BlackBerry to launch 1st Android smartphone on Jan 28

Canadian firm BlackBerry will launch its first Android-powered smartphone 'Priv' in India on January 28. First unveiled in October, Priv marks the BlackBerry's foray into Android-based smartphones. According to invites sent by the company, BlackBerry will unveil Priv, "the secure smartphone powered by Android" on January 28.

BlackBerry's shift to Android is being seen a move aimed at helping the ailing company to return to popularity. Once an iconic business phone, BlackBerry has lost out to Google's Android and Apple's iOS-based smartphones. BlackBerry had also hinted the company may soon unveil another Android phone this year.

The move will also help BlackBerry cash in on the app-rich ecosystem of Android, the lack of which has been an area of complain for many BlackBerry users in the past. The smartphone went on sale in the US and Canada in November last year. Priv was priced at USD 699 in the US (about Rs 47,000) and could be priced around the same in India when launched.

The phone comes with a 5.4-inch display and is powered by a 1.8 GHz hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal memory (expandable by up to 2TB). The single SIM 4G phone runs Android Lollipop OS and sports 18MP rear and 2MP front camera with 3,410 mAh battery.