When will Telus have the Blackberry Priv?

[sheamus]

Now that the phone is officially announced, could someone from Telus comment on availability?

[NFtoBC]

The participants here are customers, just like you; we have no insight into Telus' plans. The Telus Facebook page, their media release page, or enthusiast sites will provide as quick a response as any. 

Also, BBRY has not announced a launch date, as far as I know. 

[sheamus]

Ahh, I thought this forum was some sort of out reach by Telus.

Telus could comment if they plan on carrying it, but you are right I guess not date. But they don't roll here so the point is moot I guess.

~S

[Elite1 · Accepted solution]

Telus will be releasing the BlackBerry Priv on Nov 6. As of this time, there won't be a pre-order.

Rumour has it pricing will be $799.99 outright or $399 on a 2-year contract with a minimum $70/month plan. This pricing is unannounced, pre-release info, so may be subject to change. Once BB Priv shows on Telus site, which will hopefully be earlier next week, you'll be able to get more info.

And before anyone asks, no I don't have any of this in writing or a link to this info. You'll just have to take my word for it. Or, just wait until next week!

[sheamus]

The rumour is also that it will not have wireless charging like the USA version.

[Elite1]

That's right, it doesn't appear to have wireless charging. It does have Quick Charge 2.0 technology, although I'm not personally familiar with what exactly that means.

Also, specs of Priv variant for Canadian carriers didn't show Miracast. That's as of last week; I haven't checked again. Hopefully just an oversight, I wouldn't get too bothered by that just yet.

The only other real spec disappointment for many is that the front cam is supposedly only 2.0MP instead of the expected 5MP. Again, small chance this is an error and it still is 5MP. Main camera is still the reported 18MP OIS and sounds like it's quite good.

[sheamus]

I would only ever use the front camera for video chat, and so 0.9MP is good enough for 720p, which means this camera will be good for video chat. It is also using larger pixels, which should mean it is decent in low light.

If I am taking real pics, back camera is all I will use. 

Disappointing for people who need to take studio quality selfies though.

Quick Charge is a Qualcomm technology, and will give you like 75% of a full charge 4-5x than a normal charger. you will need to buy a QuickCharger for it, as it is not included with the Priv in any country. But even HTC doesn't include a QuickCharger with their devices.

[xl]

Android with a good keyboard.... that's the promise of Priv for me.

A little tip on prices.... Blackberry phones typically see price discounts 2 months after release.  If there isn't a shortage... look for Priv around Boxing Week for discounts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nO8EdLtJj0

[xl]

Just charged mine up last night and loaded it with my fav apps....

First thoughts....
•The ALT key is back!  It was missing on the Passport.  Screen size about the same as the Passport.  No more Google error messages on my fav Android app.
•The N for Next and P for Previous is not working to advance email messages.  Hope they have a patch for that soon.
•Charging is real cool with the green bar on the side.
•trackpad keyboard like the Passport
•keyboard is narrower than Passport, but wider than Q10.  I remember when the Q10 was considered wide.

• Optik on the Go app works!  This is not a forked Android device.
  

•discount if you get it with a 2yr contract.
•I wanna get the holster case!  There's also a flip case with a window to show the time.

[xl]

http://www.telus.com/en/bc/mobility/devices/blackberry-priv/

[Elite1]

Picked up two (for wife and me) last Friday morning. (Release day!) Overall liking it a lot. Like anything, there are pros & cons. I'm coming off 3 years of BB10, 2 on Z30 & 1 on Z10. I've used iOS a bit but never Android before.

Price at release turned out to be $410 on contract. I'm a 15-year SMB customer and was able to get an extra $100 off in form of bill credit, plus another $15 for the SIM card.

BB has done some cool things. I've only been using virtual keyboard so far and it's very good. Swipe to delete, word flicking, and custom Word Substitution are all there, but swipe to reverse autocorrect isn't included yet.

Hub works well. Not quite as well as BB10, but close and certainly better than anything else. You need to choose a default app to "run" texts. Choose Hangouts and not Messenger. Messenger seemed to open double windows.

The app switcher "Recent Apps" by default is set to a mode called Masonry which resembles Windows Live Tiles. I found the resizing of boxes to be distracting. In Settings/Display/Recent you can choose Tiles which is like BB10 active frames layout or Rolodex which is standard on current Android. I'm using Tiles for now.

I possibly have a very minor issue with phone call audio. That upper speaker sounds tinny to me sometimes, almost like the tiny grill is slightly vibrating. Something I'll watch as it's not every call. 

[Elite1]

Regarding cases, so far the full prices from Telus or BB are ludicrous. I just won't pay $50-$60 for a phone case. I haven't found any 3rd party cases yet.

NCIX has the same OEM BlackBerry cases for much less, although they're not in stock yet.
Their sites shows $21 for slide hard shell or holster (each reg $50) and $36 for leather flip case (reg $60).

I'm very carefully going case-less until I get the slide shell online. (I have a credit from the CrackBerry store.)

[xl]

I went looking for the case on the NCIX website.... can't find it.  Can you provide the URL?

I did find some generic cases on Amazon..... however I don't want the generic case as I need the magnet to put the Priv to sleep when it's holstered.

Other than the holster case, my only other protection is a screen protector.  There aren't any out for the Priv yet, so I had someone get a generic skin and then cut it to size.

[sheamus]

http://www.ncix.com/detail/blackberry-priv-stv100-1-unlocked-android-df-119718.htm They have not shown stock yet though.

[xl]

Thanks sheamus.... but I wanted the URL for the "case" that Elite1 described.

[Elite1]

Here's one for example:

http://m.ncix.com/products/sku/120597

Just find the BlackBerry part number (ACC-______-____) online and then search NCIX for it. 

[xl]

Thanks... looks like they made some additions today to their website.  Sadly, none of the listed items are the "holster".  There is a "pocket case" which looks like a "slip case".

[Elite1]

NCIX appears to have raised their Priv accessory prices to the MSRP, but still isn't showing any stock anyway.

GoCellular.ca now seems to have the best prices, plus apparently has stock. ("Ships in 2-5 days")

https://www.gocellular.ca/priv-cases