The New BlackBerry Priv release date, price, specifications

Don't feel bad, Blackberry 10 users because BlackBerry is going Android, and it's official.
The Canadian phone maker has confirmed it will soon release its first Android handset called BlackBerry Priv and it is now available to pre-order through Carphone Warehouse.
It's like an Android-equipped version of the BlackBerry Torch. There's been a lot of rumour and speculation surrounding this device in recent weeks, but everything is open now that you can actually order one.
Here's everything we know about the BlackBerry Priv.

BlackBerry Priv design

BlackBerry surprised everyone at MWC 2015 when BB exec Ron Louks pulled out a mystery device. It had a dual-curved, all-touch display with a keyboard, a slider phone. At the time, it was seen to be running BB10 and BlackBerry didn't say much about it, just teased that it was on the roadmap for the future.
A few months later, official photos released by BlackBerry showed a rather slender device from the side, despite that separate keyboard and screen piled on top of each other.

It features an integrated keyboard within a slider mechanism at the bottom of the device. There is also a visible speaker grille that stretches across the entire width below the keyboard. A Micro-USB port sits central and a headphone socket is on the far left next to the charging port.
There are three buttons on the right-hand side of the device, with the larger buttons working as volume rockers, while the centre smaller button is what is used for activating the notification centre. Another singular button is on the left-hand side, which looks to be the power button. The rear camera is central and the pictures show it coming with a dual-tone LED flash - something also confirmed in the official specifications.
BlackBerry has described the sound quality as "extraordinary" but we're yet to hear it for ourselves.

BlackBerry Priv specs

The BlackBerry Priv features a 5.4-inch display with curved edges, and it has a Quad HD resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. That puts it right up there with the top-tier of Android devices like the Samsung Galaxy S6 or LG G4.
The Priv is powered by a 1.8GHz 64-bit hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, supported by 3GB RAM, 32GB of storage and a microSD slot. Again, that puts it on a par with Android devices.
The BlackBerry Priv is powered by a 3,410mAh battery, which is a pretty large capacity, so we'd have hopes for all-day battery life.
There is also an 18-megapixel rear camera, with a 5-megapixel front-facing snapper, with the rear being a Schneider-Kreuznach lens. Optical image stabilisation and 4K UHD video recording up to 30 frames per second were previously rumoured and we're just awaiting confirmation that they have made it to the consumer handset.

@EvLeaks

BlackBerry Priv software

BlackBerry has, for the Priv, switched from its own BlackBerry OS to Android 5.1.1 Lollipop for release. Whether that will be upgraded to Android 6.0 Marshmallow in time remains to be seen.
The take care of security, the BlackBery Priv comes with something called DTEK, which is described as a warning system app, designed to boost your privacy. In most cases, however, the Priv software looks like a fair standard version of Android, tweaked to integrate BlackBerry features.
Google Play is present alongside a range of standard Android services, including Google Maps, Hangouts, and Google Calendar. This suggests that the BlackBerry Priv will bring you everything that you get on Android, rather than the half-baked support previously offered in BB10.

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BlackBerry Priv release date and price

Carphone Warehouse's pre-order page for the BlackBerry Priv is already available on its online store. That also reveals that shipping will commence, in the UK, from 6 November.
The UK store also reveals the price, with pay monthly plans starting at £49 a month with no up-front cost. If you're willing to pay something towards the handset, you can get monthly deals from £31.99, although you with be expected to fork out £129.99 for 1GB of 4G data on the EE network, £179.99 for the handset on a deal with 5GB of data.
The BlackBerry Priv can also be bought for £579.99 SIM-free.

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