BlackBerry permanently reduces the price of its first Android-powered smartphone - BlackBerry Priv - to $649 in the U.S.
BlackBerry CEO - John Chen - announced the Priv in September 2015 and the handset hit the shelves in November. The Priv is currently the only Android smartphone produced by the Canadian company available in the market.
At launch, the BlackBerry Priv has a price tag of US$699.99, £559 and €779 if bought without a contract. On Tuesday, the company announced a permanent price cut for the mobile phone.
"In order to ensure as many people as possible can enjoy our first Secure Android Smartphone, we're reducing the price. From Tuesday, April 5, PRIV is now available on ShopBlackBerry for US$649, £529 and €729 - permanently," says BlackBerry.
The latest price drop applies to the U.S., UK, Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany and France. The price of the Priv in BlackBerry's home country Canada remains unchanged.
The BlackBerry Priv has an elegant slim design with slide out physical keyboard, which attracts smartphone enthusiasts who want to try a BlackBerry device running on Android operating system.
"PRIV combines everything you expect from BlackBerry plus the full eco-system of Android and its apps. PRIV comes with added security to let you know when your data could be at risk, so you can take action to improve it," says BlackBerry.
The BlackBerry device has a 5.4-inch dual-curved AMOLED screen with a display resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels and 540ppi. The screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 4.
A Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core (64 bit) processor clocked at 1.44GHz and 3 GB of RAM powers the BlackBerry Priv. The smartphone has 32 GB of internal memory, which can be expanded to an additional 2 TB with the help of a microSD card.
The Priv is equipped with an 18-megapixel (with 6-element f2.2 lens) rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel (f2.8 lens) front-facing selfie camera. The device has a 3,410 mAh battery, which offers up to 22.5 hours of mixed usage. The battery of the Priv is capable of fast charging.
The Priv comes pre-installed with Android 5.1 Lollipop operating system. BlackBerry has already announced an Android 6.0 Marshmallow beta program for the Priv and customers should expect to receive the latest Google mobile operating system on their devices this spring.
The latest price reduction would entice customers who were looking to buy a brand new BlackBerry Priv. It is worth noting that BlackBerry is also offering up to 30 percent off on select accessories for the Priv as part of its spring sale, which ends on April 12.
