BlackBerry will not roll out Android Nougat update to Priv users

BlackBerry Priv users will not be able to experience Android Nougat on their BlackBerry handsets. As per reports, the Canadian tech giant has confirmed the news of the update not being rolled out to Priv lineup, which was launched in the year 2015 in the global market. The handset was launched with Android 5.1 Lollipop along with BlackBerry services such as BB hub, BB keyboard, and more.

The news was first reported by CrackBerry, which mentions Alex Thurber GM of BlackBerry Mobility Solutions talking the fact that bringing together all the partners required for the whole effort would be next to impossible for BlackBerry. This means that BlackBerry Priv will never run the Android 7.0 Nougat update and will stay on Android Marshmallow.

Blackberry Priv was announced just two years back and this comes as a sad news for buyers who purchased the flagship handset from BlackBerry. As noted, Blackberry Priv was company's first Android-powered smartphone and was launched in India in January 2016 at a hefty price of Rs. 62,990.

Titled as Priv, the high-end Blackberry smartphone sports dual curved QHD AMOLED display and is powered by a Hexa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 64-bit processor along with 600 MHz Adreno 418 as GPU. The storage department is taken care of 3GB RAM, 32GB ROM and those who wants extra storage capacity, can expand up to 2TB via microSD card slot.

On the imaging factor, this device flaunts a Schneider-Kreuznach certified 18MP rear camera with dual-tone Flash, OIS, PDAF, f/2.2 6P lens, 4K video recording, 6DOF video stabilization and 5MP front-facing camera, f/2.8 aperture, 1.7-micron pixel size.

Coming back onto the fact that the company is not offering the Nougat update to Priv users, it can come as a big setback for the company which recently announced their latest BlackBerry KEYone Android smartphone in India at Rs. 39,990. Consumers might doubt the same for the new smartphone in the upcoming future where one can simply drop the idea of buying a BB Android smartphone.

We believe if other companies can push the latest Google updates to their budget and mid-range devices, a veteran like BlackBerry can also do that for their consumers. After all, BlacKBerry is finally coming on tracks and the recently launched KEYone is company's best Android handset till date.

Stay tuned on GIZBOT for more on BlackBerry and its Android devices.