Why a slider plus Android equals the best BlackBerry ever

[MUSIC] It's no secret that Blackberry as a tech company has not had the easiest time of it in recent years. We almost thought it might completely disappear from the consumer market. But Blackberry is back with a new device that's very different, but is it also very special? With me is my CNet colleague, Andrew Hoyle. Hi, Luke. Now Andy, you've been using the BlackBerry Priv for a week, and we're gonna talk about your findings. So first of all, what is the thing that strikes you most? About the phone. Well the headline of this phone really is that it's the first Blackberry phone to run Android, Google operating system. Rather than Blackberry's own BB10. And of course the big thing is app selection. Suddenly you've got 100's of 1000's of apps to choose from. All your favorite games. All your social networks. Everything you want, On this phone. Blackberry 10 didn't have that. This is big news for Blackberry. So did actually make a difference that it's running Android? What's it like to use? It's really easy to use. It's very much the same as any other Android phone you would have used before. So you've got multiple home screens, you go into an app selection folder. So you like the fact that it's running Android? I think it's great. But this phone doesn't look like what you would expect a BlackBerry phone to look like. It's got a very very different, very old design, you might say. Tell me, you've been using it for a week. Does the design work or is it a failure? I love the design. I think it's great. You've got a big screen, 5.5 inches. You've got carbon fiber weave on the back. My favorite thing, though, and you'll like this Luke, Instead the screen slides up to reveal this keyboard beneath. The phone moves, it transforms, and it's snappy. It reminds me of the old Motorola razor V3 from the early 90's the clamshell that you can snap shut. We got that physicality back in a phone, there's movement. I have missed that and I am so glad to see something like that back. Would you use this phone, the Blacktooth Priv ahead of any other phone that is currently out there? That is a difficult one to say. I use an iPhone most of the time and I'm pretty entrenched in Apple the ecosystem, I've spent a lot of money on apps. Would I personally switch to this phone, no If I were switching from another Android phone, definitely. And I think a lot of Android users are going to be very keen to try out this phone. And certainly people who love blackberries, [UNKNOWN] keyboards. There going to love [UNKNOWN] just as well. So it sounds like if you are an Android fan then this might be worth checking out. One last thing though, the name It's a terrible name, right? [LAUGH] Blackberry Priv? Not finished- It's a ridiculous name though. They could have picked anything else and it would have been better. OK. Well, we have much more on the Blackberry Priv at CNET.com so be sure to check it out.