BlackBerry Porsche P’9982 Smartphone Targets High End Market

Smartphone maker BlackBerry has shrugged off its current troubles and has teamed up with Porsche Design to produce the all-touch P’9982 smartphone, which is aimed at the higher end of the market.

Prices for the smartphone start at £1,499, which brings it in to direct competition with luxury handset manufacturer Vertu, and individual devices are distinguishable by a special series of PIN numbers. A second crocodile model is also available, but just 500 of them will be made.

BlackBerry Porsche P’9982

The handset features a satin-finished frame forged from stainless steel, complemented by a hand-wrapped Italian leather back door, which on thelimited edition model is hand-wrapped in genuine crocodile leather.

Technical specifications include a 4.2-inch touch-screen display, battery life good for up to 9 hours of talk time, an 8-megapixel rear camera and 64GB of internal storage. It also features a MicroSD card slot for additional storage and is 4G LTE-capable.

“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, says “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.”

The smartphone will run the BlackBerry 10.2 operating system, which offers features such as Priority Hub, the place to manage all conversations and notifications, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a time-shift mode for the camera and Story Maker, which lets users take a collection of photos and videos, and add music and effects, to create an HD movie to share.

Along with the handset, the package includes a premium stereo headset, a polishing cloth, USB cable for high-speed data transfer and an international charging kit.

The P’9982 smartphone also offers exclusive after market accessories including handcrafted backdoors made from fine Italian leather that are available in three colours.

Premium Experience

“The new all-touch P’9982 smartphone combines a unique design from an iconic brand with the power of BlackBerry 10,” Alistair Hamilton, senior vice president of design at BlackBerry explains. “Every aspect of this smartphone has been purposely designed and built for a powerful premium experience.”

The smartphone will be available from Porsche Design stores, select carriers and retailers around the world starting this week with the exclusive retail launch at Harrods in London. The limited Crocodile edition will be available beginning early December, and will be exclusive to the Porsche Design shop-in-shop at Harrods, a company statement said.

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Originally published on eWeek.