BlackBerry Priv Android Slider Briefly Listed Officially With Price, More

BlackBerry's upcoming Android slider smartphone Priv stopped by the company's official store late Wednesday to reveal several more information about the company's first Android device, including pricing, availability, and specifications.

As per the official listing, which has been taken down since, the unlocked version of BlackBerry Priv will launch with a price tag of $749 (roughly Rs. 48,800) in the US, and CAD 949 (roughly Rs. 47,100) in Canada. The listing also revealed that the handset will start shipping on November 16, which is in line with several previous reports.

The listing also revealed specifications of the Priv. As per which, the handset will sport a 5.4-inch QHD (1440x2560 pixel) display. It is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 808 hexa-core SoC coupled with 3GB of RAM, and 32GB internal storage that can be expanded via microSD card. On the photography front, the handset comes with a 18-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. As per the listing, the handset will have a 3410mAh battery that can last for up to 22.5 hours on a single charge under moderate usage. The specifications are also in line with previous listings on a third-party retailer and company's own website - confirming it was not just a placeholder listing.

Rumours suggest that BlackBerry plans (via CrackBerry) to accept pre-orders for the handset from October 23 in some regions. Separately, the handset was recently spotted on Indian import-export database Zauba, revealing its estimated price of Rs. 50,635. To be noted of course is that such prices are provided to indicate value to excise authorities, and do not usually directly translate to market prices.

The BlackBerry Priv is the company's attempt to save its business. The company's business continues to shrink in the aftermath of poor BlackBerry handsets sale in the face of Apple and Android growth. With the Priv, the company is betting on Android. The company recently touted security sophistications, one of the strongest suites of BlackBerry, of the upcoming handset.