Review: BlackBerry Passport

Text and photos by Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

A lot of credit goes to BlackBerry for not scrimping on build and materials, not that they ever did. But by including top tier specs and boosting battery life, they've made the Passport a viable contender to many popular devices out there, specially in terms of speed and performance.

After lukewarm sales of earlier BB10 devices, BlackBerry went into restructuring mode and decided to focus on the enterprise market, which was slowly slipping away. With this in mind, they created the third device launched under CEO John Chen (the first being the Z3 and the second the super posh Porsche Design P'9983). The result is one of the most unusual smartphones ever to come to market. The big, bold and audacious Passport may just be BlackBerry’s ticket back into the mobile market.

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BlackBerry manages to sell 200,000 Passports as tide starts to turn

The new BlackBerry Passport is making waves and has sold over 200,000 units in two days. The Passport also sold out in 6 hours on BlackBerry’s website and within 10 hours on new partner Amazon.com according to CEO John Chen.

The Passport, which integrates a 4.5-inch square mutl-touch screen with a three row capaciive QWERTY keyboard, is focused on productivity and the enterprise but has also stoked the interest of longtime BlackBerry loyalists who have been waiting for a modern and competitive BlackBerry smartphone to replace older models.

Live from the BlackBerry Passport launch in Toronto

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

We're on hand the the big BlackBerry Passport launch event in Toronto where CEO John Chen has been spotted and is likely going to take the stage in a few minutes. The location is Real Sports bar and they're currently playing some dramatic music while streaming tweets on various screens stating how awesome the new Passport is going to be. Looks like we will be getting the 'bigger picture' soon, we're 15 minutes away from the keynote. Hit jump for our coverage of the event.

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New BlackBerry BB10 handsets Passport and Classic are unapologetically enterprise focused

Image from Crackberry.com

The future of BlackBerry is enterprise and nowhere is this clearer than in the design of their upcoming devices called Classic and Passport. Many consider the BlackBerry Bold line of years past to be the nadir of BlackBerry device design and there's no denying the enduring appeal of the 9900, its stylish lines, leather accents and inlaid frets were  cohesive, purposeful and meant business. Well, that look is back with the Classic and more surprisingly, the Passport which at first glance looks like a Symbian phone but upon closer inspection is a BlackBerry through and through. Interesting to note that BlackBerry has relegated the only full touchscreen device, the Z3, to the more consumer oriented 'emerging markets' segment, namely in Indonesia. What do you think of the Classic and the Passport? Are these smartphones you can see in your future?