Well, this comes around as certainly a big news for the Blackberry lovers as the brand is all set to release its first smartphone that runs Google’s Android software, instead of Blackberry OS, that seems to not enjoy the same attention as it did previously. In the age where iPhone and Android are enjoying huge prominence, Blackberry has indeed took a major step by coming up with Blackberry Priv with Android software. This is indeed an attempt made by Blackberry to regain its lost sheen, while it continues to focus on privacy, which has been its major feature.
So here we bring to you what Priv has to offer:
Priv for privacy
Interestingly, Priv stands for privacy and privilege, and as per Blackberry CEO John Chen’s it is rather the privilege to maintain privacy. Even though there is no information regarding how Blackberry is going to attain the task, still it’s expected that they are planning to build BlackBerry 10 software for remote wiping, encryption, and separating work and personal profiles on top of the Android OS.
Word has that Blackberry will continue to sell companies’ subscriptions to its Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES), which is a software that is useful in keeping phones private and secure. Meanwhile, news coming from the other sources say that Apple and IBM are going to join hands to safeguard business apps for iPhone. Meanwhile, handsets like the Silent Circle Blackphone 2 and Crowdfunded Turing Phone also aim to offer security to their customers.
Design
Well, this tall phone, Priv seems to be quite easy to handle as it starts with a curved, 5.5-inch display and comes with a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The keyboard is quite slim and thus it can tuck into the Priv sans adding weight and bulk.
Android apps, apps, apps
It’s certainly the Android apps that made BlackBerry let go of its own operating system. Getting the status of an Android phone, the Priv gets the hold of the Google Play store as well as Google’s excellent maps and navigation app, and Google Now. However, there is still no clarity whether Priv will run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow at launch, as it was only few days back that Google made the OS available to device-makers.
Hardware
There has been no confirmation from BlackBerry over the hardware except from the latest Qualcomm specs and the cameras and other good stuff. However, it is expected that there will be Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with eight cores, and 13-megapixel camera on the back, while 5mp or 8mp on the front. As it comes to the space, there might be internal storage options like 32GB, 64GB and 128GB.
Pricing and availability
It’s expected that the phone might be out for the launch before December and the price range for Priv is expected to be between $500 to $600 price range, which converts to £330 or £400 and AU$700 or AU$850.
Stay tuned for more!
