I received my Apple iPhone 6 the first day it was released in
September, and my Blackberry Passport in late October. When I first got
the iPhone I assumed that I would choose it as my primary phone. I was
wrong. After more than a month with the Blackberry, it has become my
primary smartphone.
Like many of us, I started with a Blackberry back in 1998 when they
were email-only devices. As Blackberry released smarter and more capable
devices I, like millions of others, would get the newest phone until
their foray into touch screens about six years ago. Verizon released the
Storm and I
used it for about a year until I had had enough of its problems, both
hardware and software, and very reluctantly abandoned Blackberry and
switched to an Android. At that time, most of us believed there was only
one phone, and that was a Blackberry. We were obviously wrong, as the
iPhone and then Android virtually evaporated Blackberry’s market share
in North America. A series of management decisions at Blackberry did
not help, nor did their second disaster, the Playbook, of which I was quite critical.
When the iPhone 4S was released I switched and have never gone back.
So it was a real surprise when I received the new Blackberry Passport
and discovered that the company that was once the dominant leader of
smartphones worldwide had come back with a sophisticated, rugged and
highly intelligent phone that is capable of meeting the needs of serious
professional users.
Like many of us, I carry two smartphones: one on Verizon and the
other on T-Mobile because of my extensive international travel. I use
Verizon for U.S. service; their extensive network coverage works
everywhere. T-Mobile is my international carrier because of their incredibly low foreign roaming rates that no United States carrier will compete with.
My initial take on the iPhone 6 was both positive and negative. On
the plus side, the 4.7″ screen was slightly larger than that of my
iPhone 5S, but not quite the now-accepted standard of five inches. I
opted for the iPhone 6 because the 6 Plus, which has a generous 5.5″
screen, was too large to comfortably carry. The 6 is a gorgeous piece of
hardware, but was too thin and can be hard to hold because of its
rounded corners. It also gets way too hot in certain operating modes.
The obsession in smartphone design with thinness I do not understand.
Yes, it looks cool, but so what? I prefer the 5S.
There is no question that the Apple iPhone 6 is another huge success
in terms of sales, but for what market segment? In my view, and
especially after using the Blackberry Passport, the iPhone is aimed at
consumers, not designed for businesses or secure government work even
though it has found its way into these sectors.
When the phone was first introduced, Tim Cook said that Apple was all
about privacy and security. There are a lot of reasons that Apple (and
Google) have implemented hardware and software changes to protect the
privacy of their users and make their phones more secure. In my view
there are two primary reasons for this new emphasis on your security:
the companies have had enough of government demands, often secret, for
customer data, so they opted for the customer to take the entire issue
out of their hands by encrypting all of the information.
But compared to Blackberry they are late in the game by several
years. Security was one of the fundamental design parameters for every
Blackberry device, which is why businesses and virtually every
government around the world trusted them for their most sensitive
communications.
Sunday 21 December 2014
Friday 19 December 2014
bb pasport
Hardware
Indeed, buzz is something BlackBerry hasn't enjoyed for a long time. Before the Passport, its most recent handset quietly debuted in February: the Z3, a modest touchscreen device designed for emerging markets like Indonesia. This is the first piece of hardware the phone maker has launched globally in well over a year. And not only that, but it also has the most competitive specs of any BlackBerry in years.
At 128 x 90.3mm, the phone really is as wide as it seems -- it's wider than most large-screened phones on the market -- but BlackBerry insists this is a feature rather than a setback. Because it's using a 4.5-inch square display that's 30 percent wider than an average 5-inch phone, the company claims you'll read up to 60 characters per line and get a better viewing experience. In a way, that's true: I enjoyed reading articles and e-books on the Passport because text didn't have to wrap or get cut off as often, but the trade-off was an awkward one-handed fit and more frequent vertical scrolling.
The two-handed typing experience was a little better than I expected it to be. As my thumbs type, my hands naturally cradle the back to prevent the device from slipping out. This is essential because the three-row keyboard sits so low on the device that the center of gravity is different than on most phones, but I never truly felt like I was going to drop it while typing. When I'm not typing, however, I want to be able to use my phone one-handed; sadly, this is incredibly uncomfortable when I'm using the Passport in portrait mode because of its width, and is especially noticeable when you try to hold it up to your ear.
That said, it's still awkward no matter which way you hold it, because it's short and heavy. Its weight (196g) is reason enough to hold the thing with two hands as often as you can. But at least in return you get a robust build, with solid materials that feel like they can withstand plenty of abuse. It's got a stainless steel frame that lines the 9.3mm sides and also sits in between the keyboard rows; the back uses soft-touch plastic, with the exception of a camera module interrupting a single line of metal near the top. The display is covered with a slab of Gorilla Glass 3.
The Passport's screen isn't going to win any medals, but it's got a few pros and cons. Regardless of how you feel about the shape and size of the 4.5-inch square LCD panel, its 1,400 x 1,400 resolution, which equates to a pixel density of 453 ppi, delivers a good viewing experience -- at least in terms of its easy-to-read text and pleasing visuals. But despite having settings to adjust white balance and color saturation, it still appeared much warmer, less saturated and less vibrant than most flagship phones (default or otherwise). White screens look closer to mother of pearl, while the darks are roughly the same grayish-black as most LCDs. Viewing angles are about average for a flagship. The most impressive aspect of the screen, however, is its outdoor visibility. It's one of the best I've ever seen; I had absolutely no problem reading the display in direct sunlight, which can't be said about most devices on the market. In fact, it was noticeably better than the Note 4, which is near the top of the class.
Around back, there's a 13-megapixel camera and LED flash, as well as a removable section above the metal separator, which is where you'll find the nano-SIM and microSDXC slots. You'll also get a hefty 3,450mAh battery, but you won't be able to remove it.
Keyboard
I suppose that's part of the fun. This company, despite never-ending layoffs and turmoil, has churned out an impressive feat of engineering. The three-row keyboard doubles as a touch-sensitive trackpad that adds gestures to the typing experience in a very clever way. With it, BlackBerry has evolved an old-fashioned keyboard into something fresh and -- dare I say -- innovative.
