BlackBerry Porsche P’9983 now official with BB OS 10.3 on board

UPDATE: The BlackBerry Porsche P’9983 is now available in Malaysia at RM6,488.

BlackBerry has officially announced its third device developed with Porsche Design with the BlackBerry P’9983. Like Porsche Design devices of the past, it offers premium style with upmarket materials instead of the usual plastic. For those who prefer to tap on a physical keyboard, the new P’9983 is the first QWERTY based Porsche Design device that runs on the latest BlackBerry OS 10.3. Previously, the P’9982, was based on the BlackBerry Z10 that came with a full touch screen experience.

Spec-wise, the new P’9983 is based on the BlackBerry Q10 with a 3.1″ 720×720 touch display, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8960 processor, 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. It also has a microSD slot that support cards up to 128GB, a microUSB 2.0 port as well as micro HDMI as standard. The battery is similar with the Q10 as well with a 2,100mAh capacity unit and a 8MP camera with 5 elements f/2.2 sapphire glass lens. It also gets 4G LTE, WiFI 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and NFC support.

Being a premium device with a higher price tag, the Blackberry P’9983 boast delicate craftsmanship with the use of forged stainless steel for its frame while the removable back cover has a special glass weave treatment that looks like carbon fibre. When you pick up a Porsche Design device, you’ll get an exclusive BB Pin with the 2AAXXXXX prefix. The P’9983 will be available at selected Porsche Design stores beginning next month, October 2014. Don’t expect this to be cheap. The first P,9981 with a QWERTY keyboard costs RM6,388 locally. We reckon, the BlackBerry Passport that’s launching very soon would be a better alternative with newer hardware and better display.