Here’s the first official video of BlackBerry’s Android Priv phone

Yesterday BlackBerry’s first Android handset finally went up for preorder (if you lived in the UK), but the company also posted its first official video of its slider handset – so far, so good.

It’s a neat little demo of what’s shaping up to be a pretty appealing smartphone, even if you don’t care about the keyboard (and even if BlackBerry’s CEO doesn’t seem to know how to use it). The video shows off features like a near-stock version of Android, access to universal search and messaging by swiping up from the bottom of the screen, and the sliding keyboard that doubles as a trackpad.

Granted, we’d already seen many of these features in an earlier leak (the video has since been taken down), but it’s nice to see Blackberry officially showing off how the Priv differentiates from other Android handsets (aside from just the keyboard).

Couple that with strong specs that include a curved 5.4-inch QHD display, a Snapdragon 808 chip,  3,410 mAh battery, 3 GB of RAM and 3 GB of expandable storage, and BlackBerry could have a winner on its hands.

Of course, it’ll take a strong advertising campaign and more than just one solid phone to keep BlackBerry afloat, but at the very least it’s off to a good start – the Priv looks like its most promising device in years.

➤ BlackBerry Priv via Pocket Lint