Blackberry’s CEO, John Chen, confirmed that the company will indeed launch an Android powered smartphone called the Blackberry Priv.

It is said to feature the security from Blackberry and myriad of apps from Android. The focus on privacy is where the name PRIV came from.

There has been countless leaks about the Blackberry Priv but it was previously thought to be name Blackberry Venice.

In terms of design, its main difference from other Android phones is its slider Qwerty keypad. This should immediately win over fans of physical keypads!

Its screen size hasn’t been confirmed yet but it’s a little more than 5 inches. It’s a quad HD panel with dual curved edges just like the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.

Blackberry Priv
The Blackberry Priv comes pre-loaded with several Blackberry apps.

Just like the Blackberry Passport, the Priv will also have powerful set of specs. It runs on the octa core Snapdragon 808 chipset from Qualcomm.

This is paired with 3GB of RAM but only 32GB of storage space. There’s a microSD card slot though.

Its main camera is an 18 Megapixel snapper with fast autofocus and able to record 4K videos. Meanwhile, the front camera is the usual 5MP unit.

Blackberry Priv hands on

The rest of the features and specs of the Blackberry Priv hasn’t been revealed or leaked yet. No launch date has been specified too.

Nonetheless, a lot of Blackberry fans are already excited for the smartphone. It will be officially available here in the Philippines just like the Passport and Leap.

We’ll post another article with its specs and price when the Blackberry Priv is officially launched.