That's not to say it doesn't require a significant learning curve. It's not an easy board to master in a few days, but once you do, you have access to a powerful tool. Just like on most BlackBerrys of old, each key has angled frets to help your fingertips know exactly where to press. It's difficult to get used to the space bar, which is now snuggled between the V and B keys; it's also weird to adjust to the lack of symbol or number keys, since only the backspace and return keys are featured. Where's everything else? In a virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen, which can change dynamically depending on the app you're using and the type of message you're writing. The default for most scenarios is a row of six symbols, a shift key and number button, but sometimes a number row will pop up above the symbols; when you hit the number button, a full grid of characters appears and takes up over half of the screen.
The usual BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts (even the custom ones) haven't gone anywhere; neither has the space bar double-tap to insert a period. However, gestures are the real deal here: You can now double-tap any part of the board to pull up a cursor, which then gives you options for selecting text, copy/paste and so on. Holding the shift button while using the keyboard as a trackpad lets you select multiple lines of text. Swiping left deletes full words at a time. Swiping down pulls up a virtual symbol pad on the screen (which maps each symbol to a hotkey on the physical board). And swiping up toward a word-prediction suggestion automatically inserts that word. Additionally, you can use the trackpad to scroll up and down on apps, websites and other areas. This comes in most handy when you're reading articles or feeds and want to browse everything one-handed; without this feature, one-handed use on such a wide and awkward phone would be more awkward than it already is.
The constant transitioning from physical to virtual boards is also confusing and jarring. It's not uncommon for me to type random punctuation marks in the middle of my words because my thumb occasionally hits the virtual keys when I'm actually trying to type letters in the top physical row. It's also frustrating that in most scenarios, I have to do an extra action before getting to type numbers -- either swiping down or hitting the virtual key. And if I need to type a string of multiple numbers in a row, the latter is my only option.
BlackBerry 10.3
In addition to BlackBerry World, the company partnered with Amazon to bring its app store to BB 10.3. While this means users have easy access to more Android apps, it's still restrictive because its catalog has fewer than 300,000 offerings (smaller than the Windows Phone store) and many of the most-used apps aren't there. In addition to the obvious gap in Google services, you'll also find that Netflix, Instagram and Firefox are missing, as well as popular games like Dead Trigger, Asphalt and Beach Buggy Racing (to be fair, Blitz, the older game, is offered). (Update: Dropbox is natively built into Blackberry OS.) It's definitely not a ghost town, especially when compared to BlackBerry World; you can get apps like Facebook Messenger, Vine, Box.net, Zillow and Fruit Ninja, as well as the free app of the day. But it's still a drop in the bucket compared to the Google Play store selection. There are a few third-party alternatives to some of the more popular services, but even those are sparse.
Play Services also don't run here, so you're still limited to third-party apps if you use Google Drive or anything else from Mountain View. The exceptions to this are Gmail and Google Calendar, which I had no problem integrating into BB10 features like the Hub. Speaking of, the Hub is BlackBerry's universal message box, and it's one of the best I've ever used. This is part of the company's heritage: Messaging was one of the reasons the company was so successful in its early years. Hub sits prominently to the left of your home screen and houses your social media, email and calendar accounts and organizes it into one handy inbox. So if someone mentions you on Twitter, you can see it right alongside your emails, and can respond to it as if you're in the Twitter app. You can view each account separately if you want as well.
The Action Bar is but one aspect of the new UI design BlackBerry uses in 10.3. As a whole, the update gives BB10 a flatter, more modern visual style. You'll see this cleaner look almost immediately as you notice the icons in the app grid no longer come with pointless shadows that clutter up precious space. The lock screen comes with a neat new preview mode in which you can see more details about each notification without actually going into the Hub. The home screen, which is where your active apps reside, has been improved. You can fit more frames on the screen and rearrange them in whatever order you want. The active apps actually look a bit like Windows Phone Live Tiles, and when you close one, other apps will get resized to fill the empty space (each tile has a max size and you can fit up to six apps on the screen at that size). If you close all of the apps, the screen will no longer disappear; instead you'll just see a large open screen with phone and camera icons on the bottom corners.
There are a couple new "Advanced Interaction" gestures, such as flipping your phone over to put it in standby mode; and lifting the Passport off a table to light up the screen. The rest of the usual BB10 gestures are still there, so fortunately you get more options.
For additional productivity, you'll also have access to the Microsoft Office-compatible Docs to Go (which I'm using to type and save my review text), and Dropbox and Adobe Reader comes preloaded and lets you edit and even sign your PDF attachments. On the social side, on top of the usual Twitter and Facebook options, Story Maker takes your photos and videos and puts them into a highlight reel, just like what HTC, Sony and third-party iOS apps have done. This came out with BB10 last year, but 10.3 adds some new tricks for your videos.
Blackberry Blend
Once you put in your BlackBerry ID, the app sets out to connect your devices, and does so promptly. Your first view is the dashboard, which displays your most recent emails, BBM messages and SMS texts on the top, with your calendar below. If you want to take a deeper dive into any of these, or if you're interested in exploring the file manager, you'll find icons on the bottom row to take you to each one. Once you're there, a rail pops up on the left side with tabs to navigate through the app; there's also a home button on the top-left and settings on the top-right. They're large enough on the PC and Mac versions, but cramped and tiny on the tablets.
Blend works well, as long as you're in the app. One advantage Apple's version offers is the fact that you can get notifications without having to keep an app open, and you can also make calls from your computer or tablet; not so with Blend. But still, if you're a BlackBerry user who spends a lot of time on other platforms, this will be majorly beneficial.
(Update: Commenter JamesJohnstone brings up a unique perspective of Blend that I didn't think of: " I believe that when you disconnect from the computer/tablet you were using blend on all the personal stuff goes with it. For me that distinction is critical because I want to be able to do personal text and email from my work computer, and at the end of the day my texts no longer be there. I don't want my SMS messages to be on my iPad at home when I'm at work.")
