Review: BlackBerry Passport
Friday, October 3, 2014 at 7:58PM
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.
Canadian Angle
Much has been made about BlackBerry’s past. How it ruled the smartphone market before the likes of the iPhone and the Android devices came to market. BlackBerry’s leadership missteps and its failure to take competition seriously, quickly eroded its market share as well as its reputation.
Right now, under its third CEO in just as many years, BlackBerry hopes to earn back its fan base, stake a claim for the enterprise as well as create an innovative aura around its products and solutions.
Canadians have always supported their own, and the love affair with BlackBerry runs deep with thousands of users still running legacy devices because they won’t move from their old reliables. But times have changed and the smartphone market has exploded and users are now spoiled for choice.
BlackBerry focused on Canada for its Passport launch. It is calling the device a ‘Canadian comeback story,’ it even brought along Canada’s favourite son, Wayne Gretzky, to throw his support behind the brand.
The result, the love affair was seemingly rekindled and 200,000 Passport units were apparently sold over the first few days. It seems BlackBerry, and Canada, now have a handset worth raving about. The Passport is currently available on most Canadian carriers for $250 on select two-year plans. My review unit worked very well on the Telus network.
The BlackBerry Passport is a risky move but also a ballsy one from a company that many think has got nothing left to lose. Ceding the consumer mobile market to its competitors late last year, BlackBerry repeatedly stated that it wanted to focus on emerging markets like Indonesia as well as recapture its place in the enterprise.
The Passport is the enterprise device that brings the BB10 platform’s key hardware and software strengths together with features that users have shown they want. It is certainly a tool and not a toy.
Form
The largest smartphone BlackBerry has shipped, the Passport features a large and square 4.5-inch display that’s one of the widest in the market.
It has a three-row QWERTY keyboard, which facilitates faster and more accurate input as well as doubles as a track pad for scrolling through documents, emails and photos without obscuring the screen.
The screen will also become a hybrid keyboard by expanding options as you type so the three rows below are joined by two virtual rows above. It's a bit of a learning curve but it works.
The Passport's specs are definitely top-tier. A quick 2.2GHz quad-core processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage and under the hood (expansion up to 128GB through microSD), a 13 megapixel rear camera with image stabilization and a 2 megapixel 720p front facing camera are impressive.
Battery life, also a huge deal, is rated at 30 hours although I found the actual real-world usage to be closer to 18-20 hours with fair to heavy use. The 13-megapixel camera is a huge improvement over past BlackBerry cameras and while still a touch slower to deploy than I'd like, does take some really nice photos and video.
In terms of hardware and build, the past two flagships from BlackBerry, the Z30 and the Passport, have been nothing short of impressive. The Passport is rock solid. Anyone thinking of bending this device will likely end up with sore fingers before they feel any give. The Passport is heavier than the iPhone 6 Plus, and it isn’t really designed for the shirt or jacket pocket. The famous metal frets that separate the keyboard rows are joined on the side by stainless steel cage that lines the sides and defines rigidity and structure. The design was apparently inspired by Mies van der Rohe.
After two weeks of use, I found a renewed appreciation for the QWERTY keyboard, I like the Passport’s three-row keyboard more than the Q10's and the capacitive track pad functionality on the keyboard keys is a clever device for content consumption.
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.
While I found the keyboard to be great, I realized I am able to type or swipe faster on the software keyboards available on my iPhone as well as various Android and Windows Phone devices. But, there's a deliberateness to typing on actual keys that can never be replicated on a software keyboard.
With this new QWERTY keyboard, thumb-typing aficionados will be happily reunited with an old friend with new skills. But that friend’s brought along a large display, which, for better or worse, is part of the package.
While great for reading email, documents, websites and eBooks on the Kobo app, the large 4.5-inch display with a lavish 1440 x 1440 pixels with 453 ppi pixel density, won't be ideal for video which will likely yield some crazy letterboxing. Just shows that you can't have it all.
