The New BlackBerry Passport, Price and Everything You Need To Know
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16:22
For those who think blackberry is dead and gone or probably sleeping you need to see this. The BlackBerry Passport’s revolutionary new keyboard brings innovation to input with a responsive touch surface like a trackpad that lets you perform many touch functions directly on the keyboard. You can scroll web pages, flick to type or slide along the keys to move the cursor, leaving the full screen space for viewing.
The BlackBerry Passport is official, square, and soon to be getting a global release. Leaked eons ago as the “BlackBerry Windermere”, the Passport, as it’s now officially known, was outed by John Chen at BlackBerry’s recent earnings call. The phone is an odd beast, ditching conventional design for something… well, a bit different (it's the one in the middle).
Apple has attempted something similar with its iPhone 6 Plus, which has the largest battery ever installed inside one of the company’s smartphones. And like Apple, BlackBerry controls both the hardware and software of its mobile products, meaning things can be very finely tuned for optimum performance and excellent power efficiency. And for us –– as well as many of you –– this could be a HUGE deal.
Apple has attempted something similar with its iPhone 6 Plus, which has the largest battery ever installed inside one of the company’s smartphones. And like Apple, BlackBerry controls both the hardware and software of its mobile products, meaning things can be very finely tuned for optimum performance and excellent power efficiency. And for us –– as well as many of you –– this could be a HUGE deal.
The BlackBerry Passport is odd enough to stand out from the crowd and powerful enough to match anything from Android and iOS, at least for the time being. But where we think BlackBerry is going to make a lot of friends with this device is the battery – the Passport's is HUGE. And this is significant because A LOT of people consider battery life more important than OS, display AND things like what type of CPU the handset uses.
The only question now is whether anyone will care? We'd argue, YES, they will! Just look online –– there’s a small, but very vocal bunch of people that are positively frothing at the mouth about the prospect of getting their paws on the BlackBerry Passport once it launches later on this quarter. And this is pretty easy to understand when you look at what the handset represents, because it is not just a comeback device, not entirely, anyway. No, the BlackBerry Passport is just about the most exciting handset BlackBerry has ever produced; the fact that it comes at a time when the company’s future is in question just serves as a means of raising the stakes.
"We set out to create a smartphone that would break some cherished rules in order to set a new bar for real productivity," reads the post, "BlackBerry Passport’s keyboard will show there is an easier way to do more."
A key point is that the phystical keyboard is also touch-sensitive, something we've heard before - but it means you can use it like a trackpad to control on-screen actions. That apparently includes swiping to navigate web pages, app interfaces and emails. You can use this to scroll or precisely place a text cursor.
"With rows of touch-sensitive physical keys, BlackBerry Passport combines the efficiency of tactile typing with touchscreen-like navigation to deliver on that productivity promise."
"You’ll be able to read documents faster, as well as keep your fingers close to the keys, ready to type."
BlackBerry also included a bullet-point list of features and advantages:
The only question now is whether anyone will care? We'd argue, YES, they will! Just look online –– there’s a small, but very vocal bunch of people that are positively frothing at the mouth about the prospect of getting their paws on the BlackBerry Passport once it launches later on this quarter. And this is pretty easy to understand when you look at what the handset represents, because it is not just a comeback device, not entirely, anyway. No, the BlackBerry Passport is just about the most exciting handset BlackBerry has ever produced; the fact that it comes at a time when the company’s future is in question just serves as a means of raising the stakes.
"We set out to create a smartphone that would break some cherished rules in order to set a new bar for real productivity," reads the post, "BlackBerry Passport’s keyboard will show there is an easier way to do more."
A key point is that the phystical keyboard is also touch-sensitive, something we've heard before - but it means you can use it like a trackpad to control on-screen actions. That apparently includes swiping to navigate web pages, app interfaces and emails. You can use this to scroll or precisely place a text cursor.
"With rows of touch-sensitive physical keys, BlackBerry Passport combines the efficiency of tactile typing with touchscreen-like navigation to deliver on that productivity promise."
"You’ll be able to read documents faster, as well as keep your fingers close to the keys, ready to type."
BlackBerry also included a bullet-point list of features and advantages:
- Faster scrolling: You can use the keyboard to swipe up and down to scroll on long lists in a document or on a browser page, keeping your fingers off the screen and focused on what’s happening.
- More intuitive cursor control and text selection: This is a classic BlackBerry productivity enhancement reinvented for the Passport. 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.
