Remember earlier today when retailer Carphone Warehouse posted a hands-on video showing the BlackBerry Priv? Well now BlackBerry has a video of its own, but while Carphone Warehouse’s was more focused on showing the Priv’s hardware, BlackBerry’s is all about the software.
The “Introducing PRIV” video posted by BlackBerry shows off many of the special tweaks that BlackBerry has made to the Priv’s Android software. While it appears mostly stock, there are several additions that BlackBerry has brought over from its own BlackBerry 10 operating system. One big change is that when you hold down the Home button, not only will you get a shortcut to Google Now, but you’ll also be presented with buttons to jump to BlackBerry Search and BlackBerry Hub. BlackBerry Hub is home to all of your messages, and you can also view your upcoming calendar events by pulling the Hub down.
Another feature added by BlackBerry is the ability to add suggested words by swiping up on the keyboard. As you’re typing, even with the physical keyboard, the software will suggest words that it thinks you’ll want to type next. To insert the middle of the three suggestions, you can just swipe up on the keyboard. We also know that the keyboard can be used as a trackpad for things like navigating web pages.
The BlackBerry Priv’s spec list is expected to include a 5.4-inch 2560x1440 AMOLED display with dual curved edges, a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, a microSD slot, and an 18-megapixel rear camera. BlackBerry hasn’t announced a launch date for the Priv yet, but aforementioned retailer Carphone Warehouse says that pre-ordered units to be delivered by November 6, so it may only be a few more weeks before we can try BlackBerry’s first Android phone for ourselves.
