BlackBerry have released what they’ve called the ultimate version of their vision: the Passport. The phone is an attempt by BlackBerry to re-capture the magic of their early smartphone dominance, while bringing the brand kicking and screaming into the modern world.
The Passport is a curious nod to the continuing inflation of smartphone screen sizes, and is by far the biggest BlackBerry phone ever produced. The name Passport is surprisingly accurate; the phone is precisely the same size as a standard (American) passport. That means little to the average Brit, but let me assure you that this is a weirdly proportioned phone. It’s shorter than many flagship phones (it’s even shorter than the smaller iPhone 6 by a good 10mm), but it’s much wider.
The 4.5-inch screen diagonal doesn’t sound too large any more, but it’s square, making for a surprisingly large display. The screen is crisp too, at 1440 x 1440, and boasts good viewing angles too. The super-wide resolution means that you can fit a lot of content on-screen at once – websites, emails and spreadsheets particularly benefit from the unique aspect ratio. Unfortunately, most other content does not, with videos and games alike sporting massive black bars no matter which way you hold the phone.
The square screen would be brilliant for taking Instagram photos – and indeed, the 13-megapixel camera produces good results and defaults to that square aspect ratio. But Instagram isn’t available on the BlackBerry platform by default. BlackBerry have shored up their offerings with the inclusion of Amazon’s Android app store, so there are at least some of the most popular Android apps available here. Installing these requires quite a few steps, but it’s good to have the option available.
The generous proportions of this phone also allow BlackBerry to squeeze in an astonishingly large 3450mAh battery and top-of-the-line specifications to match. The battery is rated for about 30 hours of use, easily allowing two days of even moderate to heavy usage. In terms of specifications, we’re looking at the best BlackBerry ever – there’s a quad-core 2.3GHz Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM, 32GB of internal storage and all the connectivity trimmings including WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4, GPS and NFC.
For software, we’re looking at BlackBerry 10.3 OS, the latest version available. The OS has some good ideas about notifications and multi-tasking, and if you’re used to the BlackBerry 10 OS from earlier phones you’ll feel right at home. BlackBerry have improved their own offerings here, and with the Amazon app store on board you’ll have plenty of choice too.
The BlackBerry Passport is definitely the most audacious attempt yet from BlackBerry to recapture their past glory. While the Passport isn’t for everyone, for a certain kind of BlackBerry fan this is the ultimate smartphone.
The Passport is available from Mobile Fun, sim-free and unlocked, right now. Click the link below to see more information or place your pre-order:
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