Optus picks up Blackberry PRIV in Australia
Blackberry’s latest smartphone will be available on Optus contract from tomorrow.
If you’ve been hanging out for an official launch of Blackberry’s Priv handset, your wait is nearly over. Blackberry has announced that the PRIV handset will go on sale to Optus Business and consumer customers from tomorrow.
Blackberry as a brand has lost much of the shine it once had, but the PRIV’s particular claim to fame is the level of inbuilt security it features, alongside full access to Android applications, because it’s the company’s first actual Android handset. As well, the phone itself has a sliding form factor to reveal a physical keyboard. Right now, no major phone brands offer a built-in keyboard for Android devices, so that could be appealing even if you haven't been a BlackBerry user previously.
Previous generations of BlackBerry managed partial Android compatibility, but apps had to be specifically ported via the Amazon App Store in order to be installed, which frankly wasn't a very appealing propsect for most customers.
Optus is yet to announce formal pricing for the PRIV; we’ll update once we have that information.
Here are the key specifications for the Blackberry PRIV:
| Blackberry PRIV | |
|---|---|
| Screen size | 5.4in |
| Storage | 32GB |
| Weight | 192g |
| Processor | Snapdragon 808 |
| Rear camera | 18MP |
| Front camera | 2MP |
| Battery | 3410mAh |
| Resolution | 1440x2560 |
| Display density | 540ppi |
