BlackBerry's first Android-powered smartphone, the PRIV, is finally coming to India on January 28th. The device debuted in October last year, and since then it has garnered enough attention in the US market. The smartphone is touted have given a major push to BlackBerry sales chart worldwide. It would be interesting to see what kind of response it generates in India. The company has not revealed the pricing for India yet. In the US, the device is available for $699 (approximately Rs. 47353.02).
Well, we all know how BlackBerry lost to Android and iOS. Once a thriving brand, BlackBerry started crumbling in the late 2012. Now, in order to reclaim its lost territory, the company has turned to Android and is keen to bring in more Android-powered devices in the coming months. This move by BlackBerry has been pretty welcoming, as the PRIV faired well in the US and other markets. Moreover, BlackBerry in known for its “secure and private” ecosystem and it is focused on making Android more secure on its devices.
The BalckBerry PRIV comes with a 5.43-inch Quad HD dual-curved AMOLED display, and is powered by a Hexa-core Snapdragon 808 chipset clubbed with 3GB of RAM. The device is equipped with a 4-row BlackBerry slider keyboard, which might be an appealing feature for those who miss qwerty physical keys. It runs Android 5.1 Lollipop with BlackBerry’s niche features and application on top. It sports an 18-megapixel primary camera with dual tone LED flash, phase detection autofocus (PDAF), Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), along with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.
Featuring 32GB of internal storage, the BlackBerry PRIV also bears a hot-swappable microSD expansion slot with a capacity of up to 2TB. It measures 147 (184 with keyboard) x 77.2 x 9.4mm and weighs 192 grams. The phone supports 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS, NFC, USB 2.0 with Slimport. Backing the BlackBerry PRIV is a 3,410 mAh battery equipped with fast charging, and is touted by the company to deliver up to 22.5 hours of battery life on mixed usage.
BlackBerry PRIV specifications
- 5.43-inch Quad HD AMOLED dual-curved display (2560 x 1440 pixels) with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
- 64-bit Hexa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 ( 4x 1.44GHz ARM A53 + 2 x 1.8 GHz ARM A57 ) 64-bit chipset
- 3GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, expandable up to 2TB via microSD card
- Android 5.1 Lollipop
- 18MP primary camera with dual-tone Flash, OIS, PDAF, and 5MP front-facing camera
- 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1 LE, GPS, NFC, USB 2.0 with Slimport
- 3,410 mAh battery with fast charging
What’s your take on the launch of BlackBerry PRIV in India? Do you think it will be a hit in the Indian smartphone market? Let us know through the comments section.
