BlackBerry’s latest smartphone -also its first to run Google’s Android-, the Priv, has just sold out on Amazon.com online retailer, a sign that indicates towards a more ambitious future for the handset.
The devices was finally rolled out the US and Canadian market on November 5, with Bell, Rogers, TELUS and other carriers offering it in the company’s home country, while AT&T is the exclusive provider in the US.
When it comes to retailers, Amazon, Best Buy and B&H are offering the Priv as well, though Amazon is the first to have the device already available. Best Buy and B&H websites list the smartphone as ‘coming soon’.
According to Priv’s page on Amazon, the device has been sold out within hours after being listed. BlackBerry fans that cannot wait to get their hands on the Priv should not be let down, on the contrary, they should feel relieved, as company CEO, John Chen, warned that if the Priv sales do not achieve a significant number then the company wold shut down its historic phone business and redirect its efforts to the software division.
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Though, it is worth mentioning that we should not get excited that soon, as Amazon has not unveiled the number of units that have been purchased, so in case the number was negligible, then the sell out is not as substantial as media makes it sound whatsoever.
AT&T offers the device for US$249 under a two-year contract, or customers can purchase it via a $24.67 per month plan for 30 months. The Priv will set you back a whopping US$899 unlocked.
When it comes to specs, the handset sports a curved 5.43-inch 2560 x 1440 pixels resolution AMOLED display with 540 ppi covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 for ultimate scratch resistance. Moreover, it is powered by Qualcomm’s MSM8992 Snapdragon 808 housing six cores; two Cortex-A57 clocked at 1.8 GHz and four Cortex-A53 at 1.44 GHz, coupled with Adreno 418 GPU and 3GB of RAM. Internal storage is 32GB, expandable via microSD up to 200GB.
It is also fitted with the Canadian phone maker’s iconic physical keyboard, that slides out from underneath the screen.
The Priv comes with Google’s Android 5.1.1 Lollipop straight out of the box, while BlackBerry has issued an official statement confirming that the handset will be indeed eligible to the Android 6.0 Marshmallow update.
Source: Amazon
