Alongside confirmation, BlackBerry Priv has also been confirmed to be available via offline as well as online stores; more details to be released in coming weeks.
After months of rumours and leaks, the BlackBerry Priv is finally official. As part of BlackBerry's Q2 earnings report, BlackBerry CEO John Chen confirmed the device, and said that it will be released later this year in major markets through online as well as offline stores. More details on the smartphone will be released over the coming weeks.
In the report published by Market Wired, Chen said, “Today, I am confirming our plans to launch Priv, an Android device named after BlackBerry's heritage and core mission of protecting our customers' privacy. Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform." Additionally, Chen confirmed that even though the company is providing the choice of Android OS to its new and existing users, BlackBerry is still committed to BlackBerry OS 10. He said that the next version of BB OS, v10.3.3, is slated for a March 2016 release, and the update is focused on privacy and security enhancements.
There is also a YouTube video, posted by Gizmodo, of Chen showing off the BlackBerry Priv. Interestingly, even he couldn't use the smartphone while showing it. He tried to show how Google runs on the device, but got confused between the Google Now and Google Chrome browser and later moved on to explain the other things about the device. You can check him showing the device in the video embedded below.
The Android-powered smartphone was earlier codenamed Venice. Its current name, Priv, was first tipped last week by @evleaks. It is expected to feature a 5.4-inch Quad HD display, hexa-core Snapdragon 808 SoC, and 3GB of RAM. The smartphone will reportedly have a 5MP front shooter and an 18MP rear shooter with optical image stabilization and Fast Focus technology. It is also tipped to run on Android Marshmallow v6.0, out of the box. One of the few things that are confirmed about BlackBerry Priv is the slide-out, physical QWERTY keyboard. Last month, "real" images of the Priv were also leaked.
Incidentally, an Android-powered BlackBerry Passport was also spotted in a leaked video, last month. It has been codenamed Oslo, and might be available in 2016. As per the video, it is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset and 3GB of RAM. It has a square display with 1440×1440 resolution, 13MP camera at the back, and a 3,450mAh battery.
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