Porsche BlackBerry is a luxury Q10 (pictures)

Say guten tag to the Porsche Design P'9983 from BlackBerry.  It's essentially BlackBerry's existing Q10 phone, with a 3.1-inch screen, BlackBerry 10 software and full Qwerty keyboard, but German design firm Porsche Design have given it a flashy new look.

The aesthetic upgrades include a glossy carbon fibre or real leather back, new Qwerty keys, a metal chassis and plenty of fancy Porsche Design branding.

The P'9983, as I'm going to call it for short, will be available globally this month, and will be exclusive to Harrods in the UK, for the princely sum of £1,400. Ouch.

Wider prices and availability are not yet known. It converts directly to $2,295/AU$2,585.

Internally, the phone is basically the same as the Q10. Key specs like its dual-core 1.5GHz processor, 8-megapixel camera and 720x720-pixel square display remain the same.

It's really on the outside where Porsche Design has had its fun.

As well as slapping its branding on almost every available surface, the phone has been given a new metal chassis with angled corners, instead of the rounded, pebble-like shape of the Q10.

Although the Q10 had a carbon-fibre back, the P'9983's is much more glossy. It feels good to hold and certainly feels like a more luxurious device than the standard Q10.

Whether that's worth the extra cash is up to you.

The Q10's physical Qwerty keyboard remains -- Porsche Design CEO Juergen Gessler told me that its users really value the speed of typing on physical keys.

The keyboard on Porsche Design's model is different to the standard Q10. It loses the metal strips separating out the rows, and the keys are clear, not matte plastic.

They still seem very comfortable to type on though.

On the left is the Porsche Design phone, on the right, the regular Q10. Porsche's is certainly more angular, but it's a matter of opinion whether it looks better or not.

It runs the same BlackBerry 10 software, which has a few neat tricks like the Hub, which pulls together all your email inboxes, texts and social alerts into one easy to see place.

I'm personally not as keen on the P'9983's glossy back.

The Q10's carbon fibre back has a matte texture to it, which I think feels nicer to hold than the slippery gloss coating.

It's reasonably thin. You definitely won't struggle to slide it into the inside pocket of your custom made suit.

Where would you hold the launch of a luxury phone? Luxury department store Harrods, of course! It's exclusive to Harrods at launch, although only for a week, so expect to see it more widely available from mid-October.

Specifically, it was shown off in the Laduree shop within Harrods. Laduree makes very fancy French cakes, pastries and Macaroons, none of which had blackberries in -- the only connection between the two things I could possibly think of.

The 8-megapixel camera on the back remains identical. Porsche Design says it hasn't done anything to the camera software to improve performance, so I expect it to deliver similarly decent results as the standard Q10.

Even the battery has been given Porsche Design branding -- and yes, that was listed as a feature in the press release.

If you're not keen on the shiny carbon fibre, you'll be pleased to hear you can get real leather back panels, which are available in a range of colours.

Here's a red one. Its bright colour really doesn't match the stark black aesthetic of the front.

It will definitely make a statement though. I'm just not sure what that statement is.