BlackBerry Priv has been delayed or has it?

BlackBerry is the last of the former mobile giants still to operate under its own esteem – after Microsoft bought Nokia and Google, followed by Lenovo, bought Motorola – and the company’s latest attempt to woo customers runs on the Android Lollipop OS.

The long awaited BlackBerry Priv brings a hardware keyboard and the company’s own security and applications to the Android OS and last week, BlackBerry launched the Priv in the US. Or so we thought, at least; BlackBerry’s own store now lists the handset as “expected to start shipping the week of November 23, 2015“.

I’m excited about the BlackBerry Venice (Priv), are you?81

If you go to Shop BlackBerry’s UK, Canadian or US stores, you’ll be greeted to the same message and if you’re one of those who have pre-ordered you might be a little worried now. All is not lost however as we can reveal that those who pre-ordered are likely to get theirs before November 23rd.

I placed a pre-order on BlackBerry’s UK store for the Priv towards the end of last week after Carphone Warehouse shipping slipped to the end of this week and the latest update on the BlackBerry store still suggest my unit will ship after the launch, which was yesterday, November 9th.

To get some more information, I’ve spoken to Shop BlackBerry in the UK and the USA and both have confirmed that the release is happening in batches. Those who ordered earlier than last week are likely to be in the first batch while the second batch is for those who ordered up until yesterday. For both of these batches, shipping is expected within 10 days of the release on November 9th.

However, if you haven’t ordered the BlackBerry Priv from BlackBerry direct yet, then you’re set to be in the next batch, for which shipping will begin on November 23rd. That being said, it seems that in the US, UK and Canada, third-party retailers are likely to have it in-stock before BlackBerry gets its next batch of units in.

In the US, B&H PhotoVideo suggests a release of November 20th, while in the UK, Carphone Warehouse had the handset in-stock briefly yesterday before pushing it back to November 13th as it ploughed through all available units. In Canada, all five major retailers have the Priv in-stock, which suggest they’re probably the best place to buy one if you want it in a hurry.

There’s no doubt that the BlackBerry direct shopping experience hasn’t been as fluid as many customers might have liked but it’s not all bad news as some users are reporting that they have already received shipping confirmation.

BlackBerry Priv / Venice in the news

Either way, BlackBerry expects to have your phone to you in under 10 days but if you want a BlackBerry Priv in a hurry, you’ll either need to go to a third party retailer or to your network. Then again, you could always order from BlackBerry direct and mod your phone with the Priv’s software goodies in the meantime.

BlackBerry Priv wallpapers, keyboard and apps ripped for download

The BlackBerry Priv has been on sale for a just a short time, but Xaiux over at the XDA Forum has already begun pulling out various bits of software from the handset and sticking them up for download. There are no guarantees that all or any of these apps will work flawlessly with your particular devices, but they might be worth a try if you want to experience some of BlackBerry’s legendary software for yourself.

BlackBerry is pretty well known for its keyboard technology and you can download the Priv’s keyboard as a standalone APK. All of the other apps will require BlackBerry Services installed before they will work, once you have that you can try out the BlackBerry Launcher and Calendar software too.

Finally, if you want the BlackBerry Hub and other bits of untouched software you will also need root access on your smartphone, as it has to be installed on your system partition. You can find a list of all the files at this link.

Additionally, the Priv’s stock wallpapers have also appeared online. You can grab the .rar file with them all on from this link and I’ve uploaded them again below for simpler downloading onto your mobile.

Of course, there are still a good number of reasons to go out and buy the actual BlackBerry Priv. The Priv comes with some pretty decent hardware, there’s a curved 5.4-inch QHD display, Snapdragon 808 SoC, 3GB of RAM and an 18 megapixel rear camera. Not to mention proper software support and the additional encryption/security features. Still, it’s nice to try things out.

BlackBerry Priv: Wireless charging or not?

If you were paying close attention back in October when BlackBerry released the device’s specs, you might recall reading that it featured “Dual mode Wireless Charging capable for Powermat (PMA) and Qi.” However, when eager BlackBerry fans north of the US border finally got their hands on the Priv this last week, they discovered a curious thing. It did not, in fact, have wireless charging. What’s the deal here? You don’t have to look hard to find people merrily charging their new Privs on Qi chargers, so why does charging for Canadians seems suspiciously… wireful?

The Canadian mobile enthusiasts over at Mobilesyrup  had the same question, so they got on the phone and pressed BlackBerry until they got a straight answer. It turns out that whether or not your BlackBerry Priv has wireless charging capabilities depends entirely on where you bought the device. There are effectively two models of the Priv currently on the market: the STV100-1 and the STV100-3. They’re functionally identical except that the STV100-1 has wireless charging but the STV100-3 does not.

If you’re shopping in the US, things are pretty simple. Phones are typically sold through two avenues: either through mobile carriers or through BlackBerry themselves. If you get your BlackBerry Priv from a carrier like AT&T, they’re all selling the STV100-1. If you buy your Priv through ShopBlackBerry.com, no problem there either, because they’re selling the STV100-1 too.

See also: BlackBerry Priv to receive monthly Android security patches10

However, things are a little weirder in Canada right now. It’s the same basic setup in that you can either buy your phone through your carrier or through ShopBlackBerry.com, but Canadian carriers are only selling the non-wireless-charging STV100-3. You can try to get around this by ordering what is described as a model STV100-1 from BlackBerry, but whereas that model’s US description explicitly mentions wireless charging, Canadian visitors to the site will find this feature conspicuously absent. It’s still called an STV100-1, but the device you receive in the mail won’t have wireless charging either.

After some pressing, an unnamed BlackBerry representative eventually acknowledged that cost “was a major factor” in deciding to put a slightly nerfed version of the Priv on the Canadian market.

Why is this an issue? The reigning theory is that it has to do with the current disadvantageous exchange rate between USD and CAD. BlackBerry apparently decided that it was a better move to remove a feature from the Canadian version of the phone to make the device cheaper to produce instead of eating the profit loss or raising the cost of the device in Canada.

So enjoy your sweet, sweet wireless charging, US citizens.  Not all BlackBerry owners are so Priv-ileged.