Camera
Before we even get into the camera quality, my primary issue with the shooter was its buggy behavior. It often took several seconds to load, and an equivalent amount of time to switch settings and modes. Often, I'd have to exit the app after switching to Time Shift, Burst or Panorama because it would become unresponsive and prevent me from actually taking pictures in those modes. Transitioning to the gallery and back occasionally resulted in crashes.
The UI itself is minimal. There are shutter and video-capture buttons on the bottom next to the gallery and a BB10-style settings sidebar that lets you tweak HDR mode, add a timer, switch to other scenes, go into miscellaneous settings and change the aspect ratio from 1:1 to 4:3 or 16:9. If you want to take full advantage of every megapixel, stick with 4:3; 16:9 uses a resolution of 4,160 x 2,340 (it crops out the top and bottom of a 4:3 image) and 1:1 uses 3,118 x 3,118, which means both ratios come out to roughly 9.7MP.
Depending on what you're trying to capture, you may see a toast notification along the top saying you might get a better shot by turning on HDR (and you can tap the notification to activate it). It's a neat feature, but it can be difficult to reach when my hands are cradling the bottom of the phone, and I'd rather have a constant shortcut available to turn HDR on and off when I want. It's also missing auto HDR; since the software is smart enough to know when my shots would benefit from the feature, it should be able to make the judgment call on its own. Perhaps BlackBerry cut that out of the user experience because it takes forever for the phone to actually take and process HDR images. (Regular shots aren't all that swift to capture either.)
With the UI and settings out of the way, it's time to turn to imaging performance. And to my surprise, it was better than I expected -- in fact, I'd dare say it keeps up with many of the other flagship smartphones on the market. White balance holds up well in daylight shots. Colors aren't quite as saturated as the Note 4, but they're more so than the new Moto X; shots are rarely blown out in sunlight and there's plenty of detail for my liking. The HDR mode is definitely not subtle, so several of the images came out with a cartoonish look. This works well in some instances -- especially in those cases where there are some extreme highlights and shadows in the same frame -- but just be extra cautious about which mode you choose for which scenario.
Low-light performance has potential for greatness. The f/2.0 aperture helps provide plenty of light for my nighttime shots; it actually pulls in more light than the iPhone 6 Plus, though many of the iPhone's images were sharper. There's also a specific Night Mode, which doubles the amount of exposure time in order to bring in even more light, but beware: Focus becomes more difficult, so you get a lot more light but most images will turn out somewhat blurry -- especially in extremely dark scenarios.
(For a look at my full-resolution photos, go here.)
Performance and battery life
In many scenarios, you can see where the copious amount of memory and raw power from the chipset come in handy. Switching between active apps and browser tabs were incredibly swift tasks, with the phone barely skipping a beat. The device's productivity tools cranked through their tasks gracefully: messages in the Hub, Assistant, Blend and so on.
Gaming is also mostly a painless experience, but the selection of powerful titles is limited and I relied heavily on puzzle games and free titles that have been on Android for ages (Jetpack Joyride, Fruit Ninja, Angry Birds). I was able to download Beach Buggy Blitz, which worked with few frame skips and was a completely smooth experience, but on the flipside, Minion Rush was nothing but a laggy disaster. Obviously, it seems that mileage will vary here, but overall I was pleased with the general performance of the Passport.
On to battery life, which has always been one of BlackBerry's strengths. And with a large 3,450mAh battery to keep your phone alive and kicking, it's still a solid experience. I always had plenty of juice left at the end of the day, and on full days of typing this review on the keyboard and testing the camera, games and other services, I managed to typically have between 20-30 percent remaining. I ran a video loop test, with an HD video playing with some running services in the background, and the device lasted for nine hours and 45 minutes. Of course, I had to use a sideloaded Android app for the test, so it very well could have lasted longer on an app optimized for BB10.3. Regardless, battery life is nothing to worry about.
The competition
If you want a physical keyboard, the Passport is ultimately your only option right now. There may be some lower-priced devices in emerging markets (the Q10 may still be around in some regions), but this is designed for the high-end business customer. Soon, there will be an alternative -- the BlackBerry Classic, which will come with a keyboard that's much closer to the traditional Curve or Bold design. It won't be as good a performer, but if you need a good keyboard and the Passport's odd design is a little too off the wall for you, your options are extremely limited.
Wrap-up
Once you do, however, it's actually a surprisingly good handset -- the best BlackBerry 10 smartphone so far. It's well-built, comes with clever engineering and software services, has good battery life and features a screen that's easy to read outdoors. But the one-handed experience is also incredibly awkward; the keyboard isn't among BlackBerry's best (typing a 4,700-word review on the thing convinced me of that); and the company continues to struggle in its quest for a thriving and more robust ecosystem. (The fact that it has three methods of obtaining apps and still can't get the biggest titles is a testament to that.) For what it is, it's a solid device. But the problem is figuring out whom it's for, and why it matters. My sore thumbs and I haven't found an answer yet.
[Editor's note: I typed the full first draft of this review on the Passport, but used my computer for final formatting and edits.]
Thursday 18 December 2014
BlackBerry Passport Review: Don’t Believe The Haters
BlackBerry. Back in 2009 the name meant phones, security and success. If you wanted a smartphone,
you only had one real option – a BlackBerry. Fast forward to 2014,
however, and Canada’s biggest export since double-denim, following two
years of lay-offs, tanking share prices and CEO switches, has come to
stand for something else entirely. So much so, in fact, that BlackBerry
is now an outsider (fourth, behind iOS, Android and Windows Phone) in the very industry it helped create.
So, is it too late for BlackBerry?
