The BlackBerry Passport looks different. Perhaps that is the point, BlackBerry wants a phone that stands out in the crowd of rectangular shaped smartphones. BlackBerry Passport offers a square display with a redesigned physical QWERTY keyboard.
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BlackBerry Passport comes with a unique design and is focused on enterprise users. BlackBerry is pitching the Passport as the smartphone for getting things done. It offers BlackBerry 10.3, the best BlackBerry keyboard yet, the fastest processor on any BB phone, as well as competes well with the BlackBerry Z30 in the battery life department. BlackBerry Passport also boasts of the best camera and display of any BlackBerry phone.
The Design
BlackBerry Passport has a weird design. It is still rectangular in shape, but not as rectangular as any smartphone you have probably seen. Perhaps the only smartphone that is shaped similar is the LG Vu 3, though the Vu family offers no physical keyboard and the latest model has rounded corners.
BlackBerry Passport offers flat corners just similar to the BlackBerry Z3, but being a premium device it comes with a stainless steel frame and general build quality is top notch. The battery is not removable, it comes with memory card support up to 128GB.
The Hardware
Performance has never been an issue with BlackBerry 10 phones. Even on their usual dual-core processors, they have always ran smoothly. But, BlackBerry Passport is going quad-core with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 clocking at 2.2GHz, which combined with the 3GB RAM should make things run faster.
The Software
BlackBerry Passport comes with the new BlackBerry 10.3, which offers a few refinements. One of the big one is that Amazon Store now comes preloaded, so you can easily download Android apps on your Passport. The user interface now looks different with icons and buttons modernised.
BlackBerry 10.3 allows you reorder the position of apps on your Active Frame and when an app falls off the Active Frame, it is nolonger closed automatically, but continue to run on the background.
BlackBerry Passport, thanks to BlackBerry 10.3 offers BlackBerry Assistant, which is more or less an intelligent digital assistant somewhat similar to Siri in iOS or Cortana in Windows Phone.
Display and Camera
Blackberry Passport features a 4.5-inch IPS touch display with 1440 x 1440 pixels resolution. The display is brilliant and great for reading and editing documents. Browsing the web and watching videos is also great because colour reproduction have been reported to be awesome.
The display is quite wide accommodating up to 60 characters per line compared to 40 characters for other smartphones. The display sits behind Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
BlackBerry Passport also offers the best camera of any Blackberry phone. With a 13 megapixels camera and Optical Image Stabilisation, the BlackBerry Passports beats any BlackBerry phone in the camera department. It also sports a 2 megapixels front facing camera.
The Keyboard
BlackBerry Passport offers a physical QWERTY keyboard, which will make it attractive to some die hard fans of the physical keyboard. However, unlike the Blackbbery Q10 and other BB phones that offer 4 rows of keys, the Blackberry Passport is cleaning things up with a 3 row design.
The missing row is made-up for by offering contextual virtual keys on the display. The physical keys are also touch sensitive and can recognise gestures. The keyboard on the BlackBerry Passport requires practice, but the good news is that the learning curve is not steep and once you master it, you will be more productive.
Pricing and availability
BlackBerry Passport is now available in a few online stores in Nigeria like Konga. BlackBerry Passport Price in Nigeria ranges from 150,000 Naira to 250,000 Naira at launch, depending on your location.
BlackBerry Passport Specs
Here are a few specs of the BlackBerry Passport:
General Features
- Platform: BlackBerry 10.3
- Processor: 2.2GHz quad-core Processor (Snapdragon 801)
- GPU: Adreno 330
- Memory: 3 GB RAM
- Colours: Black, White
- Dimension: 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm
- Weight: 194 g
- SIM Type: Nano SIM
- SIM Count: Single SIM
Display
- Display: 4.5-inch IPS Display, 1440 x 1440 pixels (453ppi)
- Display Protection: Yes (Corning Gorilla Glass 3)
Camera
- Rear Camera: 13 MP Camera, LED Flash, 1080p HD Video
- Rear Camera Features: Geo-tagging, HDR, Face Detection, Panorama, Optical Image Stabilisation
- Front Camera: 2 MP, 720p HD Video
Storage
- Built-in Storage: 32 GB Storage
- Memory Card Support: Up to 128GB
- Bundled Cloud Storage: –
Network Support
- 2G GSM: 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz
- 2G CDMA 1X: No
- 3G WCDMA: 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100MHz
- 3G CDMA EVDO: No
- 4G LTE: 700 / 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1800 / 1900 /2100 / 2600MHz
Internet & Connectivity
- GPRS: Yes
- EDGE: Yes
- 3G/WCDMA/HSPA: Yes, up to 21Mbps
- HSPA+: Yes, up to 42Mbps
- CDMA EVDO: No
- 4G LTE: Yes, up to 150Mbps
- WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, DLNA, Wi-Fi Direct, Miracast
- Wi-Fi Hotspot: Yes
- Bluetooth: Yes, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP, LE
- NFC: Yes
- Infrared Blaster: No
- USB Port: Yes, microUSB 2.0 (microHDMI out), USB on the Go
Messaging
- SMS/MMS: Yes
- Instant Messaging: Yes
- Push Emails: Yes
- Email Protocol: IMAP4, POP3, SMTP
Entertainment
- Music Player: Yes, mp3, WAV, FLAC, eACC+
- Video Player: Yes, MPEG4, H.263, H.264, XviD
- FM Radio: Yes (with RDS)
- Loudspeaker: Yes
- 3.5mm Jack: Yes
Navigation
- Navigation: Yes, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS
- Maps: Yes, BlackBerry Maps
Sensors & Control
- Digital Compass: Yes
- Accelerometer: Yes
- Proximity Sensor: Yes
- Light Sensor: Yes
- Barometer: No
- Pedometer: No
- Gyroscope: Yes
- Fingerprint Scanner: No
- Iris Scanner: No
- Intelligent Digital Assistant: Yes (BlackBerry Assistant)
- Motion Sensing / Gesture Control: –
- Voice Control: Yes
Other Features
- Video Streaming: Yes
- Active Noise Cancellation: Yes (with dedicated mic)
- Wireless Charging: No
- Water Resistant: No
- Dust Resistant: No
- Image Editor: Yes
- Video Editor: Yes
- Document Viewer: Yes
- Document Editor: No (download at store)
Battery
- Battery: 3450 mAh Li-ion Non-removable Battery
- Standby time: up to 444 Hours
- Talktime: up to 23 hours
- Music Playback: –
