The new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone will get an early debut Thursday, but unless you're kickin' it in the sands of Dubai, you're going to have to wait a little longer.
The new BB10 device, which rocks a physical QWERTY keyboard, wasn't expected to land until mid-July, but will instead make a premature bow to celebrate the grand opening of BlackBerry retail store in the United Arab Emirates.
However, while while we wouldn't read too much into this as straight-up currency conversions are never too reliable, the cost of the decidedly mid-range device may turn out to be greater than some expected.
In the UAE, the SIM-free phone priced at a AE$1,499 which works out at around £261/$408/AU$437, which stretches the credibility of BlackBerry's "affordable" tag.
Tight budgets
The Q5 gives those on tighter budgets their first chance to experience the BlackBerry 10 operating system, following the launch of the flagship Q10 and Z10 models.
It features a 3.1-inch 720 x 720 LCD touchscreen, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 5-megapixel camera and 4G LTE connectivity.
Will you be snapping up a Q5 when it launches in the west? Or have reports of a higher-than-expected price-tag put you off already?
- Sony may have a mighty fine phablet in the works. Read about it here.