Decent display, powerful processor, good camera, physical keyboard, expandable memory, 4G, good battery life
Awkward shape, not as many apps as Android or Apple, not cheap
Many thought BlackBerry had bowed out of the smartphone race none too gracefully. But now it's back with a Marmite sandwich of a device that's clearly not intended to be loved by many, just a select few who value productivity over practicality.
BlackBerry has clearly decided that if it can't compete with the fast-moving world of consumer smartphones then it simply won't.
It's chosen instead to focus on what were its original core audience -- business users.
But time and technology have moved on, and finding a distinction between business users and lovers of high tech is increasingly different. BlackBerry's solution has been to concentrate on creating a device that excels in the office, particularly as part of a network of interlinked corporate devices, even if that means sacrificing that key element of most smartphones' success -- style.
Screen & chassis Safe to say, there's no mistaking the Passport, with its really rather ugly square shape and physical keyboard.
It's distinctive, perhaps even a little bizarre, but there is some method in the madness. The 4.5-inch screen offers an HD resolution of 1,440x1,440 pixels (453ppi) and looks great whether you're reading, browsing busy web pages or viewing HD video. There's a feeling of expanse, of space, with plenty of room for spreadsheets and presentations which don't have to be shoehorned into a portrait or landscape format. And of course it doesn't matter which way you turn it.
But while the extra screen acreage looks good, there's no getting away from the fact that it's a really awkward shape. With its sharp edges it won't fit comfortably in the pocket of anyone but Koko the Clown and while most phones offer a choice between height or width by simply turning them on their side, the Passport's square dimensions mean you've only one option, one that doesn't really favour one-handed typing.
The keyboard is very good though, and appears to feature just three lines of letters. But as soon as you start to type you're presented with an extra couple of lines on the screen for additional characters and predictive text. It's actually a neat workaround to provide the physical keys that really matter without taking up any more of the front of the device than strictly necessary.
Gesture controls come into play on the keyboard as well as the screen. You can slide to the left to delete the last word you typed, or double tap on the keyboard to turn it into a track pad, allowing you to move a cursor around -- very useful for editing larger documents. It's good to see that BlackBerry has evolved the keyboard to help it remain relevant while touchscreen keyboards continue to improve.
Software & processor It's running BlackBerry OS 10.3, which is slick and reasonably intuitive -- at least once you've sat through the demo which explains the gesture controls you'll need to find your way around. Navigation is actually quite easy and recently used apps take their place in reduced size windows on the homescreen when you come out of them by swiping up from the keyboard. You can also swipe down from the top of the screen with two fingers to display settings within an app. Email, text and social networking activity are all held handily together in the BlackBerry Hub and there's also a Priority Hub that's supposed to learn from you which messages are most important.
BlackBerry App World doesn't have anything like the choice of apps you'll find on Android or Apple devices of course, but the Amazon Appstore is on board to broaden the offering, so you can download most of the big names. BBM is here too and it's now able to send messages to Apple, Android and Windows devices that also have the BBM app installed.
Assistant is BlackBerry's answer to Siri, Google Now and Cortana, but it needs a bit of work. We found it adept at accepting commands for the phone, but it struggled to understand more general internet search requests. There's also BlackBerry Blend, which is designed to sync your communications so you can access and respond to them from any device -- meaning you can get notifications and respond to them from your tablet or laptop.
The quad-core 2.2GHz processor is backed by a full 3GB RAM and it feels very fast indeed, whizzing through apps with ease and running several apps at once without ever seeming to stutter or stall. We couldn't run our usual benchmark tests thanks to the paucity of available apps in the app store but it seems very nippy in action, which contributes enormously to the feelgood factor when using the phone. Combined with the gesture navigation and physical keyboard, this is a very slick and speedy device to use.
Photography
The 13-megapixel camera comes with autofocus and flash, plus a large f2.0 lens. There are quite a few extras as well -- which now come as standard on high-end smartphones -- including HDR and face detection. Picture quality was pretty good overall, with accurate colours and a good level of detail. There aren't many fun features and tools to play with, but if you need a camera to take reasonably sharp, realistic pictures, it's perfectly decent. There's also a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front, and although that isn't anything to shout home about now that manufacturers are beginning to put 5-megapixel snappers on the front, it'll pass muster for selfies and video calls.
There's a generous 32GB of memory on board, plus you can add up to 128GB more via microSD card, which should be more than enough for anyone.
The oversized battery did exceptionally well, easily taking us through a couple of days of steady use.
Conclusion Once you get past the freak factor, the Passport is really a very competent device, with an excellent screen and processor, plus the physical keyboard for those who like that sort of thing and much more besides. Good to see that BlackBerry has beefed up the app count by partnering with the Amazon Appstore -- it's just a pity the square form factor makes it awkward to carry in the pocket. Presuming this doesn't bother you, and as long as you aren't looking to stock up on cutting-edge applications, there's a lot to like about the BlackBerry Passport.
Our BlackBerry Passport review unit was provided by Carphone Warehouse.
Software: BlackBerry 10 OS
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