In a word: NO – not by a long shot. The company has a new CEO, John Chen, who is slowly but surely bringing life back into BlackBerry’s balance sheets, a solid, workable mobile OS and plenty of operating cash to see it through the year (around $3 billion, last time we checked). There was quite a bit of trepidation over whether BlackBerry would remain in the handset-building game, after word got out about the company considering a switch to a “platform and services-only” approach. This didn’t happen, of course, and now we have the BlackBerry Passport, which doesn’t really need any introductions whatsoever –– it’s THAT square phone you’ve been hearing so much about these past few weeks.
Is it any good? That depends where you go for your reviews, really. KYM has long been a fan of BB10 and what it stands for, but for the longest time we’ve also felt a little let down by the hardware it shipped inside. Can the BlackBerry Passport change this? Lets bloody well find out!
They just seem to be getting bigger –– A LOT bigger. Hell, even Apple’s getting in on the act with the iPhone 6 Plus, which is now one of the largest handsets money can buy, save for the newly released Google Nexus 6. Beyond this trend, however, not much else has happened with respect to design; tech brands still worship the thinner, faster, lighter mantra. And that’s fine –– I like svelte, lightweight gizmos. And yet, at the same time, I still often find myself hoping for something truly leftfield from OEMs… it just never happens.
UNTIL NOW.
The BlackBerry Passport is big –– very BIG –– it’s square AND it has a physical keyboard, which also doubles as a trackpad for scrolling around menus, apps and webpages. And all of that has caused a lot of people to write the handset off as nothing more than a mobile version of a bearded lady, labelling it a freak that’s kind of interesting but hardly convenient in normal, everyday life. But here’s the thing: this sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth.
Measuring in at 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm, the BlackBerry Passport, like all good things, is more than a handful. You can’t really use it comfortably with one hand, but so what? I can’t use my Nexus 5 with one hand all that well. Ditto the iPhone 6 Plus. The Passport weighs in at 196g and is heavier than anything the company has ever produced. It is also more premium than anything BlackBerry has turned out in living memory, with a gorgeous metal frame, high-grade polycarbonate backing, pitch-perfect keyboard, and an ultra-high-resolution 4.5in display.
As I see it there are two talking points regarding the Passport’s design: it’s keyboard and the display. The former is a full QWERTY setup arranged over three rows with the space bar housed centrally on the bottom line of keys. BlackBerry says this is the best keyboard it has ever produced, and it really is –– it surpasses the Q10’s setup in everyway. And the main reason for this is because it is A LOT smarter. On top of that it is more fully integrated with BB10 and the overall experience of using the phone.
I’ll admit, ahead of using the BlackBerry Passport I had plenty of reservations about this device. The shape didn’t really appeal to me, and the idea of using a QWERTY keyboard, while always an interesting prospect, struck me as a bit antiquated. I really liked the BlackBerry Q10 and used it as my daily driver for a good six months, but in the end I still ended up going back to Android. The Passport is better than the Q10 because it takes the principles that made it great (an excellent QWERTY combined with a decent OS) and evolves it into a handset that feels like a proper, full-on 2014 flagship – something that can and will (in some instances) replace an iPhone or Android handset.
The design is definitely controversial and it certainly won’t suit all tastes. But that’s OK. If you want an iPhone, chances are you already own one. Ditto for Android. The Passport handles pretty much as you’d expect. It does feel incredibly wide compared to standard-issue handsets from LG, Google, HTC and Apple, and it does take some getting used to… but, AGAIN, so what? You could say the exact same thing about the original Samsung Galaxy Note or the iPhone 6 Plus for that matter.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is to say different folks find different things attractive (just look at Benedict Cumberbatch), so rather than taking my word for it –– even though I do like the way it looks, and find Mr Cumberbatch very handsome –– the best possible route for you, dear reader, is to ask yourself whether you could see yourself using a handset that looks like this? If your the gut answer is no, fine, move along. But if you’re intrigued by its odd proportions and find yourself musing about what it would feel like in your hand, or how its keys work in practice, then I’d advise you to go and check one out in a phone shop because there is a certain je nais sais quois about the Passport that I think A LOT of people will really enjoy.
Initial sales seemed to indicate this too –– BlackBerry confirmed it sold 200,000 units in the handset’s first two days on sale. The company has remained quiet on exact figures since then, but John Chen recently confirmed the company is experiencing shortages of the handset due to higher-than-expected demand.
Speaking to The Globe and Mail, Chen said: “I’m glad to have inventory issues. It shows that people want the phone. We took a very conservative approach and didn’t order too many.”
Incidentally, the Passport also sold on Amazon within hours of going on sale. Guess there is quite a bit of love out their for BlackBerry after all…
While it's nice to see some colour diversity, we must say the shade of red used is a bit full-on. In fact thinking about it, it would have been interesting to see a more subdued maroon red similar to actual passports.
BlackBerry uploaded the new colour option to the Canadian store overnight and didn’t bother announcing it formally - that may mean it’ll appear in other countries soon but we wouldn’t hold our breath. The white version may just turn out to be a little treat for the company’s home market.
So, is it too late for BlackBerry?
In a word: NO – not by a long shot. The company has a new CEO, John Chen, who is slowly but surely bringing life back into BlackBerry’s balance sheets, a solid, workable mobile OS and plenty of operating cash to see it through the year (around $3 billion, last time we checked). There was quite a bit of trepidation over whether BlackBerry would remain in the handset-building game, after word got out about the company considering a switch to a “platform and services-only” approach. This didn’t happen, of course, and now we have the BlackBerry Passport, which doesn’t really need any introductions whatsoever –– it’s THAT square phone you’ve been hearing so much about these past few weeks.
Is it any good? That depends where you go for your reviews, really. KYM has long been a fan of BB10 and what it stands for, but for the longest time we’ve also felt a little let down by the hardware it shipped inside. Can the BlackBerry Passport change this? Lets bloody well find out!
