Canadian manufacturer BlackBerry has been in financial trouble for a while. Even as their handsets ended up with better build quality and they integrated more current technical specifications, those ran on BlackBerry’s own operating system, which started to look kind of dated and many apps from other ecosystems were missing. BlackBerry thought the solution was to switch from that OS and move to something more popular, and the obvious choice was Android. After many months of hearing rumors and speculation, BlackBerry finally made the announcement of their first phone to run on Android, the BlackBerry Priv. It was supposed to integrate all of the apps available for Android with the security that BlackBerry has provided for all of their devices in a hardware with some of the best specs out there.
The BlackBerry Priv features a curved screen on the edges, which is quite rare even in current smartphones. The phone also includes a physical keyboard with a sliding mechanism hidden behind the screen. BlackBerry seems to be really proud about the build quality of the Priv, and now, they have released a video titled “PRIV quality and durability by design”, showing how this phone is assembled. The video features the phone and all of its internals rendered in animation, it starts with the buttons on the right being integrated to the body of the phone and more pieces are put together, the camera then shows the front of the device and we even get a chance to see the sliding mechanism of the keyboard, once the screen is integrated. Finally, some sensors make its way to the keyboard along the lighting system and it ends with the small keys joining the surface of the phone, so they show how the final product looks.
As good as the video looks, the build quality of the BlackBerry Priv could be considered questionable and there is certainly room for improvement. The phone is made with a lot of plastic and some parts might even feel hollow and creaky, so overall it doesn’t seem to justify its quite expensive price. That’s not to say that BlackBerry didn’t bring some innovation to the table, as the keyboard also works as a touchpad and the UI features some nice enhancements.