The BlackBerry Slider was absent from rumor-land for a while but it has returned along with some more photos. The BlackBerry Slider 9800 is shown running the BlackBerry OS 6, so it's still on track to becoming the first RIM phone with the new OS.

The photos are quire poor - but still, they confirm that the BlackBerry Slider (probably not its real model name) is running BlackBerry OS 6, though (quite expectedly) a pre-release version.

New photos of the BlackBerry Slider 9800 • old photos are clearer

BB OS 6 was expected, along with some other interesting bits - touchscreen, but no SurePress, and a 5MP camera with something called "liquid lens technology". This leak neither confirms nor denies any of that. They do show the BlackBerry Slider 9800 running on Rogers, so we're sure to get a GSM version.

We still don't know when the Slider is coming out though. However, if it will really be the first device to run OS v6, then the BlackBerry Slider 9800 should come out in Q3 at the earliest(when BB OS 6 is expected).