BlackBerry Goes Android, Launches Priv At Rs 62,990

BlackBerry on Thursday (January 28) launched its much anticipated smartphone, Priv in India. The first Android smartphone by BlackBerry will be available in stores across India from January 30 with a price tag of Rs 62,990.

The device will also be available online on Amazon India.

"This is not just another Android phone. Priv is BlackBerry's flagship offering. It combines our heritage features like productivity and security with the openness of Android platform and adds QWERTY as well. We are confident of the device doing well among power users," said Narendra Nayak, MD, BlackBerry India.

The once iconic company decided to go android because of the lack of availability of apps on its platform. By bringing out an Android-powered device, it will be able to cash-in on the app-rich ecosystem of Google's operating system (OS) the lack of which has been an area of complaint for many BlackBerry users in the past.

When asked about the high price tag, the company responded that the cutting edge hardware and safety features are worth paying for.

"Looking at the hardware, software and security, the pricing is justified. It stands out with its set of features in the price range where we have launched. There are few competitors in that range," said Damian Tay, Senior Director, Product Management, Asia Pacific, BlackBerry.

The company plans to launch more devices based on Google's Android OS later this year.

In terms of specifications, the smartphone has a 5.4-inch dual-curved WQHD Plastic AMOLED display with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. The device is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core, 64-bit processor with an Adreno 418, 600MHz GPU.

One of the main highlights of the phone is its camera; an 18 MP dual-flash Schneider-Kreuznach certified camera is capable of taking astonishing images.

The device has 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage that is expandable up to 2TB via a microSD card slot. A 3410 mAh battery on the Priv gives up to 22.5 hours of battery life according to BlackBerry.

The company also stated that it will push a software patch every month to fight against malware on Android. The phone's pop-up widgets offers users quick function apps right from the homescreen without launching them. The Priv also comes with a BlackBerry keyboard.