Android-powered BlackBerry Priv ships on 6 November for £559 – pre-order now
UPDATE: Now you can place your order for BlackBerry's first Android phone
UPDATE (23/10/15): Following yesterday’s prematurely-posted U.S. pre-order page (see original story below), BlackBerry has officially rolled out pre-orders for its upcoming Priv phone in multiple countries, including the UK.
The Android slider phone will sell for £559 in the UK, or US$699 in the States; that’s US$50 less than the pulled page suggested. Also, it will ship in both countries starting on 6 November, so a release is just a couple weeks away. If you’re eager to see how BlackBerry transitions over to Android, now is the time to plunk down your money.
ORIGINAL STORY (22/10/15): The Priv might be BlackBerry’s boldest move to date, and it has less to do with the smartphone itself than what’s powering it: Android. And now we know when we might actually see this game-changer.
BlackBerry has employed an odd promotional approach for the phone thus far, teasing it early this year, hiding it away for months, and then staying pretty mum on official details after the recent official announcement. But a leaked preorder page doesn’t lie (we hope), and Droid-Life caught a glimpse before it was pulled offline.
According to its report, the BlackBerry Priv is slated to ship in the United States on 16 November, with the device priced at a robust US$749 (almost £490). That’s for an unlocked device that will only work on AT&T and T-Mobile in the States. Pre-orders were being taken until the page was taken down, likely because it had popped online sooner than planned.
Luckily, the listing was able to confirm all the specs. The slider phone has a 5.4in Quad HD (2560×1440) display that curves along the right and left edges, along with a QWERTY keyboard beneath. It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage, with microSD support up to 2TB.
You’ll also find an 18-megapixel back camera with optical image stabilisation, a 2MP front camera, and a 3,410mAh Quick Charge 2.0 battery pack. Oh, and Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, of course, albeit with BlackBerry’s own tweaks and added security software package.
Will embracing Android reverse BlackBerry’s sinking fortunes, or is this ultimate merger of very different smartphone experiences likely to confuse potential buyers? We may find out in just a few short weeks if that preorder info proves correct, although we don’t have a strong clue on UK availability just yet.
[Source: Droid-Life]
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