- Smart, contextual virtual keys: The Passport’s QWERTY 3-row keyboard creates a clean-looking, right-sized layout. There is also a virtual 4th row on-screen that smartly shifts depending on context. So if you’re typing a password on-screen, the 4th row would automatically include numbers and symbols commonly used in passwords. If you’re typing an e-mail, the ‘@’ symbol will be displayed, and when surfing the Web, the colon and backslash characters needed to type in a URL will be displayed. Like I said, smart! With a little practice, most Passport users should find themselves typing faster than ever before.
- Flick to type: Stuck on a word? 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.
- Easier delete: Made a mistake? No problem, just swipe back (left) to Delete the last word, just like on our virtual keyboard!
- Entering an accented character? Hold the letter key down, and then lightly tap on the key to add the appropriate accent!
SPECIFICATIONS
General
2G Network - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network - HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network- LTE 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 LTE 700/800/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20)
SIM - Nano-SIM
Announced - 2014, June
Status - Available. Released 2014, September
Body
Dimensions - 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm (5.04 x 3.56 x 0.37 in)
Weight - 196 g (6.91 oz)
Keyboard - QWERTY - Capacitive touch 3-row BlackBerry keyboard
2G Network - GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network - HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1700 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network- LTE 850 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 LTE 700/800/850/900/1700/1800/1900/2100/2600 (Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 13, 17, 20)
SIM - Nano-SIM
Announced - 2014, June
Status - Available. Released 2014, September
Body
Dimensions - 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm (5.04 x 3.56 x 0.37 in)
Weight - 196 g (6.91 oz)
Keyboard - QWERTY - Capacitive touch 3-row BlackBerry keyboard
Display
Type - IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size - 1440 x 1440 pixels, 4.5 inches (~453 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch - Yes, up to 10 fingers
Protection - Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Sound
Alert types - Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker - Yes
3.5mm jack - Yes
Type - IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
Size - 1440 x 1440 pixels, 4.5 inches (~453 ppi pixel density)
Multitouch - Yes, up to 10 fingers
Protection - Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Sound
Alert types - Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Loudspeaker - Yes
3.5mm jack - Yes
Memory
Card slot - microSD, up to 128 GB
Internal - 32 GB, 3 GB RAM
Data
GPRS - Yes
EDGE - Yes
Speed HSDPA, HSUPA, LTE
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, LE
NFC Yes
USB microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort)
Card slot - microSD, up to 128 GB
Internal - 32 GB, 3 GB RAM
Data
GPRS - Yes
EDGE - Yes
Speed HSDPA, HSUPA, LTE
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot
Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP, LE
NFC Yes
USB microUSB v2.0 (SlimPort)
Camera
Primary - 13 MP, 4128 x 3096 pixels, autofocus, optical image stabilization, LED flash
Features - Geo-tagging, face detection, HDR
Video - 1080p@60fps
Secondary - 2 MP, 720p
Features
OS - BlackBerry 10.3 OS
Chipset - Qualcomm MSM8974AA Snapdragon 801
CPU - Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400
GPU - Adreno 330
Sensors - Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Messaging - SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, BBM 6
Browser - HTML5
Radio - FM radio with RDS
GPS - Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
Java - Yes, MIDP 2.1
Colors - Black, White
- BlackBerry Assistant
- BlackBerry maps
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Photo viewer/editor
- Video editor
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+/FlAC player
- DivX/XviD/MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264 player
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input
Battery
Non-removable Li-Ion 3450 mAh battery
Stand-by: Up to 432 h (2G) / Up to 444 h (3G)
Talk time: Up to 18 h (2G) / Up to 23 h (3G)
Music play: Up to 84 h
Price
Features - Geo-tagging, face detection, HDR
Video - 1080p@60fps
Secondary - 2 MP, 720p
Features
OS - BlackBerry 10.3 OS
Chipset - Qualcomm MSM8974AA Snapdragon 801
CPU - Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400
GPU - Adreno 330
Sensors - Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass
Messaging - SMS, MMS, Email, Push Email, IM, BBM 6
Browser - HTML5
Radio - FM radio with RDS
GPS - Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS
Java - Yes, MIDP 2.1
Colors - Black, White
- BlackBerry Assistant
- BlackBerry maps
- Organizer
- Document viewer
- Photo viewer/editor
- Video editor
- MP3/WMA/WAV/eAAC+/FlAC player
- DivX/XviD/MP4/WMV/H.263/H.264 player
- Voice memo/dial
- Predictive text input
Battery
Non-removable Li-Ion 3450 mAh battery
Stand-by: Up to 432 h (2G) / Up to 444 h (3G)
Talk time: Up to 18 h (2G) / Up to 23 h (3G)
Music play: Up to 84 h
Price
