A new paparazzi shot shows the BlackBerry Mercury allegedly in use on a flight

BlackBerry Mercury is shaping up to be one of the most impressive phones of the year, if the latest rumours are to be believed.

The flagship new Android smartphone was briefly teased at CES 2017 in Las Vegas earlier this month, following a slew of mysterious, dimly-lit teaser videos.

And now, ahead of the final BlackBerry Mercury announcement at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow in Barcelona later this month, the highly-anticipated smartphone has been spotted in use in the wild.

Posting in the user forum of prominent BlackBerry-themed blog Crackberry, one user shared photograph of what appears the BlackBerry Mercury.

"Saw this phone on my flight from Amsterdam to Copenhagen yesterday," the forum user, identified only as Jorgie714, has shared.

"The guy didn't want to talk about it. Good looking phone!"

The response to the upcoming BlackBerry smartphone has been hugely positive on the forum.

"It does look very good to me," one user agreed. Another added: "Can't wait to see this in person. I'm hoping for local availability."