BlackBerry Passport Review: Design
If you want to get people talking, give them something interesting to talk about. And in a world of rectangular slabs dominated by two platforms, it’s good to see something a little more eccentric with regards to design. Yes, the iPhone 6 is gorgeous. And, yes, the LG G3 and HTC One M8 are beautifully designed smartphones with excellent operating systems, but variety (at least, outside the mobile space) is considered the spice of life, and for the longest time nothing of note has really happened in the arena of phone design.They just seem to be getting bigger –– A LOT bigger. Hell, even Apple’s getting in on the act with the iPhone 6 Plus, which is now one of the largest handsets money can buy, save for the newly released Google Nexus 6. Beyond this trend, however, not much else has happened with respect to design; tech brands still worship the thinner, faster, lighter mantra. And that’s fine –– I like svelte, lightweight gizmos. And yet, at the same time, I still often find myself hoping for something truly leftfield from OEMs… it just never happens.
UNTIL NOW.
The BlackBerry Passport is big –– very BIG –– it’s square AND it has a physical keyboard, which also doubles as a trackpad for scrolling around menus, apps and webpages. And all of that has caused a lot of people to write the handset off as nothing more than a mobile version of a bearded lady, labelling it a freak that’s kind of interesting but hardly convenient in normal, everyday life. But here’s the thing: this sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth.
Measuring in at 128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm, the BlackBerry Passport, like all good things, is more than a handful. You can’t really use it comfortably with one hand, but so what? I can’t use my Nexus 5 with one hand all that well. Ditto the iPhone 6 Plus. The Passport weighs in at 196g and is heavier than anything the company has ever produced. It is also more premium than anything BlackBerry has turned out in living memory, with a gorgeous metal frame, high-grade polycarbonate backing, pitch-perfect keyboard, and an ultra-high-resolution 4.5in display.
As I see it there are two talking points regarding the Passport’s design: it’s keyboard and the display. The former is a full QWERTY setup arranged over three rows with the space bar housed centrally on the bottom line of keys. BlackBerry says this is the best keyboard it has ever produced, and it really is –– it surpasses the Q10’s setup in everyway. And the main reason for this is because it is A LOT smarter. On top of that it is more fully integrated with BB10 and the overall experience of using the phone.
I’ll admit, ahead of using the BlackBerry Passport I had plenty of reservations about this device. The shape didn’t really appeal to me, and the idea of using a QWERTY keyboard, while always an interesting prospect, struck me as a bit antiquated. I really liked the BlackBerry Q10 and used it as my daily driver for a good six months, but in the end I still ended up going back to Android. The Passport is better than the Q10 because it takes the principles that made it great (an excellent QWERTY combined with a decent OS) and evolves it into a handset that feels like a proper, full-on 2014 flagship – something that can and will (in some instances) replace an iPhone or Android handset.
The design is definitely controversial and it certainly won’t suit all tastes. But that’s OK. If you want an iPhone, chances are you already own one. Ditto for Android. The Passport handles pretty much as you’d expect. It does feel incredibly wide compared to standard-issue handsets from LG, Google, HTC and Apple, and it does take some getting used to… but, AGAIN, so what? You could say the exact same thing about the original Samsung Galaxy Note or the iPhone 6 Plus for that matter.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, which is to say different folks find different things attractive (just look at Benedict Cumberbatch), so rather than taking my word for it –– even though I do like the way it looks, and find Mr Cumberbatch very handsome –– the best possible route for you, dear reader, is to ask yourself whether you could see yourself using a handset that looks like this? If your the gut answer is no, fine, move along. But if you’re intrigued by its odd proportions and find yourself musing about what it would feel like in your hand, or how its keys work in practice, then I’d advise you to go and check one out in a phone shop because there is a certain je nais sais quois about the Passport that I think A LOT of people will really enjoy.
Initial sales seemed to indicate this too –– BlackBerry confirmed it sold 200,000 units in the handset’s first two days on sale. The company has remained quiet on exact figures since then, but John Chen recently confirmed the company is experiencing shortages of the handset due to higher-than-expected demand.
Speaking to The Globe and Mail, Chen said: “I’m glad to have inventory issues. It shows that people want the phone. We took a very conservative approach and didn’t order too many.”
Incidentally, the Passport also sold on Amazon within hours of going on sale. Guess there is quite a bit of love out their for BlackBerry after all…
Red Passport Spotted
Despite having a business emphasis, BlackBerry isn't averse to some flashy design variants of its devices, and in the past we've seen handsets with some bright colour options released after the regular models. That seems to be happening again with the Passport as an image has cropped up on N4BB. Additonally the site reports that an official Blackberry page on Amazon listed the variant with a retail price of $699 - the same as the white model.While it's nice to see some colour diversity, we must say the shade of red used is a bit full-on. In fact thinking about it, it would have been interesting to see a more subdued maroon red similar to actual passports.
White BlackBerry Passport Heading To Canada
BlackBerry has put a white-colour version of the Passport up for pre-order on its official website. It is only available in Canada and there has been no word from BlackBerry on whether it will be released anywhere else. The new colour option will be shipping to customers on December 7 but will set you back an extra CAD $100 over the black version.
BlackBerry uploaded the new colour option to the Canadian store overnight and didn’t bother announcing it formally - that may mean it’ll appear in other countries soon but we wouldn’t hold our breath. The white version may just turn out to be a little treat for the company’s home market.
BlackBerry Passport Review: Display
The Passport’s display is a 4.5in 1440 x 1440 pixel IPS LCD setup and is the best display I’ve ever seen inside a BlackBerry handset – bar none. BlackBerry chose this resolution and aspect ratio (1:1) for a very specific reason: normal mobile phones display 40 characters across their screens, but with the Passport’s extra width you get 60 characters, which makes reading things like eBooks, webpages and - BlackBerry’s favourite - spreadsheets, A LOT easier. Or, if you prefer, better, by showing you more of what you’re looking at. Either way, it’s a good thing, as you can see below:Every thing About This Phone is Awesome!: AweSOME!
Every thing About This Phone is Awesome!: AweSOME!: W e had written earlier on how the Passport was the first device from BlackBerry in ages (perhaps even the first ever) to elicit curiosi...
AweSOME!
