BlackBerry are still alive and well, despite the desire of some critics to see them go under. The company seems to still have a lot of life left, and they’re doing everything in their power to show their fans that they still know what they’re doing. They’re also continuing their trend for working with Porsche for luxury-grade phones, something they were doing a long time ago with some of their original devices.
The new BlackBerry Porsche just launched in Canada for the price of $1,950 CAD, or $1,545 USD. The exact model number is P’9983, and it’s based on the Passport, featuring the same square screen and physical keyboard underneath. Of course, like other Porsche models, the device is also covered with luxurious materials and has a much nicer touch to it.
In fact, the whole backside of the phone is made of real leather, and the body of the device is made out of stainless steel. The company is advertising the high-grade materials used in the phone quite a lot, including in their catalogue, where users can find out all they need to know about the new P’9983.
Performance-wise, there should be no surprises here, as the new phone is expected to have similar characteristics as the previous model it inherits from. It comes with a 3.1 inch display running at a 720×720 resolution, 2 GB of RAM and a Snapdragon S4 Plus processor. All of that should allow users to handle all of their regular applications easily, and it should also leave some room for high-performance use as well.
The price of the phone is obviously quite high, but it’s not aimed at the regular market – this is a device for people who want to have a little luxury in their pockets, the same kinds of people who would buy a Rolex watch. It’s a statement, not just a phone for everyday use, and BlackBerry have proven before that they certainly have a large crowd for those devices. Hopefully, they haven’t lost their fans in this area over the last few years.
Could this device bring BlackBerry back into the headlines? It’s not very likely, as it’s not aimed at the mass market, so it probably won’t generate as much hype as a standard flagship would. Still, it’s important to keep everyone happy, and the company certainly has many fans among the higher end of the market. If this release proves successful for them, the money could easily go into improving their standard line-up, and releasing a new flagship to revive interest in the BlackBerry line. It could be too early for another flagship, but it wouldn’t hurt for BlackBerry to start preparing.
Hi, Matt Young from BlackBerry here. A correction: the P’9983 isn’t based on the BlackBerry Passport. It’d be more akin to the Q10 with a premium build.
This model is based on the very old Q10 design which did not sell well. The screen is too small and the brand halo impact on their newer models such as the passport will be nil. The product strategy and the market timing are mass failures.
I think every Porsche phone released by BlackBerry to date is impressive to look at but the company has to get the specs up a notch. I’ve owned no fewer than five different models of BlackBerry and I’m a big supporter of the company but if the social elite are going to be shelling out major coinage to buy a Porsche phone, it should be comparable in performance to every other phone out there, to say the least.