BlackBerry’s first Android phone, the iv, wasn’t half bad. It just didn’t offer enough to justify that $700 price. If you were enticed by the security features of the iv, but you don’t want to spend that kind of money ( don’t need a physical keyboard), you’re in luck. The company just announced its second Android phone, it only costs $299.

The DTEK50 (doesn’t that name just roll off the tongue?) appears to be a barely-modified catel Idol 4. The only hardware change seems to be a new backplate that bears the Blackberry logo. It has a 5.2-inch 1080p display, Snapdragon 617 processor, 13Mrear-facing 8Mfront-facing cameras, 2610 mAh battery. You’ll find 3GB of RAM, 16GB of flash storage, SD card support. Note that the phone isn’t based off the superior Idol 4S, which has a higher-res display, larger battery, better camera.

On the software side, BlackBerry has added its own special sauce to improve security privacy. The company claims it’s “the world’s most secure Android phone,” though that claim doesn’t appear to be qualified by an independent authority. In its press release, BlackBerry lists the following features as evidence of the phone’s hardened security:

Rapid Security tching: BlackBerry has a record of being the quickest to deliver security patches, setting the bar in incident response patch management to protect your device from malicious threats.

DTEK by BlackBerry App: Enables users to automatically monitor their OS apps to know when their privacy could be at risk to take action to improve it. The DTEK app also tracks applications notifies you when someone is: taking pictures or videos without your knowledge, turning your microphone on, sending a text message, or accessing your contacts or location.

Hardware Root of Trust: BlackBerry’s manufacturing process uses a proprietary technique that adds security from the start, allowing for the tracking, verification provisioning of DTEK50.

Secure Boot ocess: Starting with the root of trust, each stage of DTEK50’s secure boot chain must first verify that the next component is fully intact before proceeding, ensuring your device has not been tampered with since the last restart.

Android OS hardening: BlackBerry provides additional security patches, improved rom number, address space generation certificate pinning to make it more difficult for attackers to target a device by scrambling application/system memory.

FI 140-2 Compliant Full Disk Encryption: otects your private information, like pictures or bank information, from being stolen if you were to lose your phone.

The phone is up for preorder now on BlackBerry.com, in a bundle with an external battery pack for $299. It will go on sale in retail around August 8th.

The story behind the story: Once a mobile powerhouse, BlackBerry has fallen on hard times. The iv was supposed to turn the company around, but suffered poor sales. By taking an existing design focusing on BlackBerry’s strengths in security manageability, it’s able to field a much more affordable option. It’s possible that this is the way forward for the company, but I predict the market will shrug off this device as well. BlackBerry may eventually stop making hardware altogether, instead focusing on its expertise in security device management as a software services company.