The Canadian phone maker will soon release its first Android handset called BlackBerry Priv, which is available to pre-order through Carphone Warehouse and will ship in the UK from Friday, 6 November.
It's like an Android-equipped version of the BlackBerry Torch. There's been a lot of rumour and speculation surrounding this device in recent weeks, but everything is open now as you can actually order one.
Here's everything we know about the BlackBerry Priv.
Tips: Best mehtod to Transfer Data Contacts from Android to BlackBerry Priv.
BlackBerry Priv design
BlackBerry surprised everyone at MWC 2015 when BB exec Ron Louks pulled out a mystery device. It had a dual-curved, all-touch display with a keyboard, a slider phone. At the time, it was seen to be running BB10 and BlackBerry didn't say much about it, just teased that it was on the roadmap for the future.
A few months later, official photos released by BlackBerry showed a rather slender device from the side, despite that separate keyboard and screen piled on top of each other.
It features an integrated keyboard within a slider mechanism at the bottom of the device. There is also a visible speaker grille that stretches across the entire width below the keyboard. A Micro-USB port sits central and a headphone socket is on the far left next to the charging port.
There are three buttons on the right-hand side of the device, with the larger buttons working as volume rockers, while the centre smaller button is what is used for activating the notification centre. Another singular button is on the left-hand side, which looks to be the power button. The rear camera is central and the pictures show it coming with a dual-tone LED flash - something also confirmed in the official specifications.
BlackBerry has described the sound quality as "extraordinary" but we're yet to hear it for ourselves.
BlackBerry Priv specs
The BlackBerry Priv features a 5.4-inch AMOLED display with curved edges, and it has a Quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. That puts it right up there with the top-tier of Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4.
The Priv is powered by a 1.8GHz 64-bit hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, supported by 3GB RAM, 32GB of storage and a microSD slot. Again, that puts it on a par with Android devices.
The BlackBerry Priv is powered by a 3410mAh battery, which is a pretty large capacity, so we'd have hopes for all-day battery life.
There is also an 18-megapixel rear camera, with a 5-megapixel front-facing snapper, with the rear being a Schneider-Kreuznach lens. Optical image stabilisation and 4K UHD video recording up to 30 frames per second were previously rumoured and we're just awaiting confirmation that they have made it to the consumer handset.
BlackBerry Priv software
BlackBerry has, for the Priv, switched from its own BlackBerry OS to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop for release. Whether that will be upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow in time remains to be seen.
To take care of security, the BlackBery Priv comes with something called DTEK, which is described as a warning system app, designed to boost your privacy. BlackBerry has revealed that Priv stands for privacy and that applies on a hardware level. The Priv has what's called BlackBerry's Hardware Root of Trust which is a unique manufacturing process that injects cryptographic keys into the hardware.
BlackBerry says: "Priv integrates seamlessly with Android for Work to provide secure separation between work and personal data and applications. The Personal Space lets you download apps and protects your personal privacy, while the Work Space lets the enterprise secure its corporate data."
Google Play is present alongside a range of standard Android services, including Google Maps, Hangouts, and Google Calendar. The BlackBerry Priv won't run stock Android, featuring a skin over the top, but the skin will be lighter than others. There will still be custom BlackBerry software but it will come through apps instead. In fact, there are already a few ready for the Priv launch on the Google Play Store.
Additionally, utilising the curved display is something called Productivity Edge. It will allow users of the Priv to glance at notifications, messages, calendar events and others with a swipe. It can be setup to appear on the left or right hand side of the screen and it will apparently be able to act as a charging bar when the Priv is plugged in too.
BlackBerry Priv release date and price
Carphone Warehouse's pre-order page for the BlackBerry Priv is available on its online store. That also reveals that shipping will commence, in the UK, from Friday, 6 November.
The UK store also reveals the price, with pay monthly plans starting at £49 a month with no up-front cost. If you're willing to pay something towards the handset, you can get monthly deals from £31.99, although you with be expected to fork out £129.99 for 1GB of 4G data on the EE network, £179.99 for the handset on a deal with 5GB of data.
The BlackBerry Priv can also be bought for £579.99 SIM-free.
For those of you in the US, BlackBerry is now listing the Priv on ShopBlackberry. Through that site, we can see that the Priv will cost $750 unlocked. In Canada, it'll cost $949.
AT&T also announced that it will be carrying the Priv from the same date as the UK release, 6 November. Monthly plans start at $24.67.
BlackBerry Priv videos
On 16 October (and somewhat out of the blue), pre-orders for the BlackBerry Priv opened through UK retailer Carphone Warehouse, confirming all the details in the process. A hands-on video later appeared, once again courtesy of Carphone Warehouse, showing what the Android slider looks like and can do. You can watch that video above.
If you had any doubts left in your mind about the this handset, prepare to be amazed: following Carphone Warehouse's hands-on video, BlackBerry posted its own hands-on introduction video for Priv, confirming once and for all what the Android slider is capable of doing. And there's another official video detailing the key features. You can watch both below...
No comments:
Post a Comment