Blackberry is going to be launching their first smartphone that doesn’t use their own operating system November 6th. The Blackberry Priv runs the Android OS and pre-orders begin today. Pricing is different depending in what country you live in, but its going to cost you $699 US, £559, or CA$899.
Blackberry has also posted the official specs for their new flagship phone. The Priv has a 5.43-inch 1440p AMOLED display with curved edges on the left and right of the screen. Internally, there’s a 1.8GHz Snapdragon 808 SoC, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a non-removable (and massive) 3410mAh battery. There’s also an 18MP rear camera with OIS and phase detect auto focus, and a 2MP front camera. For a carrier, it looks like you’ll need a GSM provider as Blackberry says the device is “Not compatible on Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular.”
The most compelling aspect about this phone is that it has a slider keyboard, that should resonate with Blackberry Torch owners. You will also have Google Play Services installed on it, so you access all of the apps you want from the Google Play Store.
Blackberry CEO John Chen has stated that this phone is make it or break it and that the company would be out of the handset business in a year if it can’t make a profit from it. He said that the company needs to sell approximately five million devices per year to turn a profit.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
