, date and caller related information. Its main display measures 2.6 inches and runs a 240 x 320 pixels.

The quad-band GSM smartphone is supposed to measures 4 x 2 x 0.7 inches (101.6 x 50.8 x 17.18 millimeters) and weigh 3.6 ounces (101.2 grams).

As with the Pearl, there's a 2 megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom for picture and video, a microSD slot for memory expansion, Bluetooth and a 3.5mm audio connector.

The Kickstart runs on BlackBerry OS 4.6.

You can learn more about the 8220 here and the 8210 here.