Specs at a glance: Blackberry Priv Screen Curved 5.43-inch, 2560×1440 pixel, 540 PPI AMOLED display with Gorilla Glass 4 OS Android 5.1.1 Lollipop CPU Snapdragon 808 hexa-core, 64 bit: dual-core 1.8 GHz Cortex-A57 and quad-core 1.44 GHz Cortex-A53 RAM 3GB LPDDR3 933MHz RAM GPU Qualcomm Adreno 418 GPU Storage 32GB plus micro SD expansion Networking 5GHz 802.11 ac/a/n, 2.4Ghz 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1 Low Energy, NFC Ports micro USB 2.0 Connector with SlimPort enabled Camera 18MP rear facing camera, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS), Phase Detect Auto Focus (PDAF), ast focus lock, Dual 2mm LED Flash, 4K video at 30fps, 1080p video at 60fps; 2MP selfie camera Size 147mm (184mm opened) x 77.2mm x 9.4mm Weight 192g Battery 3410mAh Other perks Accelerometer, Magnetometer, Gyroscope, Time of Flight (ToF) Proximity, Ambient Light, Altimeter, Activity Monitor Price £560, $699 (unlocked SIM-free)

This is it. The last hurrah. The all-in, every-egg-in-the-basket, everything-including-the-kitchen-sink, last-ditch attempt to save a company—or at least part of it. The Priv, Blackberry's first phone powered by Android, is designed to be all things to all people: a slick consumer device with a great display, sharp camera, and access to a huge library of apps; a business workhorse with long battery life, slick e-mail functionality, and a physical keyboard; and a secure, Fort Knox phone for the tin-foil hat brigade (and/or enterprise IT types).

This is a big ask, particularly for a company that hasn't launched a truly successful device since the Bold in 2008.

It is with great sadness, then, that I must report that the Priv doesn't quite hit the mark.

Or at least, in the few days I've spent with it, it hasn't. Unfortunately, the review embargo for the Priv was set to lift just two days after review samples were sent to the press, which isn't enough time to come to a concrete conclusion on what it's actually like to use as a phone on a daily basis. So consider this a "first impressions," with a full review to follow. There is also every chance that the final production version of the Priv will be better than the review sample that we received.

Design

Let's start with the positives. The Priv's 5.43-inch, 2560×1440, 540 PPI, AMOLED display is colourful, pin sharp, and insanely bright. Like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, it curves at the edges, the Gorilla Glass 4 meeting an aluminium surround with a gentle slope. Below the screen is a large speaker that runs the width of the display; in true Blackberry fashion it's very loud and very clear, making it good for both ad-hoc conference calls and for watching YouTube videos in bed. The speaker, set below the height of the screen, hints at the Priv's USP: its slide-out physical keyboard.

Pushing up from the speaker using the handy lip reveals the physical keyboard in all its classic Blackberry glory. You'd think this would make the phone top heavy, but it remains well-balanced, a testament to Blackberry's well-honed design chops. The sliding mechanism itself is smooth and solid, with not even the slightest hint of wiggle, and it's so very hard not to keep playing with it. The only disappointment is that sliding the phone open doesn't directly answer a phone call. After all, if The Matrix has taught us anything, it's that answering phone calls with a slider is the height of '00s cool. Instead, opening the slider when a call comes in brings up a menu that lets you accept, decline, or send a canned text message.

As for the keyboard itself, after years of using touch-keyboards, going back to a physical one is an odd experience, and I typed far slower as a result of using it. I expect my typing would get better with practice, and there are plenty of people out there that swear by physical keyboards. For them, I've no doubt the move back to a four-row keyboard with the proper alt, shift, and symbol keys will be a welcome one.

The keyboard does have a few other neat tricks up its sleeve, though, many of which have been taken from the Blackberry Passport. It works as a touchpad, letting you scroll up and down or left to right just by swiping across it. Individual keys can be programmed as shortcuts, too; you can, for example, set the "T" key to open Twitter when you hold it down. Particularly useful is the ability to use the space bar as a shutter button when taking photos, making awkward shots and selfies less of a challenge.

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton



Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

Mark Walton

The rest of the Priv follows Blackberry's business chic aesthetic, which means you can have it in any colour you like as long as it's black, and you don't mind a lack of flashy adornments. Personally, I think it looks rather handsome. The power button on the left of the phone and the volume buttons on the right are simple, inoffensive chrome affairs that have a satisfying click to them, while the bottom of the chassis houses a no-fuss micro USB socket and 3.5mm headphone jack. Up top there's a two-tone effect where the aluminium housing of the screen meets the black plastic of the rear, with the black section containing the SIM card tray and micro SD tray (which supports up to 2TB cards, should they ever actually come out).

So far, so good, but the rear of the phone is where things start to get a little ugly. For starters, ohhh that camera surround. I've no idea why it's so big when the module itself—an 18MP, Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS), Phase Detect Auto Focus (PDAF) affair—is so small, and it reminds me of the ancient Nokia 6600—not a good a thing for a 2015 device. Beside that is a two-tone LED flash, with a metallic Blackberry logo set below. The back of the Priv is covered in surprisingly grippy coating that looks a little like carbon fibre.

While the rear panel does a good job of making a flagship phone non-slippery (a rare thing indeed), there's something not quite right with it. When you gently press on the back of the Priv, the backplate flexes and moves, as if there's a fairly sizeable air gap beneath. This is not something you'd expect from a phone that costs £560 ($699). Nor would you expect the phone to feel or sound hollow when you tap on the glass to open apps or use the touchscreen keyboard. Given the Priv I'm using is a non-final production model, there's a chance that this won't afflict retail units, but if it does, it's a massive strike against the Priv's build quality and feel.