Optus are first and only to the Australian market with the new BlackBerry Priv, the Android powered BlackBerry seen by many as the last, great hope for the once dominant smartphone maker.
Optus will sell the Priv on 24 month plans starting from $67 per month (including the hands repayment fee). Pricing steps up in increments from there, with the phone free on the $100 plan.
Until March 10, customers buying any smartphone on an Optus Plan (including the Priv) have the option to take the $130 Plan for $100 per month. This top-tier plan includes unlimited national calls and SMS, unlimited international calls to 32 countries, 18GB data and 10 days of roaming travel packs included.
Best of BlackBerry
If the Canadian phone maker was to bet the farm on a phone, the Priv looks like a pretty safe bet. On the surface it looks like a well equiped Android phone, with a large 5.4-inch 2k resolution screen, 18-megapixel camera, 64-bit hexacore processor, 3GB, 32GB onboard storage and a huge 3410mAh battery.
But the real strength of the phone is discovered once you slide the screen up and reveal a classic BlackBerry style keyboard underneath. The full QWERTY keyboard addresses one of the common complaints many of the former BlackBerry faithful have with modern phones. It also doubles as a trackpad, so you can align the cursor in a text field by moving your fingers across the pad.
BlackBerry preinstalls several of its own apps, like BBM and the BlackBerry 10 Hub, to give fans parts of the previous BlackBerry system in the new Android environment. The company has also baked the security features it is known for deep into a customised version of Google’s Android.
It’s still hard to imagine a big time comeback for BlackBerry, but the Priv is still worth a second look if you happen to be in an Optus store sometime soon.
Joseph Hanlon
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