BlackBerry’s first Android phone will be available in Australia tomorrow through Optus, with a focus on business customers – don’t worry if you’re a personal customer though, as consumers will be able to purchase the phone for themselves online.
The Priv takes BlackBerry’s focus on productivity, security and privacy and brings it to the world’s largest smartphone platform with access to Google Play for widest app selection of any BlackBerry handset to date. Unsurprisingly, the phone also brings Android For Work / Google Play For Work support for apps managed by a company’s IT department.
The hardware seeks to impress, with a dual-curved 5.4-inch 2550×1440 screen, 32GB onboard storage and support for 2TB Micro SD cards and an 18MP camera. It’s powered by a Snapdragon 808 processor and features Qualcomm’s SecureMSM and StudioAccess for content protection. There’s also a big 3,140 mAh battery to keep things running. You’d expect a physical keyboard on a BlackBerry phone, and the Priv won’t disappoint.
You can find out more about the phone at BlackBerry’s Priv site, or read updates about the phone on BlackBerry’s Blog.
BlackBerry hasn’t supplied any pricing listed yet, and the phone also isn’t yet listed on Optus’ site – we’ll update when we have that information.
Ausdroid has a Priv under review at the moment too, so look for that in the coming days!
Will you make BlackBerry’s Android phone your next phone? Tell us in the comments!
The device was very promising…but the extortionately high price asked for by BB, coupled with the lacklustre build quality and questionable performance put me off.
The price needs to be competitive with other Snapdragon 808-powered devices, plus a small premium for the keyboard…The LG G4 (the benchmark SD808 device in my subjective opinion) can be had for less than $500 on a good deal…i wouldnt pay more than $600 for this.
Recently seen it in leather for the 350-400 dollar mark.
Finally an android device that might be bearable.
Honestly, ios and android manufacturers still haven’t managed to make a device better at emailing, calling and texting than the old BlackBerry’s.
Bb10’s customisable hotkey and launcher shortcuts, universal search, universal inbox (hub) and biggest viewing area on the market while typing thanks to a concealable hardware qwerty that doubles as a track pad.
If working on the move is a priority then the privs features are in a league of their own.
Maybe not the best device if productivity or a hardware qwerty isn’t important to the user.
never used a BB, will be interested if they bring it down to <500. its fun try try new handsets with new physical features
I already have 5 of these in my business. expensive, but SOOOOOO much better than the BBX experience.
Build quality is a disappointing, and the heat issue is pretty bad. but STILL its better than the Passport etc just because its not BBX.
Oh and the initial startup process is only slightly better than the passports… not quite as crippling, but jeeze they need a better way to rapidly bring the software uptodate once you pull it out of the box.
Well since BBX hasn’t been around for a few years, I’d say it should be better.
I’m just trying to figure if your issue with BlackBerry’s is just because they weren’t android. Because as an OS, BB10 isn’t bad at all, it just lacks the support..
i’d still like one of these esp if second gen gets released with glitches fixed. alternatively if these go down to $400 or so on grey market i’d go there. miss the blackberry keyboard and notification layer.