BlackBerry Passport review: Can 'quirky' phone save BlackBerry?

In a bid to revive its ailing fortunes, mobile phone manufacturer BlackBerry released an unusual new smartphone last night at simultaneous launch events in Toronto, London and Dubai.

CEO John Chen said that the new BlackBerry Passport would trigger a "Canadian comeback" for the company.

True to its name, the new device is the size of a closed passport, with a physical keyboard as well as a large square touchscreen. According to Chen "It's a size that can fit in a gentleman's pocket... and a lady's purse."

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The phone features a new operating system – BlackBerry 10.3, which includes BlackBerry Assistant, the firm's take on the voice control systems of rivals Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The phone uses Natural Sound Technology, which adjusts the phone's volume based on the environment the user is in. Users will also get access to the Amazon App Store for Android and roughly 240,000 apps – a departure for a company that had previously attempted to operate its own independent app store.

But is it any good? Early reviews of the device have been distinctly mixed.

Design

BlackBerry says that it designed the Passport to "get things done" without sacrificing on style or build quality. On the first claim, the Financial Times's Daniel Thomas says the device definitely delivers. "It has a big and solid feeling, like a deluxe version of devices lugged about by the delivery men when collecting signatures".

According to the Verge's Dan Seifert, the Passport is the "biggest, squarest, most in your face BlackBerry the company has ever produced". It is a machine built to help office workers work. "It even looks like it's wearing a suit," Seifert says.

At 5.03 inches high, 3.55 inches wide and 0.37 inches thick (128 x 90.3 x 9.3 mm) it is a big device. And at 6.91 ounces (194g) it is also quite heavy. By way of comparison, the new "phablet-sized" iPhone 6 Plus weighs 6.07 ounces (172 grams).

It's shape is also "odd-looking," says Seifert. "It's as if a classic BlackBerry spent some time in a medieval torture device and got stretched it out in all four corners".

Know Your Mobile's Paul Briden disagrees, calling it "just about the most exciting handset BlackBerry has ever produced".

The Pro-BlackBerry review site, CrackBerry praised the Passport's touch-sensitive keyboard. "It works in a fashion never witnessed before. The symbols, characters, numbers and everything else is on screen and intuitively changes depending on where you are."

Display

The BlackBerry Passport has a 4.5 inch display with a 1440 x 1440 pixel resolution. CSS Insights' Ben Woods told Know Your Mobile that the generous screen and physical keyboard combination offers "the best of both worlds" for dedicated BlackBerry fans. "It offers a big screen and the all-important hardware qwerty keyboard."

According to BlackBerry's official blog, the Passport's screen width has been chosen "based on academic typology", which shows that "the optimal number of characters on a line in a book is 66 characters (current rectangular smartphones show approximately 40 characters and BlackBerry will show 60 characters)". Consequently the Passport is "the ideal device" for reading e-books, viewing documents and browsing the web, the company says.

Trusted Reviews remains unconvinced: "While it might fit nicely held over your passport in a departures lounge... even the biggest palms will find this a tricky one to grip".

Software

For Daniel Thomas of the FT, the operating system is "still as clunky as it felt in the first generation of BlackBerry smartphones".

Still most reviewers agree that opening the device up to the huge catalogue of apps beyond BlackBerry App World is a savvy move. In granting users access to the Amazon App Store, the Passport will not only be able to manage spreadsheets and send emails, but will also be able to run Minecraft.

Conclusions

Will the Passport's unusual design and new features be enough to turn the struggling firm around? "BlackBerry is still fighting for survival," Brian Colello, an analyst at US investment firm Morningstar told The Guardian. "They still need to turn around and develop a viable ongoing business model. Their products are certainly pointing toward that and the new strategy makes sense, but there is still a lot of execution risk at this point in a very competitive market."

ZDNet says that the Passport is the mobile phone equivalent of a muscle car: "Like a muscle car, BlackBerry's Passport is strong, quirky, has a healthy dose of nostalgia and likely a limited audience".