We’ve been making a bit of noise about the BlackBerry Priv, an incredible Android powered BlackBerry with sliding keyboard. As you can see above, it looks kind of amazing, and though we’ve had a few rumours previously, including pre-sales opening this Friday in the US, it seems we now know exactly what’s going on.
BlackBerry has the Priv listed on ShopBlackberry, and while we can’t pre-order it just yet, we have the pricing information — in the US, the unlocked handset will sell for $US750, and the Canadians will have access too, albeit for $949, quite a bit more expensive.
At the time of writing, the listings have been removed, but not before others picked up the details and shared them for the world to see.
Inside, the Priv is sounding rather appealing; it features a 5.4″ display, Snapdragon 808 chipset with 3,410mAh battery. Camera-wise, the Priv features an 18MP rear camera, and 2MP front camera, 3GB of RAM, and an incredible display capable of 2560×1440 resolution at 540 DPI.
Whatever the Priv is, we can’t wait to see it. BlackBerry was always known for its strong design smarts, and while its software might not have been to everyone’s tastes, their hardware was mostly pretty cool.
Holy moly, that is EXPENSIVE. I would still love to play with it though…
I had convinced myself that this was my next phone … alas, not at that price …
This was one of the phones on my wish list, but considering the rather expensive price I’m afraid the Android BlackBerry just disqualified itself. Oh well, come on Motorola Australia, give us some news on the Moto X Force please!
Just jumped onto GSMArena to check out the Moto X Force. It looks like a decent handset with everything that I would like in my new handset. The Moto has just replaced the BS Priv as my next handset. Thanks for the pointer.
You’re welcome.
Too expensive, for BB with Android!
Too expensive … they won’t sell enough to make an impact at this price
Agreed. When a manufacturing company is struggling and losing market share, one would have thought to trade yourself out of trouble, you need to start clawing back some market share. At this price, they are not going to do that. I mean, why would you fork out USD750 for a dying phone brand (which means OS updates may or may not happen) when that same amount money might get you a decent Samsung or, heaven forbid, a crapple iPhone. This price will not see them win back their old loyal customers. So BB will continue to head down the path… Read more »
bloody pricey…. still keen though.
At least $200 too expensive for what it is. US$750 = AUD 1040…with GST added it becomes close to AUD 1150. Thanks but no thanks.
It is, at the end of the day an SD808 device with mid/upper-mid range specs. And I don’t think the added few apps will be worth that much more to command such a premium.
Yeah, I’d actually love one, but it’s beyond what I can spend and not feel extremely guilty about it.
Mid range? The price might be high, but the 808 is no slouch. Every other spec is current flagship tier.
It’s no slouch, but it isn’t worth the asking price of the phone either.
The 808 has a weaker GPU than the 810…it’s not a proper flagship SoC but still performs well enough.
But that’s the thing though. How much power do you really need? I don’t know your requirements, but how often are you playing the most GPU intensive games? It’s not as if basic applications and run of the mill phone usage require such high standards of hardware. Unless you’re playing need for speed all the time that minute bit of difference in hardware shouldn’t really matter.
I’m not saying the 808 is inadequate. Just that in my opinion, the phone appears overpriced for the hardware you get.