Earlier this week BlackBerry might have jumped the gun as the Priv went on for pre-order only to be pulled, now though the company has officially started taking pre-orders for its first Android-powered smartphone. Naturally there’s a bit of excitement surrounding this device, BlackBerry has never done an Android smartphone before and many are curious to see exactly what the company has done to ensure that customers receive BB-level security that they’ve always expected from the company.
You can pre-order BlackBerry Priv now in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom for $699, $899 and £559 respectively. The pricing is certainly a bit on the higher side but given that it’s a flagship device one can understand why BlackBerry is charging what it’s charging.
For this price you get a 5.4 inch 2,560×1,440 pixel resolution dual-edge curved AMOLED display with a Snapdragon 808 processor under the hood, 3GB RAM, 32GB onboard storage with microSD card support, 18 megapixel rear camera and an impressive 3,410mAh battery. It runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop.
This handset touts the slider form factor that’s not common these days, slide up the device to reveal the full QWERTY hardware keyboard that BlackBerry is famous for. The keyboard also doubles as a trackpad, a feature that the company introduced with the BlackBerry Passport last year.
According to the pre-order page on the company’s website, BlackBerry Priv will start shipping in the United States come November 6th.
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