First Impressions: The ‘Privilege Privacy’ BlackBerry PrivMumbai, Mar 19(AZINS) With the BlackBerry Priv, the company release a premium smartphone after what seemed like an eternity. This, in the midst of a cut-throat market where companies are releasing phones that are five times cheaper than premium smartphones while still offering similar specifications. Although some companies--like Samsung and Apple--may get away with this by offering features and innovations that you can't see on a spec sheet, at approximately Rs 62,000 does BlackBerry do the same?

The phone is big, and feels undeniably solid in the hands. The display of the Priv is curved and is reminiscent of the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but this one can slide upwards. Upon doing so, their iconic “qwerty” keypad gets exposed, but this moving part does leaves ample space for something to get wedged in between the two sliding halves that comprise the body.

For BlackBerry puritans, the qwerty keypad is like coming home and makes typing a lot easier, but the smartphone is top heavy which tends to result in a bit of a balancing act while getting things done. I had to figure out a method to type faster and did this by placing my index fingers along the sides of the smartphone--it then felt stable enough to type quickly. Bottomline is you’ll need to get accustomed to it.

The other big factor--this is the first time the company has ditched their iconic BlackBerry OS and opted for Android instead, although they have tweaked it to make it a bit more ‘BlackBerry’. In short--they’ve hardened the Android operating system and added in layers of encryption and privacy to enable user to lock down every aspect of their smartphone experience. Think of it as a hybrid operating system, blending features from both BlackBerry and Android.

The phone includes an app called DTEK by BlackBerry, which is what sets the Priv apart from other smartphones. The app is intended to beef up security on the smartphone with features like: ‘Monitor’ that lets a user know at a glance the overall security rating of the device;‘Control’ that allows easy change of security settings to improve the device’s security rating; ‘Track’ that turns on event logging to track what users apps are doing and; ‘Notify’ which notifies users to specific app activities.

Coming to the camera, the phone has an 18MP sensor with Schneider-Kreuznach optics along with three modes: Picture, Panorama and Video. it is disappointing that BlackBerry did not include more photography options out of the box, but there are 18 filters to toy around with. There’s also a 2MP front camera for the CEO who’s particularly fond of selfies.

Speaking of its general construction, in addition to the volume buttons on the left of the smartwatch, there is a notification in the middle of the volume button on the side of the smartphone that left users check notifications, change the volume for media and alarms among other things.

True to form, the smartphone came in a well packaged box with the standard accessories like headphones (with extra earbuds covers), USB charger, user manuals and warranty card along with the smartphone.

Stay tuned for the in-depth review coming shortly.