We had written earlier
on how the Passport was the first device from BlackBerry in ages
(perhaps even the first ever) to elicit curiosity from passers by. And
there is no doubt that if one were to line up all handsets in its price
point, the Blackberry Passport
would stick out. Quite simply because there has never ever been
anything quite like this. There have been devices with QWERTY keyboard
before, but not with such a large, high-resolution display above them –
at least not in candy bar form factor. The closest we can come to a
device that attracted similar attention is the Nokia E90, the box-like
Communicator that opened along the sides to reveal a larger display and a
full QWERTY keyboard in a mini-laptop-like layout.
The Passport has been unfairly square-shaped in some
quarters. It is definitely not that (the length and width are
distinctly differently), but that said, at 90.3 mm, it certainly is one
of the widest handsets out there (the Note 4, which seems big, is a mere
78.6 mm!), giving it a slightly slabbish appearance. Whether it looks
good or bad, however, is going to be a matter of taste. Those addicted
to large touchscreens with sliver like thickness will find it ghastly.
However, we can see a lot of people falling in love with it too, simply
because BlackBerry has done a decent design job.
The front has the 4.5 inch display and a three row (not four rows as seen in conventional BlackBerry devices) QWERTY keyboard. Yes, it looks wide and a bit bulky but there are three rows of metal running along the keyboard, adding a subtle touch of class to the device, the sides are metal too, with volume buttons and the voice command key on the right and the display/power key on the top. The micro USB port has been planted bang in the middle of the base, and there is no mini HDMI port in this device. The back is relatively plain, except for the 13.0-megapixel camera with a LED flash, with a metal line right through the middle of it, and a large BlackBerry logo. It is a plain, relatively minimalistic affair in all, built on very solid lines (we wager that when it falls, it will simply get up, dust itself and carry on). It takes some getting used to holding it – it is designed for two-handed use, really – and while it will slip into a trouser pocket easily, there won’t be room left for much else,
we fear.
So yes, there is no doubt that the Passport is big and unusual. But
we really think that its strange form factor is going to be one of its
strengths. We have not seen a phone that sticks out in a crowd as much
since the E90. And just like that worthy, this one seems to have been
designed for the corporate boardroom rather than the college campus.
In terms of the spec sheet, BlackBerry has pretty much thrown everything it has at the Passport. The display is the show stealer for sure – a 4.5 inch display with 1440 x 1440 resolution is staggering to even think of as is its pixel density of 453 ppi. Beneath that is a quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.26 Ghz, with 3GB RAM and 32 GB storage, with support for expandable memory up to 128 GB.
Connectivity options include 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. And even the camera has been given a fair bit of muscle – not only is it a 13.0-megapixel affair, but comes with optical image stabilisation. And running on top of all this is an updated version of the BlackBerry 10 OS – 10.3, which comes with the Amazon App Store pre-installed. Whatever you can accuse BlackBerry of as regards the Passport, it is certainly not of restraint in the hardware and software department. The kitchen sink hath been well and truly thrown at this gent.
But how does all this come together in terms of experience? Ah, the answer is a complex one. Let us make one thing absolutely clear at the outset – if you are one of those who has been spoiled silly by the ease of Android and iOS, you are going to find yourself snarling at this handset initially. In fact, even traditional BlackBerry users will find a few challenges here.
The size of course is awkward. When a correspondent had asked at its launch whether the device was not too big to be used one-handed, BlackBerry’s spokesperson had answered “we never said it is a one-handed device.” And that is really where the biggest challenge of using the Passport – the fact that you will almost always need both hands to really use it properly. Try using it one handed, and you will end up with a sore thumb and a palm (unless you happen to be The Hulk, of course). Even taking it out of your trouser pocket with one hand will seem difficult initially (it is easier in the case of a coat pocket, though).
The QWERTY keyboard, as we mentioned, is only a three row affair, and there are no dedicated buttons for calls and shortcuts. Yes, a panel of icons and numbers keeps appearing onscreen as you type, but basically you have to keep reaching up to touch them, which makes the whole experience a bit odd. BlackBerry has added a touchpad like functionality to the keyboard, so you can actually scroll up and down by swiping on it, and you can also choose options suggested by the superb text prediction system by swiping upwards towards the relevant word. It however, takes some getting used to, just as using an onscreen keypad to dial numbers does – you will actually need two hands to even dial numbers at times. And if you have never used BlackBerry 10 OS, there is also the whole business of swipe up to unlock a screen and to minimise an app to get the hang of as well. There’s no getting around it – the Passport comes with a steep learning curve by modern OS and UI standards, especially if you have never used a BlackBerry 10 device before.
That
extremely high resolution display lets you see almost as much text at
one go as you can on a regular desktop, with stunning clarity. It
becomes particularly impressive while working on spreadsheets as you can
see several columns without having to switch the phone to landscape
mode (in fact, we have never had to switch the phone to that mode). The
device comes with the Documents to Go office suite
pre-installed, which is a very handy addition indeed, as it lets you
create, edit and view documents and spreadsheets and view and edit
presentations on the device itself. The keys seem a bit stiff initially
but are responsive and make for some very comfortable typing, once you
work out your grip on the device (we found cradling it between our two
palms working best), while not quite in the league of the Q10.
BlackBerry’s predictive text remains one of the best we have seen and
after a stage, we were answering messages and mails by simply a series
of upward swipes rather than key presses.
