BlackBerry’s first Android phone ships November 6th for $699

BlackBerry’s first Android phone ships November 6th for $699

The BlackBerry Priv is up for preorder with an official spec list.

BlackBerry has officially started taking preorders for the BlackBerry Priv, the company’s
first Android phone. The device is being sold in the US, UK, and
Canada, with pricing at $699, £559, and CA$899, respectively. In the
US and Canada, the device starts shipping November 6th, and in the UK the Priv
will ship “starting the week of November 9.”

The official spec list has been posted as well, and it looks
like that $700 is a high-end price for a high-end 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.”
You’re also getting a ton of features that most Android
OEMs have cut from their flagships. Most significantly, there’s a
physical hardware keyboard that slides out of the bottom of the device. The
Priv also has a MicroSD slot, a hardware camera button, and a hardware
convenience key.
The Priv seems to be a make-or-break device for BlackBerry. The
company’s CEO has stated that he’s willing to exit the hardware
market altogether if he feels the profits aren’t there. On paper, the
Priv seems like an exciting phone that steps away from the cookie-cutter
approach most Android OEMs have been taking. The $700 price will make it a
tougher sell when $400-$500 will get you a great Android phone, but BlackBerry is
certainly offering several unique features. We expect the Priv will also
give the company a chance to recapture some of the
corporate market share it has lost, where price isn’t as much of an issue.
BlackBerry will have some catching up to do on the software
front. The Priv is only shipping with Android 5.1 instead of the newer Android 6.0 Marshmallow. We’re curious to see
what the company’s update times are like.

Written by:  Ron Amadeo / Ron is the Reviewer and Editor at Ars Technica, where he specializes in Android OS and Google products. He is always on the hunt for a new gadget and loves to rip things apart to see how they work.