BlackBerry Passport now available across major Canadian carriers

Powerful, exciting, unusual and disruptive; the BlackBerry Passport is finally avaiable from more Canadian carriers today. You an get the Passport at TELUS Mobility, Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, MTS Wireless and SaskTel Wireless. Please see the carriers’ websites for up-to-date pricing information. 

The BlackBerry Passport’s innovative touch-enabled keyboard, unique 4.5” square screen and long battery life are built for mobile professionals who want a smartphone that empowers them to accomplish more.

It’s also the first BlackBerry device to come preloaded with BlackBerry 10.3. This new OS release includes BlackBerry Blend, a new app that seamlessly and securely brings messaging and content that’s on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet. Here are our first impressions of this new chapter for Canada's mobile company.

BlackBerry plans to give us weird devices yearly

If you thought the Passport was the end of BlackBerry’s experimentation with oddly-shaped devices, then you’re wrong. Ron Louks, president of BlackBerry’s Devices division, said they intend to introduce one “unconventional device” per year.

“When it comes to design and being a little bit disruptive, we want that ‘wow’ factor,” Louks said. And he also revealed that they are working on another unusual device but he is not spilling the details about that just yet.

Source: Reuters | Via: Engadget

First look at the BlackBerry Passport

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

As I just received my BlackBerry Passport yesterday, it will take me a few weeks to put together a proper review of this most unusual yet intriguing new smartphone. 

Geared towards enterprise users and folks who are heavy into text input either through SMS, BBM, email and social media, the Passport brings the most innovative QWERTY keyboard we've seen from BlackBerry and merges it with some clever software as well as a truly unique 4.5-inch touchscreen.

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SlideShow: BlackBerry Passport from the Toronto launch event

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Is it really hip to be square? BlackBerry would like us to think so, and that seems to be the rationale behind the new Passport. Featuring a large 4.5-inch display (1440 x1440 resolution) and a large touch-keyboard, this could be the most monolithic BlackBerry yet and one that could arouse curiosity and desire from members its dormant fan base. 

The Passport is easily the Humvee of super-smartphones, it revels in its humongousness but also serves multiple functions that no other smartphone has right now. Above are some photos taken from today's launch event. Excuse the shoddy lighting, we were in a sports bar after all. My take on the the Passport is that it is definitely a unique device, different enough from the pack to really pave it's own user base. The app situation, even with Amazon on board, still isn't awesome but stay tuned as I immerse myself in the device and what it has to offer. In the meantime enjoy the photos.