All that hardware muscle means we could multi-task with ease, minimising several apps to run in the background, while we pounded away at our app of choice. And the inclusion of the Amazon App Store does open a whole new vista of Android apps for the device (especially when it comes to newly released games), and saves one from the pain of searching for Android APKs – no, not all of them run perfectly: we had to be content with playing PES 2012 with blank spaces above and below the main screen, but the viewing experience is by and large, quite good. Android APKs can be installed on the device too, although the odd resolution of the device can make apps appear a bit odd, as in the case of Instagram and Flipboard. Apps remain a bit of an Achilles Heel for BlackBerry users, although the device comes with a super browser, office suite, and very good apps for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
BlackBerry has also included a new application called Blend which lets you access your BBM, SMS, Calendar, Contacts on your BlackBerry from a tablet or a computer, so you can actually carry out a number of phone functions from another device, as well as share files between them. It’s a neat application, although given the fact that the Passport sports a good keyboard (once one gets the hang of it) and a terrific display, some might find it a tad superfluous. We bet it will be more handy for other BB devices like the all touch Z30 and Z3 or the Q10 and Q5 which have good keyboards but smaller displays. BlackBerry has retained the Hub, which integrates all new messages and notifications, and is just a swipe from your home screen – a concept we have a soft corner for, simply because it lets you handle mails, messages and social network interactions from a single, well-organised interface.
Oh, and need we mention that the Passport is very adept at handling all sorts of e-mail, enterprise and personal – this is a BlackBerry, after all (saying a BlackBerry handles e-mail very well is like saying puppies and kittens are cute). And BBM remains one of our favourite messaging services. BlackBerry Assistant, the double B’s version of digital virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana is, however, way too sluggish – perhaps an update will fix matters.
What is very unBlackBerry-like about the Passport, however, is its camera. BlackBerry’s relationship with cameras has been odd, to say the least. We saw some very decent shooters on devices like the Q10 and the Z30 and relatively mediocre ones on the Q5 and Z3, but with the Passport, BlackBerry has put itself very squarely in the upper echelon of phone shooters. No, we are not going to say that it is going to give the likes of the iPhone or the Lumias a run for their money all the time, but it is well above average and is certainly good enough to meet the needs of most casual photographers, especially in terms of detail (colours can sometimes seem a trifle dull, though).
Sound quality overall was good (stereo speakers help), and call quality was superb. Battery life was very good indeed – we comfortably saw through a day and a half of hectic use with social networks and mails on push mode, time and again. And unlike in other BlackBerry devices, we took lots of pictures with this one.
It looks different. It takes some getting used to. And it is quite a performer, once you get the hang of it. So does that make the BlackBerry Passport a worthy investment? One worth Rs.49,999/$599 (a price that drew groans from some of the media attending its launch)? Well, one thing that needs to be made abundantly clear is that unlike the iPhones, Ones, Xperias and Galaxies of various alphanumerical combinations, this is a device that will not appeal to the mainstream user who chases apps, games, social networking and wants to take endless pictures. Yes, the Passport can do those tasks well too, but its real strength lies in two areas: reading and writing. That screen is awesome for viewing content, be it annual reports, websites, e-books or (as demonstrated at the launch) X-Rays. That keyboard, allied with BlackBerry’s superb predictive text system, will let you write articles on the device itself. And then there is the general enterprise friendliness of the device, in matters of mail, messaging (BBM remains a very secure platform) and security.
Unlike some of our brethren, we are not going to complain about the price of the device. For, let’s face it, unlike the spate of Android and iOS devices which seem slightly enlarged clones of their predecessors, this one actually offers something very different in terms of UI and design. We took a while getting to grips (and it has to be ‘grips’ because this phone is as two handed as a Rafael Nadal backhand) with it but once we did, letting go was difficult. Our email and messages kept getting longer and we found ourselves less inclined to reach out for our tablets and notebooks. And it certainly turned more heads than any phone we have used in the recent past.
So, to revert to the original question: should you invest in a Passport? Well, the answer depends on just how much you value being able to read and write comfortably – not adequately, but comfortably – on a handheld device. If the answer is “a lot,” then we would recommend you grab a Passport. It is really as simple as that – forget the specs, forget the enterprise rigmarole, just focus on reading and writing. For in essence, that is the forte of BlackBerry’s latest flagship. It can do everything else too, but then so can other smartphones, but yes, when it comes to ease of viewing and ease of writing, it is right now in a league of its own.
Just remember to be patient with it. It will repay your faith.
Throwing the spec kitchen sink!
In terms of the spec sheet, BlackBerry has pretty much thrown everything it has at the Passport. The display is the show stealer for sure – a 4.5 inch display with 1440 x 1440 resolution is staggering to even think of as is its pixel density of 453 ppi. Beneath that is a quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor clocked at 2.26 Ghz, with 3GB RAM and 32 GB storage, with support for expandable memory up to 128 GB.
Connectivity options include 3G, LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and NFC. And even the camera has been given a fair bit of muscle – not only is it a 13.0-megapixel affair, but comes with optical image stabilisation. And running on top of all this is an updated version of the BlackBerry 10 OS – 10.3, which comes with the Amazon App Store pre-installed. Whatever you can accuse BlackBerry of as regards the Passport, it is certainly not of restraint in the hardware and software department. The kitchen sink hath been well and truly thrown at this gent.
You gotta learn the ropes…
But how does all this come together in terms of experience? Ah, the answer is a complex one. Let us make one thing absolutely clear at the outset – if you are one of those who has been spoiled silly by the ease of Android and iOS, you are going to find yourself snarling at this handset initially. In fact, even traditional BlackBerry users will find a few challenges here.
The size of course is awkward. When a correspondent had asked at its launch whether the device was not too big to be used one-handed, BlackBerry’s spokesperson had answered “we never said it is a one-handed device.” And that is really where the biggest challenge of using the Passport – the fact that you will almost always need both hands to really use it properly. Try using it one handed, and you will end up with a sore thumb and a palm (unless you happen to be The Hulk, of course). Even taking it out of your trouser pocket with one hand will seem difficult initially (it is easier in the case of a coat pocket, though).
The QWERTY keyboard, as we mentioned, is only a three row affair, and there are no dedicated buttons for calls and shortcuts. Yes, a panel of icons and numbers keeps appearing onscreen as you type, but basically you have to keep reaching up to touch them, which makes the whole experience a bit odd. BlackBerry has added a touchpad like functionality to the keyboard, so you can actually scroll up and down by swiping on it, and you can also choose options suggested by the superb text prediction system by swiping upwards towards the relevant word. It however, takes some getting used to, just as using an onscreen keypad to dial numbers does – you will actually need two hands to even dial numbers at times. And if you have never used BlackBerry 10 OS, there is also the whole business of swipe up to unlock a screen and to minimise an app to get the hang of as well. There’s no getting around it – the Passport comes with a steep learning curve by modern OS and UI standards, especially if you have never used a BlackBerry 10 device before.
