BlackBerry's new Priv smartphone is a big deal. It's the first time the company is making a real Android phone that runs every Android app (including Google's). It's the first Android phone in forever to have an actual, physical keyboard. It's the phone that will, by BlackBerry's own admission, be the thing that determines whether BlackBerry continues to make phones at all. There's one more big thing, the price. It's $699, which is hefty by Android standards.

Read next: The Blackberry Priv review.

So there's a lot to say about the Priv and normally I'd say it all in a full review. I still will, actually, but unfortunately it seems like the first review phone I received was a bum unit. I've got a second one here that seems less buggy, but it wouldn't be right to put out a review after only a day or so of testing with the new one.

But I'm excited about the Priv, if only because it is one of the few phones out there that's fulfilling the promise that Android made us all those years ago: a big diversity of hardware choices. It's also always exciting to see a down-on-its-luck company swing for the fences. So, without further ado, here are nine things I know about the BlackBerry Priv.