BlackBerry finally makes its security-focused & Android-powered Priv handset official

After many months of leaks, BlackBerry has finally made the Android-powered “Venice” slider smartphone official. The phone is officially coming to market as the Priv (as was leaked yesterday), a suitable name considering its privacy and security focus, and it’s going to be available later this year…

The news comes via the company’s Q2 fiscal earnings report:

“At the same time, we are focused on making faster progress to achieve profitability in our handset business. Today, I am confirming our plans to launch Priv, an Android device named after BlackBerry’s heritage and core mission of protecting our customers’ privacy. Priv combines the best of BlackBerry security and productivity with the expansive mobile application ecosystem available on the Android platform,” continued Mr. Chen.

If you want to see the phone in action, someone managed to post an entire hands-on video with the phone last week. A couple of weeks ago we saw a full gallery of shots surfaced showing the phone from all angles. We also recently saw a blurry cam picture taken by someone attending the Toronto Film Festival. We’ve been seeing renders for months and saw a picture of the phone in the flesh  as far back as last month.

PhoneArena has revealed several specifications of the device, including a 1440 x 2560 QHD resolution display, 3 GB of RAM, an 18-megapixel main camera with optical image stabilization, and a battery somewhere in the range of 3,000 mAh. The software is clearly Android Lollipop, and BlackBerry will be including many security-related features and pre-packaged apps.