The Domo-shaped BlackBerry Passport does have its charm. It’s an exceedingly masculine smartphone, one that bristles with a sense of purpose and an aura of productivity. It is also a device that requires your undivided attention and your two hands in order to really operate at an optimum level.
Function
Despite having two app stores from which to buy and download applications, the BB 10.3 powered Passport isn’t fantastic in terms of app choice. I stopped using my Z30 around five months ago and going back to the BlackBerry World, shows me that I haven’t missed much.
Same goes for the Amazon Kindle store, which has some gems available but is far cry from what anyone using a bona fide Android device or an iPhone is used to.
That said, I found a certain Zen-like calm to knowing all these apps I used and loved weren’t available on the Passport. It is like how forced poverty simplifies ones life and you can tend to the really important things that matter. I quite enjoyed not having to spend time updating apps or rearranging them into folders or checking Google Plus.
If you need Twitter, Facebook, BBM, WhatsApp, then you will be served well by BB10 on the Passport, beyond these ‘staples’, however, you’re pretty much on your own, which can be oddly empowering.
Audio quality is impressive with loud speakers and an abundance of microphones including one inside the earpiece that's used to measure ambient noise and which can trigger an automatic volume increase in noisy situations. The Passport is simply one of the best smartphones for clear calls, for teleconferencing and handsfree conversations.
BB10’s mail application and the BlackBerry Hub are still the finest way to triage messages, calendar events and social media updates. It is quite far ahead of anything on competing platforms. The rest of the OS is rock solid and well thought out in a purposeful and no frills way.
The BlackBerry Blend companion app to BlackBerry OS 10.3 devices. Available to PCs, Macs, iPads and Android-powered tablets, is free software that allows you to display content from your BlackBerry, such as conversations, calendars, files, contacts and more, on other screens such as computers and tablets. It is similar to Apple’s Continuity feature between Mac and iOS, and works quite well. I feel this is a bigger deal moving forward and reminds us how BlackBerry can deftly execute cross-platform software and solutions if it wants to.
For users who transfer a lot of files from their mobile devices to their work or personal computers, Blend mean no more e-mailing or searching around for USB thumb drives. Blend also enables users work seamlessly across multiple platforms, while maintaining BlackBerry’s trademark security.
I dabbled with the new BlackBerry Voice Assistant which can be triggered by pressing a hardware button. I found it to be quite fast for booking appointments and running searches. I also like that you can opt to type instead of using voice which many people still find a little unnerving.
Who is it for?
No-nonsense doers, people who message and email constantly and who don’t have app envy. Anyone who has soldiered bravely with an old BlackBerry device now has a really compelling and unique option to consider.
There’s nothing dainty or understated about the Passport and some users will love it, maybe not for its looks but definitely for what it can help them accomplish. Will this turn Android and iPhone users? Maybe, maybe not but it does offer an alternative that is valuable for some users.
I showed off my Passport to some executives from rival smartphone companies, and while they made the usual quips and jokes about the unique form factor, I could tell there was a hint of respect and even a slight tinge of envy at how well built the Passport was. Anyone who likes smartphones will appreciate how well constructed this device is.
Conclusion
The BlackBerry Passport and the new Blend software are certainly compelling. They represent the new beginning that BlackBerry needs to bully its way back into the mobile conversation as well as into users' consciousness.
During the Passport’s launch, BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen remarked he had nothing to do with the Passport, that it was conceptualized before his time and really, the only contribution he had to the device was that ‘he didn’t kill it.’ I’m sure there are many people out there who are glad he allowed the Passport to exist, I am definitely one of them.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Reader Comments (1)
I moved from an android phone to Z10 and for the last 6 month I am using the Z30. I am checking my phone daily to see if I can download the new update to 10.3 mainly to have the blend application. I learned touch typing in two languages since I was 16 years old using the manual typewriters before they invent the electric typewriter. Only my fingers know the right spelling of many English words. I was waiting for a Blend like applications for years. For me the Blend is a dream that is coming true.