On Monday, Blackberry announced that its latest flagship smartphone, the Blackberry Priv is now open for pre-orders in the United Kingdom. The announcement came ahead of the smartphone's official launch date slated on Nov. 6. Aside from this, the company has also confirmed the specifications of the device to entice potential buyers, a report from Tech Times said.
"The phone is now available for preorder in the U.K. from Carphone Warehouse, with the price sitting at 579.99 pounds, which equates to around $890 in USD. It's likely, of course, that the price will be a little cheaper when the device does hit the U.S.," the report said.
However, it was stressed that those who are interested to buy the Blackberry Priv will go through a registration process in both Canada and U.S. Interested buyers will be notified when the phone goes on sale in each country.
Regarding the device's specs, it was said that it will feature a new innovative keyboard and a security application.
"PRIV has the authentic BlackBerry keyboard, legendary security, streamlined communications and productivity, combined with the wide world of Google Play store apps. It has been engineered with the world's finest technology, and packaged in an ultra-thin, ergonomically perfect device with a keyboard hidden by SmartSlide technology," said Carphone Warehouse, as quoted by Know Your Mobile.
Blackberry CEO John Chen claims that Blackberry Priv was actually named after the company's heritage and core mission, which is to protect the customers' "privacy."
"At the same time, we are focused on making faster progress to achieve profitability in our handset business. Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform," Chen said as quoted in the report.
Tech Times noted that previous Blackberry devices were powered by Blackberry 10 operating system. However, it was said that the mobile operating system has offered limited apps compared to Apple's iOS and Google's Android software.
"It makes sense that BlackBerry would turn to Android, allowing users to take advantage of apps in the ever-growing Google Play Store."
