It's been just under one month since images of BlackBerry's Android-powered PRIV slider officially saw the light of day. BlackBerry has remained tight lipped on the device's particulars to date, but now the device has gone up for pre-order in the United States, United Kingdom and Europe.

The price is right?

While pre-orders went live over the weekend, news about the price tag proved interesting reading. In the States, the PRIV is primed to retail for $700 (R9 530), while it will set you back £560 (R11 680) if purchased in Great Britain. As such, the PRIV will come in around the same price as the Passport (review), when it debuted last year.

Along with opening it up for pre-orders, BlackBerry has also detailed what's running under the hood of this 5.4" (1140x2560) dual-curved edge slider smartphone. As you no doubt know by now, the PRIV sports a QWERTY keyboard, although whether it features the same capacitive functions as the Passport's version remains unconfirmed.

Added to this is a hexa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor setup, split between a dual-core 1.8 GHz (cortex A-57) and quad-core 1.44 GHz (cortex A-53) chipsets. This is powered up 3 GB of RAM, as well as 32 GB onboard storage option, with a microSD slot for an additional 200 GB.

Coming soon

The aforementioned version of Android OS is 5.1.1 (Lollipop), but BlackBerry has not mentioned if a Marshmallow upgrade is in the works. On the imaging front, BlackBerry has opted for a 18 MP camera on the rear, with 2 MP front facing shooter, which is certified by Schneider-Kreuznach.     

While those in the Northern hemisphere can expect their pre-ordered devices, there is no word on South Africa just yet, but BlackBerry has historically been quick to bring their smartphones to SA.