It is difficult not to exclaim in shock when first seeing the new BlackBerry Passport.
Its 4.5 inch square-screen is unlike any other phone on the market and it looks odd. Simply odd. But then after a fiddle and a few swipes, you realise that BlackBerry has stumbled upon something unique and brilliant.
There are no pretensions with the Passport. It is a business phone, designed for the professional with a work life that revolves around communication. This is not a phone to Snapchat or make Vines with, it is a phone to create spreadsheets, word documents and emails.
The full qwerty keyboard is touch- sensitive, so you can scroll through your emails and web pages and flick on predicative texting without having to touch the screen.
As a user of an all touchscreen phone for the past two years, going back to a keyboard felt a little alien at first, but with the ingenious predictive texting feature, typing is faster and more comfortable. I've already become more productive where emails are concerned and respond immediately rather than wait until returning to my laptop.
The square screen provides a wider viewing angle, making it far superior for reading articles and accessing social media. No need to move the page around to get through every sentence or flip the phone to horizontal mode to “get the bigger picture”; it’s all there on the Passport.
It runs BlackBerry’s latest 10.3 operating system (OS), the most intuitive OS for navigation and ordering your messages and notifications. BB10 has still failed to dazzle loyal BlackBerry fans, but there are new touches to this version which may sway some, including the Blend feature which syncs all your comms, such as BBM, text messages and emails, with your laptop or tablet. It also offers access to your documents, contacts and calendar, so you can continue to work even if you leave your phone at home. While you cannot answer your phone calls, Blend delivers missed call notifications.
BlackBerry has also incorporated the Amazon Appstore which provides 250,000 Android apps including Candy Crush and Spotify. The apps are a touch on the slow side, but pleasant enough to use.
The battery life is easily the best I have seen so far. The phone lasted an entire working day and well into the evening on a single charge, but that’s no surprise given the 3450mAH battery, which pushes the weight up to a whopping 196g.
The Passport is a phone that requires your full attention. It is too chunky, wide and heavy to operate properly with one hand – unless you have hands the size of dustbin lids.
q&a superiority complex all yours
Will this phone save BlackBerry?
Probably not. BlackBerry’s global market share has dwindled from about 17 per cent in 2011 to 0.5 per cent this year. The Canadian manufacturer is shunning the wider market and focusing instead on the business user. It is hoping to win back lucrative corporate clients with its new handsets that it is marketing with security, reliability and communications in mind. The Passport will appeal to those who want to get their work done wherever they are without the hassle of lugging around a laptop or even a tablet.
Will I look boring if I buy the Passport?
Only in the eyes of Apple and Samsung fanatics. Using the Passport makes you feel like you are part of an elite club, a club made up of important people that do important things. BlackBerry is not a cool brand, but its users know this. They quietly believe they are better than everyone else for shunning the shiny, colourful gimmicks of other device manufacturers to pick a phone that gives them what it promises – better, easier and more secure communication.
Will it fit in my pocket?
It has the exact same dimensions as a passport (hence its name) so it fits snugly in a jacket pocket. This is hardly an issue for women, who have the convenience of a handbag.
How much is it?
The Passport is on sale for Dh2,699.
Anything else?
The camera was a disappointment. The 13mp rear-facing camera took pictures with stunning clarity, but only when the lens is fully focused, which took forever.
thamid@thenational.ae
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