Skip to main content

BlackBerry and Porsche Design are back with the $2350 P’9983 smartphone

BlackBerry may be struggling to convince us to buy its sensibly priced phones, but that hasn’t stopped it launching another expensive collaboration with Porsche Design. It’s the P’9983, and it follows last year’s P’9982, which was a variation on the Z10 touchscreen phone. This time, the pair have made a return to the QWERTY keyboard, modeling the P’9983 on the BlackBerry Q10.

Porsche Design smartphones are all about style. The body is made from forged stainless steel, and the rear panel is apparently made out of a special glass-weave material. All this may sound flash, but stainless steel and the glass-weave material are also used on the standard Q10, and not unique to the P’9983. Finally, BlackBerry trumpets the use of sapphire glass to keep the camera lens safe from harm.

Recommended Videos

The P’9983 is considerably more attractive than the basic Q10, and while the chiseled good looks will certainly make it stand out, it isn’t all that different to the old P’9981. Things aren’t so cutting edge when you look closely at the specs either. The touchscreen measures 3.1-inches and has a 720 x 720 pixel resolution, there’s an 8-megapixel camera on the back, a 2-megapixel front cam, and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor inside.

If you’re looking for the technical differences between the P’9983 and the Q10, then it’s all about internal storage space. The Porsche Design phone has 64GB of space, plus a MicroSD card slot to add up to another 128GB, while the Q10 has 16GB, and its MicroSD card slot only supports up to 32GB extra. Both phones have 2GB of RAM, support 4G LTE, and run BlackBerry 10, although the Porsche phone will ship with 10.3 installed.

The exclusive nature of the phone does mean it comes in a pretty box, accompanied by an international charging kit, a stereo headset, and (careful, now) a polishing cloth. Porsche Design will also sell a range of accessories, including Italian leather rear covers. The P’9983 will go on sale in October, and although BlackBerry hasn’t stated the price, according to the Porsche Design website, it’ll be 1,650 euros, or about $2350.

Andy Boxall
Andy is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends, where he concentrates on mobile technology, a subject he has written about for…
BlackBerry rises from the grave: New 5G phone with a keyboard coming in 2021
BlackBerry Key2. Credits: BlackBerry official.

BlackBerry is the smartphone brand that steadfastly refuses to die. The presumed-dead name has been resurrected once again, this time by a new company called OnwardMobility. It will work with manufacturer FIH Mobile to create and sell a 5G BlackBerry Android phone with a physical keyboard, ready for a potential release in the U.S. and Europe during the first half of 2021.

You read that right: A new BlackBerry phone with a physical keyboard and 5G, running Google’s Android software, is coming next year. TCL Communications was the last company to produce BlackBerry smartphones. It did so under license from BlackBerry Ltd., which continues to provide mobile security services, but isn’t in the hardware business anymore. TCL let its license lapse in February 2020 when modern, Android-based BlackBerry phones became a thing of the past. Until now.

Read more
TCL won’t make BlackBerry phones anymore, sending the brand back into limbo
BlackBerry Key2 LE review

TCL Communication has announced it will no longer be making BlackBerry smartphones, after taking over the dormant brand at the end of 2016, and bringing it back to life with a series of ever-improving devices. In a statement tweeted out by the official BlackBerry Mobile account, TCL Communication does not have the rights to design, manufacture, or sell BlackBerry phones any longer.

This means the BlackBerry Key 2 LE will be the last BlackBerry-branded phone produced by TCL Communication to be released, and it follows the BlackBerry Key 2, and the BlackBerry KeyOne. TCL Communication’s BlackBerry phones took the features fans of the brand loved — the physical keyboard, long battery life, and extra levels of security — and put them inside modern hardware with Google Android software. While not for everyone, they were successful with those either familiar with the brand, or those looking for something a little different.
What does this mean for BlackBerry?
The future of BlackBerry phones is once again unknown. While TCL Communication will not make another BlackBerry phone, it does not necessarily mean we will never see another BlackBerry phone. It’s possible the global license could be snapped up by another company eager to capitalize on the brand’s highly recognizable name. HMD Global, for example, has seen considerable success with the Nokia name since acquiring the license, while British phone maker Bullitt owns the license to make phones from brands including Cat, JCB, and Land Rover.

Read more
See Motorola’s latest updates to its rollable phone concept
Motorola Rizr bottom.

Motorola is refining the exciting Rizr concept smartphone shown during Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year, according to a patent filed in the U.S. in November. In case you missed it, the Rizr is a continuation of its popular Razr folding smartphones, but this timewith a motorized rollable screen that retracts and extends to increase the viewing area, or minimize the size of the phone.

The patent addresses how we may eventually unlock the phone using a fingerprint sensor. When the phone’s screen is raised or retracted, a single fixed-position, in-display fingerprint sensor wouldn’t always work, so Motorola is experimenting with multiple fingerprint sensors and a larger activation area to solve the problem.

Read more