In my opinion, BlackBerry have never really produced a great, up-to-date BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Now while some BlackBerry users may argue that statement, the reality is that BlackBerry smartphones, when launched, have always been a step behind in specs, design, etc. They have produced really good phones. The BlackBerry Z30 is a really good phone but with a quad processor, HD screen etc it would have been a great phone.
That is all about to change with the BlackBerry Passport. Finally, a great high-end BlackBerry smartphone that is not only for existing BlackBerry users but for everyone.
BlackBerry is changing at an incredible rate under your the leadership of John Chen and he is turning BlackBerry around at a much faster rate than anybody anticipated. Those changes are permeating everywhere within BlackBerry as a company.
BlackBerry has many times been the victim of leaked images before an upcoming phone release. These self-serving grainy images actually do more harm than good as users can be put off by some dismal, unclear image and never come back for a look once the actual device is launched. A huge amount of BlackBerry users have told me that they immediately disliked the BlackBerry Passport when they saw some poor, leaked images elsewhere, but have changed their opinion for the positive since seeing proper images of the device.
John Chen has just (hopefully) killed any further terrible leaked images of the BlackBerry Passport. On Thursday, after the 2015 First Quarter Results, he proudly displayed not only the BlackBerry Passport but the upcoming BlackBerry Classic, three months before they are due to be officially launched.
The Passport was shown at the London Experience Event a fortnight ago but under NDA. Our sources inform us that John Chen’s display wasn’t planned but was an impromptu decision. It was another shrewd move, kills any further grainy, leaked images and gives users a good view of the actual device, without giving away all its secrets.
Even these clear images don’t do the device justice. You really have to see the BlackBerry Passport to believe it.
Unless you have really small hands, the BlackBerry Passport’s innovative design ensures you can use the device with one hand.
The main specs we know are a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 3GB RAM, a 13MP camera, 2MP front-facing camera, and a massive non-removable 3450 mAh battery. The BlackBerry Passport is as high-end as you can get.
Large Touch Screen
For those who love a large touch screen, the Passport comes with a square 4.5-inch 1440×1440 pixel display.
The BlackBerry Passport has a very interesting aspect ratio of 1:1. You can read 60 characters across the screen, which makes it a lot easier to read documents and is 453 dpi.
BlackBerry have really delivered here! Incredible streaming for your movies, games, InstaGram, Facebook, Twitter and other social media – all look gorgeous on the superb display.
Innovative, touch-enabled keyboard
BlackBerry didn’t stop at producing a fantastic display. Below the massive square touchscreen, there is a new innovative, touch-enabled keyboard. It integrates an excellent tactile feel and performance along with the same capacitive touch technology found on modern phone and tablet touchscreens.
Some of it’s key features:
- Scrolling: You can use the keyboard to swipe up and down to scroll on long lists or in the browser. Keeping your fingers off the screen and focused on what’s happening.
- Cursor Control and Text Selection: Double-tap the keyboard, then drag your finger across the keyboard to drop the cursor at precisely the right point. Or select the text just as you would on an older BlackBerry: hold the SHIFT key while dragging your finger across the keyboard to extend a selection.
- Contextual virtual keys: In addition to the Passport’s very clean physical QWERTY keyboard, there is a dynamic virtual row on-screen that smartly shifts depending on context. So if you’re typing a password on-screen, numbers and symbols commonly used in passwords will automatically pop up. Or if you’re typing an e-mail address, the ‘@’ symbol will be displayed. Or if you’re surfing the Web, the colon and backslash characters needed to type in a URL will be displayed. And if you need access to any special symbol or character, just swipe down on the keyboard to see all of them at once.
- Flick: BlackBerry 10’s Next Word Suggestion feature learns from you to give you smart, personalized choice of words you’re likely to type. You then just flick up to complete the word.
- Delete: Made a mistake? No problem, just swipe back (left) to Delete the last word.
- Entering an accented character? Hold the letter key down, and then lightly tap on the key to add the appropriate accent!
This is a keyboard that not only BlackBerry users will love but users who have not considered a physical keyboard will also love it.
Combined with the huge, all-touch screen, they make an impressive combination.
Two App Stores
The BlackBerry Passport will ship with not one but two App stores, BlackBerry World and the Amazon Appstore.
In BlackBerry World you will find Enterprise apps, business apps and tons of productivity apps. Meanwhile, in the Amazon Appstore, you will find over 240,000 Android apps giving you all the apps you could ask for.
A smartphone for everyone
When I say the BlackBerry Passport is a smartphone for everyone, I mean everyone.
- Business Users – With a huge display and physical keyboard, productivity will be enhanced like never before.
- Personal users – The huge all-touch display and innovate keyboard will enhance your smartphone experience like never before. InstaGram, Facebook, Twitter, videos, games, tons of apps and more all running with massive processing power behind it.
- Carriers – Carriers are constantly looking for alternatives and the BlackBerry Passport is a unique smartphone that they can promote and sell as a high-end, innovative device.
As long as the new outsourced marketing team get their marketing right and BlackBerry get their pricing right, BlackBerry have a killer smartphone on their hands.
The targeted release date for the BlackBerry Passport is currently set for September and it’ll come in both black and white versions. If you see any more grainy, leaked images show up between now and then, ignore them. The Passport is a beautiful smartphone that you will be proud to show off and will make you and your phone stand out from the crowd.
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