BlackBerry PRIV with Android on sale in the US at $ 699

With BlackBerry PRIV resurrects a typical design of mobile phones a few years ago, given that this is a slider, with retractable keyboard scrolling. The heart of the terminal is represented by a Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core. The price? $ 699.

It lacked only the official announcement of the arrival on the market to convince even the most skeptical that BlackBerry actually would make his landing in the Android world. BlackBerry has confirmed that PRIV, the first BlackBerry smartphone with Android operating system, is available in the US through AT&T (in stores and online) and can also be purchased through several carriers in Canada: Bell, Rogers, SaskTel, TELUS and WIND. Not only that: there is also the option of ordering PRIV through  Shopblackberry.com.

The price is not at all modest: BlackBerry PRIV see it written on the tag $ 699.00. By placing the pre-order now on the online shop BlackBerry you should have in hand the phone from the week of 23 November.

With BlackBerry PRIV resurrects a typical design of mobile phones a few years ago, given that this is a slider, with retractable keyboard scrolling. The heart of the terminal is represented by a 808 Hexa-Core Snapdragon (Qualcomm 8992 64-bit) features Dual-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A57 and 1.44 GHz Quad-core Cortex-A53, with Adreno 418 graphics card to 600 MHz .

The RAM is 3 GB, while the internal memory (expandable with microSD up to 2 TB) is 32 GB. The curved display from 5.43 ” is certainly one of the hallmarks of the terminal, with its 2,560×1,440 pixel resolution and 540 dpi. The display aspect ratio 16: 9, is covered by Gorilla Glass 4 and adopts a panel WQHD Plastic AMOLED 24-bit color depth.

As for the camera at the back we have a 18-megapixel camera module with optical lens and f / 2.2 Schneider-Kreuznach to 6 lenses, flash-illuminated sensor and dual tone. There is the ability to record movies 4K. On the front is an integrated module instead of 2-megapixel 720p. Turning to battery, the BlackBerry has continued to take the lead with Passport, adopting an accumulator 3,410 mAh, which should provide 22.5 hours of battery life in normal use.

” I have said more than once that BlackBerry would not launch an Android smartphone unless we could guarantee security and privacy. I am happy to announce that day has come, ” said John Chen, Executive Chairman and CEO of BlackBerry. The Canadian company has worked a lot on software from Google to improve safety. We see:

The DTEK by BlackBerry app for Android is able to monitor access to all apps in microphone, camera, location and personal data, to have more control and prevent app can take control silent in some parts phone. BlackBerry also fits cryptographic keys in hardware, thus pointing to guarantee security to any platform, from components.

Verified Boot and Secure Bootchain implement instead keys to check each layer of the device, from hardware to the operating system to the app, to ensure safety. Furthermore the Canadian brand has worked to make the Linux kernel better and more robust in terms of security through thousands of changes and patches.

BlackBerry PRIV can be easily integrated with the BlackBerry solution EMM, BES 12, which provides cross-platform management of PRIV and other devices; Add to that a full range of applications and security solutions to enterprise customers as Secusuite for calls safely and WatchDox for file sharing. PRIV is also immediately ready for work: support to Android for Work provides an integration simple, secure and fast with the business environment and enterprise apps via Google Play for Work.

At this point, what will be the future of the operating system BlackBerry 10? The Canadian company concludes the press release saying: ” While offering more choices with the launch of PRIV, BlackBerry continues to renew its commitment to BlackBerry 10, so it will continue to release new versions and updates focused on security and privacy. ”

This is not entirely clear whether the full-range future will move to Android or if there are still products with BlackBerry 10 at the base, even if the first hypothesis might seem the most plausible.