…and then let rip!
But once you DO get the hang of it (it took us close to two days in the course of which we cursed the keyboard, the location of the spacebar, the size of the spacebar, the absence of numeric keys, the width of the device and so on), you can be assured of a rather unique experience. For, the Passport is perhaps the only phone out there that has been tailormade for reading and writing.That
extremely high resolution display lets you see almost as much text at
one go as you can on a regular desktop, with stunning clarity. It
becomes particularly impressive while working on spreadsheets as you can
see several columns without having to switch the phone to landscape
mode (in fact, we have never had to switch the phone to that mode). The
device comes with the Documents to Go office suite
pre-installed, which is a very handy addition indeed, as it lets you
create, edit and view documents and spreadsheets and view and edit
presentations on the device itself. The keys seem a bit stiff initially
but are responsive and make for some very comfortable typing, once you
work out your grip on the device (we found cradling it between our two
palms working best), while not quite in the league of the Q10.
BlackBerry’s predictive text remains one of the best we have seen and
after a stage, we were answering messages and mails by simply a series
of upward swipes rather than key presses. All that hardware muscle means we could multi-task with ease, minimising several apps to run in the background, while we pounded away at our app of choice. And the inclusion of the Amazon App Store does open a whole new vista of Android apps for the device (especially when it comes to newly released games), and saves one from the pain of searching for Android APKs – no, not all of them run perfectly: we had to be content with playing PES 2012 with blank spaces above and below the main screen, but the viewing experience is by and large, quite good. Android APKs can be installed on the device too, although the odd resolution of the device can make apps appear a bit odd, as in the case of Instagram and Flipboard. Apps remain a bit of an Achilles Heel for BlackBerry users, although the device comes with a super browser, office suite, and very good apps for LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
BlackBerry has also included a new application called Blend which lets you access your BBM, SMS, Calendar, Contacts on your BlackBerry from a tablet or a computer, so you can actually carry out a number of phone functions from another device, as well as share files between them. It’s a neat application, although given the fact that the Passport sports a good keyboard (once one gets the hang of it) and a terrific display, some might find it a tad superfluous. We bet it will be more handy for other BB devices like the all touch Z30 and Z3 or the Q10 and Q5 which have good keyboards but smaller displays. BlackBerry has retained the Hub, which integrates all new messages and notifications, and is just a swipe from your home screen – a concept we have a soft corner for, simply because it lets you handle mails, messages and social network interactions from a single, well-organised interface.
Oh, and need we mention that the Passport is very adept at handling all sorts of e-mail, enterprise and personal – this is a BlackBerry, after all (saying a BlackBerry handles e-mail very well is like saying puppies and kittens are cute). And BBM remains one of our favourite messaging services. BlackBerry Assistant, the double B’s version of digital virtual assistants like Siri and Cortana is, however, way too sluggish – perhaps an update will fix matters.
A camera surprise!
What is very unBlackBerry-like about the Passport, however, is its camera. BlackBerry’s relationship with cameras has been odd, to say the least. We saw some very decent shooters on devices like the Q10 and the Z30 and relatively mediocre ones on the Q5 and Z3, but with the Passport, BlackBerry has put itself very squarely in the upper echelon of phone shooters. No, we are not going to say that it is going to give the likes of the iPhone or the Lumias a run for their money all the time, but it is well above average and is certainly good enough to meet the needs of most casual photographers, especially in terms of detail (colours can sometimes seem a trifle dull, though).
Sound quality overall was good (stereo speakers help), and call quality was superb. Battery life was very good indeed – we comfortably saw through a day and a half of hectic use with social networks and mails on push mode, time and again. And unlike in other BlackBerry devices, we took lots of pictures with this one.
Conclusion
It looks different. It takes some getting used to. And it is quite a performer, once you get the hang of it. So does that make the BlackBerry Passport a worthy investment? One worth Rs.49,999/$599 (a price that drew groans from some of the media attending its launch)? Well, one thing that needs to be made abundantly clear is that unlike the iPhones, Ones, Xperias and Galaxies of various alphanumerical combinations, this is a device that will not appeal to the mainstream user who chases apps, games, social networking and wants to take endless pictures. Yes, the Passport can do those tasks well too, but its real strength lies in two areas: reading and writing. That screen is awesome for viewing content, be it annual reports, websites, e-books or (as demonstrated at the launch) X-Rays. That keyboard, allied with BlackBerry’s superb predictive text system, will let you write articles on the device itself. And then there is the general enterprise friendliness of the device, in matters of mail, messaging (BBM remains a very secure platform) and security.
Unlike some of our brethren, we are not going to complain about the price of the device. For, let’s face it, unlike the spate of Android and iOS devices which seem slightly enlarged clones of their predecessors, this one actually offers something very different in terms of UI and design. We took a while getting to grips (and it has to be ‘grips’ because this phone is as two handed as a Rafael Nadal backhand) with it but once we did, letting go was difficult. Our email and messages kept getting longer and we found ourselves less inclined to reach out for our tablets and notebooks. And it certainly turned more heads than any phone we have used in the recent past.
So, to revert to the original question: should you invest in a Passport? Well, the answer depends on just how much you value being able to read and write comfortably – not adequately, but comfortably – on a handheld device. If the answer is “a lot,” then we would recommend you grab a Passport. It is really as simple as that – forget the specs, forget the enterprise rigmarole, just focus on reading and writing. For in essence, that is the forte of BlackBerry’s latest flagship. It can do everything else too, but then so can other smartphones, but yes, when it comes to ease of viewing and ease of writing, it is right now in a league of its own.
Just remember to be patient with it. It will repay your faith.
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