Update: Oct 24, 2015 – Blackberry hasn’t officially launched the Blackberry Priv, the company’s first Android-powered smartphone but is now listed on its official online store pre-orders. It is now available for pre-orders in the U.S, U.K, and Canada and the shipping will start from November 6th in the U.S and Canada and from November 9th in the U.K.

Talking about the pricing, the device is priced at $699 (Rs.45,400) in the U.S, £559 (Rs.55,700) in the U.K, and $899 (Rs.44,400) in Canada. Interestingly the device listed in the U.S website doesn’t support CDMA which means it is incompatible with Verizon, Sprint, and US Cellular. The CDMA supported handset was expected to be made available in the next couple of weeks. There is no information regarding the pricing or availability in the other countries.

Earlier: Oct 14, 2015 – Blackberry Priv, the first ever Blackberry smartphone to run on Android OS was officially confirmed by its CEO John Chen. With the top of the line specifications and a premium build, the device has gathered a lot of attention. Few days back we have also seen a new set of hands-on images posted by a Reddit user. According to the famous leakster Leaksfly, the ‘Blackberry Priv’ will be priced at 3,999 Yuan in China which converts to $630 (USD) and Rs.40,800 (INR).

Starting from today, the company is accepting the pre-registrations for purchasing the devices. The device is now confirmed to sport a 5.4-inch Quad HD display with dual curved edges. It features a rear camera that is certified by Schneider-Kreuznach, the manufacturer of industrial and photographic optics. Earlier to this, Oppo N3 is the smartphone that came with Schneider-Kreuznach certified camera. The battery on this device is of 3,410mAh capacity that can easily last for a complete day of mixed usage.

Earlier: Sep 26, 2015 – After several leaks and rumors, the Blackberry Priv (a.k.a Blackberry Venice) is now made official by John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry. Even though the company chosen to use Android OS over their Blackberry 10 OS, the company is committed to further develop BB10 OS and will also release 10.3.3 version in March 2016. The company has given the Android apps access to Blackberry 10 OS with 10.2 update and the Amazon app store with the 10.3 update.

Even with the integration of android apps, there is no much response from the smartphone users for their Blackberry devices. From the last couple of months, there are rumors about the launch of Android powered Blackberry smartphone. Earlier there are also rumors about the release of Android powered Blackberry Passport smartphone but it didn’t happened.

Talking about the Blackberry Priv, the device is same as showed in the earlier leaked images and hands-on video. There is no official information about the device specifications, we expect it to include the same specifications as rumored earlier.

Showing the first glimpse of Blackberry Priv officially, Chen said, “With Priv, our commitment is to continue to provide confidence that your privacy and productivity come first. In today’s hectic world, where cyber threats are real for everyone, BlackBerry is making sure that our products invoke this mantra that your privacy is your privilege.” He also added “For nearly two years now, I’ve been telling you how we would transform the iconic BlackBerry brand into a true software powerhouse. We’re doing this by integrating our strength in building the most secure software and network and embedding it into a one-of-a-kind form factor. BlackBerry is a new company. We have new life. And we plan to continue to surprise our customers and the industry. This is just the latest move along that path.”

Earlier: Sep 24, 2015 – Today a new leak suggested the earlier leaked Blackberry Venice smartphone to be officially named as ‘Blackberry Priv’ during the launch. There are few other leaks claiming the device to be released in few bright colors. Since the actual launch was expected in November, we can go through many more similar leaks about the upcoming Blackberry Priv smartphone.

Earlier: Sep 19, 2015 – It seems like BlackBerry would finally be acknowledging the Android OS by jumping on the bandwagon of Android mobile manufacturer. The upcoming smartphone that was rumored to be called as Blackberry Venice sporting the Android OS onboard. Today we got a hands-on video of the device which shows the complete device in detail.

On the top, we can clearly see the SIM card slot and microSD card slot. Talking about exact availability, it is confirmed that the Canadian company will launch its first Android smartphone in November. The device would be released on all the four major carriers in the US. Based on the rumors, the Blackberry Venice would be sporting a full QWERTY keyboard in tow, as well as it should sport a 5.4-inch QHD touchscreen, Snapdragon 808 hexa-core processor, a 5MP front-facing camera and 3GB of RAM.

In a series of tweets, Evleaks also posted a picture of the device what appears to be a BlackBerry Passport running Android Lollipop. It seems all strange that the company would be launching a BlackBerry smartphone with QWERTY keypad along with the touchscreen.

Finally, BlackBerry wants to announce a handset running on Android operating system. The device comes with full-fledged Android OS along with the integration of Blackberry services. The slide-out keyboard comes with touch-sensitive physical keys that can help you in navigating like a touchscreen.

Images Source: techrum.vn

Looking at the specs and leaked render, it seems like BlackBerry has done research and as well has invested time in this model. It would be interesting to see an official confirmation from the company anytime soon. Till then only we would get more details and why they finally planned to launch an Android device.