Blackberry Priv, Company’s First Android Phone, Killed off; No More Monthly Updates

It seems that Blackberry has decided that the Priv- its first Android-based phone- is no longer a priority. The company has decided to pull the plug on the Blackberry Priv and it will no longer receive any more monthly updates. That said, some security patches will be delivered to these devices as and when they are required. We had covered the Blackberry Priv when it was launched in India last year.

That Blackberry was not too intent on continuing support for their devices was a bit obvious when we had reported that the Priv and the DTEK series would not receive the latest Android Oreo update. The Blackberry Priv, although the company’s first smartphone with an Android platform, was nevertheless, a typical Blackberry device with its physical keyboard. It had performed exceedingly well when we had put it up to the test against its own sibling, the KEYone. The Canadian major has also stated that all the current warranties will be honored. Also, the Priv marks the demise of the company’s proprietary BB10 OS.

Blackberry has also announced a new trade-up program for existing Priv customers as well as for those who are now using their outdated BB10 and BBOS devices. The trade-up program will ensure that the customers can now opt for modern BlackBerry devices such as the KeyOne or the Motion. The prices too may be discounted.

When the single-SIM phone running Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box was launched for an over-the-top Rs 62,990, many people thought it was overpriced. The all-plastic built smartphone had a 5.4-inch Quad-HD AMOLED display that had a 1440×2560 pixels resolution, as well as a 1.8GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor which worked in tandem with Adreno 418 GPU and a decent 3GB RAM. The 32GB of internal storage was also expandable. Now that the phone is officially dead, one can only hope that Blackberry has thought the move out thoroughly.