With BlackBerry CEO John Chen himself confirming that an Android-run BlackBerry will make it to consumers, fans are now getting hyped over the upcoming Priv. However, fans' excitement might be short-lived, as there are rumors suggesting that when the upcoming BlackBerry flagship releases, it will also carry a premium price tag.
According industry follower GSM Arena, a post in China's own Weibo social network by tipster Leaksfly revealed that when BlackBerry Priv makes it to the consumer market, the device will carry a price tag of at least CNY 3,999. This translates to around $630.
The leak came a few days after BlackBerry officially confirmed the Priv. In an unveiling and unofficial hands-on presentation by Chen, the new device was hinted at to be coming out with premium specs and a premium price. Industry observer Phone Arena surmised that the $630 price tag rumor may have some truth to it. However, it was unclear if the price tag was just for the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, it was also hinted at by Chen in his presentation that to make the Priv available to BlackBerry plans, the company may opt to offer some type of installment plan. This might also come true given that some manufacturers like Apple also announced their intentions to offer installment plans for buyers.
To highlight the nearing release date, the BlackBerry Priv also appeared in a mini-review by a website. derStandard.at managed to get hold of a pre-production model of the device. The website reported that BlackBerry Priv has a 5.4-inch slightly curved display with 2K resolution and a high pixel density of 544 ppi. In addition, the unit also reportedly houses a Snapdragon 808 processor and 3 GB of RAM. The review also mentioned a 32-GB expandable storage. As for the OS, the BlackBerry Priv is said to have Android 5.1 Lollipop.
