14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Canadian mobile phone maker BlackBerry has officially announced the upcoming availability of a special edition device, none other than the long rumored Porsche Design P’9982.
Built as a luxury phone, the new handset is set to become available for purchase beginning with November 21, when it will start selling at Harrods, Knightsbridge, London. The handset will be priced at over £1,000 ($1,608/€1,190).
Following this exclusive retail launch, the smartphone will become available through Porsche Design stores and select carriers and retailers around the world. In the UK, users will also be able to grab it from the Carphone Warehouse and Selfridges.
The new Porsche Design P’9982 from BlackBerry was built with a focus on looks rather than hardware specifications.
The phone comes with a satin finish frame that has been forged from stainless steel, while also packing a hand-wrapped genuine Italian leather back case.
A limited edition Crocodile version of the handset will also be available for purchase (though only 500 units will be made), featuring genuine Crocodile leather on the back.
This limited Crocodile edition is set to become available only via the Porsche Design shop-in-shop at Harrods, and it will be put up for sale starting with early December.
“The new all-touch P’9982 smartphone combines a unique design from an iconic brand with the power of BlackBerry 10. Every aspect of this smartphone has been purposely designed and built for a powerful premium experience,” Alistair Hamilton, senior vice president of Design at BlackBerry, said.
Running under the BlackBerry 10.2 OS, the new Porsche Design P’9982 also comes to the market with appealing software features, including BlackBerry Priority Hub, BlackBerry Keyboard, and BBM Video with Screen Share.
Furthermore, the smartphone packs the Camera Time Shift mode and BlackBerry Story Maker, along with BBM Now in any app, and access to applications designed specifically for the owners of Porsche Design devices.
The new P’9882 sports a 4.2-inch 1280 x 768 pixels screen, a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor inside, and 2GB of RAM. It also features 64GB of internal memory, microSD memory card slot, and an 1800mAh removable battery.
On the back, it has an 8-megapixel camera with full HD video recording, paired with a 2MP front camera for video calling. The device was launched with the usual set of connectivity capabilities packed inside, including 4G LTE support.
“Engineered Luxury meets Powered Performance – what has been true for the first Porsche Design smartphone is even truer for the all-touch P’9882,” Juergen Gessler, CEO of the Porsche Design Group, commented on the launch.
“Once again the collaboration with BlackBerry has led to a device that implements our Iconic Style credo without compromises. With the P’9982 we extend our range of modern luxury smartphones and establish ourselves as a market leader in this segment”
