Build & design
In the sea of glass slabs, the BlackBerry Passport certainly has a
distinct identity. You can love it or hate it, but you simply can't
ignore it.
It's as 'businessy' as a BlackBerry device can get, but the super-wide screen and the short keyboard surely make it look awkward. People's reactions upon seeing the phone ranged from "it looks like a larger than life calculator," to "what is this, a phone?" to "look at that miniature laptop!"
BlackBerry decided to name the phone Passport as it essentially sports the same dimensions as an American passport at 128x90.3x9.3mm.
Weighing 196gram, the phone is anything but lightweight. The dimensions-to-weight ratio is not bad though the upper half of the phone seems to be more hefty.
Passport has a stainless steel frame that makes it a sturdy device. Unlike other BlackBerry devices, the back panel is not completely removable, but this also makes the device less clumsy. A small removable strip at the back hides the nano sim-card and microSD card slots. Removing the strip is pretty simple thanks to a small opening at the top edge.
The back sports a smooth matte finish and the metal accents give the phone a premium feel. It also sports the BlackBerry logo and a slightly protruding strip that houses the camera lens and the LED flash.
The right edge features two distinct volume keys with the mute switch placed in between, in line with BlackBerry's traditional button placement. The 3.5mm headset act is at the top edge while the micro-USB charging port sits at the bottom.
The front of the device sports a 4.5-inch square-shaped, IPS display. The rest of the front panel comprises of the three-row, capacitive touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard.
Overall, the BlackBerry Passport breaks the mould when it comes to design, evoking mixed responses. We felt that even though the phone is built like a tank, it heavily loses marks in the ergonomics department. It feels odd holding the phone to your ear mainly because of its increased width. It's also a phone designed for use with two hands and not just one. It just about fits in your shirt pocket, but sticks out if you're carrying it in your jeans pocket. Different isn't always better.
Keyboard
BlackBerry is known for its hardware keyboards and it is, in fact, the main reason why some users have been loyal to the brand. Make no mistake, the Passport's keyboard is no traditional BlackBerry QWERTY. You'll be disappointed if you're expecting a keyboard similar to the one found on the company's Bold and even Q10 devices. It won't be wrong to call it a semi-hardware keyboard.
Passport sports a three-row, capacitive touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard. There are no assigned number keys or shift buttons. Instead, symbols and numbers appear on the display when you're in the text entry mode.
The keyboard takes some getting used to but in our opinion it's not as good as other BlackBerry keyboards. We were not able to type as fast as we're able to do on a touchscreen keyboard or on other BlackBerry keyboards especially when it also involves the use of numbers and symbols. In the middle of typing something on the keyboard, you need to reach out to the screen and press the shift key to enable the numeric keypad and tap, thus breaking the flow. It's hard to get used to switching between typing and tapping even after using the device for a week.
Also, typing on the keyboard is strictly a two-handed affair. We found the keyboard to be a little cramped especially due to the awkward shape and placement of the space key. The keyboard does retain the clickety feel of BlackBerry keyboards and tactile feedback was decent.
The good thing about the keyboard is that it is touch sensitive and can be used as a trackpad to scroll across lists and webpages without touching the display. It can also be used to track the cursor during text entry and select text, but that again involves long tapping on the shift key.
Interestingly, taking a cue from its soft keyboard, the touch keyboard gets split into three portions each representing the three word suggestions on the screen; swiping your finger across that portion selects the corresponding word. We're still not sure if the touch feature aids in enhancing usability.
The software that powers the phone learns from your typing habits and offers relevant suggestions, which is a good thing.
Overall, we feel the keyboard on the phone does not offer a better experience compared to the Bold series phones and the Q10. Even the soft keyboard on the Z10 and Z30 is better. We miss the number pad and shift key that make the BlackBerry keyboards a delight to use.
Display
BlackBerry Passport sports a 4.5-inch square-shaped, IPS display (1440x1440p resolution, 453PPI). The display is wider than the one on the Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and this makes it nearly impossible to use the phone with one hand.
The pixel-dense display is very bright and offers vivid colours.
Text and graphics look good and make the phone ideal for reading and working on documents. However, the 1:1 screen ratio is not that great when it comes to playing video clips. You'll see black bands above and below the video. Viewing angles were wide and touch sensitivity was good.
Overall, the wide display is great for reading and editing presentations, documents and spread sheets, and even for specialized applications like examining X-Rays or other medical reports. It's not good for watching video though.
Software
Passport runs BlackBerry OS 10.3, the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The new iteration of the OS comes with some cosmetic changes as well as functional improvements.
The basic structure remains the same. The UI is essentially divided into the hub, active pane and app panel. The hub stores all sorts of messages and notifications; the active pane shows the last accessed apps (up to eight in number) in widgetized format, offering information for a glance; and the app list features icons for all installed apps.
In BlackBerry OS 10.3, the apps icons are no longer surrounded by borders and shadows and are flatter compared to older iterations. As a result, you get an extra row and an additional column in the app list pane. There's no limit to the number of apps you put inside a single folder.
The active pane screen does not disappear if you dismiss all apps and instead displays a wallpaper. It can display up to eight apps but the size of the frames are not uniform. The pull-down quick settings menu can now be invoked inside apps by using two fingers.
The OS features the Priority Hub that highlights important interactions in one place. The hub has also got minor improvements including a prominent contextual action button. For instance, the button lets you compose a message in the hub, but the same button changes to 'reply' when you're reading a mail.
It also supports downloading all attachments at once, deleting original text of an email (while replying), and arranging sent messages into folders. The Hub also features instant actions buttons to perform actions on messages without opening them. For instance, you can delete or archive email messages once you've seen them without the need to open them (or long press) again.
The native apps, including the phone and camera apps, have also been tweaked visually.
A major feature of OS 10.3 is the BlackBerry Assistant, a virtual assistant similar to Siri and performing the same functions. It can be summoned by pressing the mute key (the key placed between the volume buttons), by launching it through the apps pane, or by typing randomly on the Passport's keyboard while being in the home screen.
It can set remainders and alarms, post messages on social networks, open apps, play music, make calls, check the weather, send and search email and answer questions through the Wolfram Alpha database, among others. In our usage, we found that voice recognition was really good and accurate, but it takes time to perform actions. It doesn't offer contextual information like Google Now.
The phone comes preloaded with the Amazon Appstore to find and install Android apps.
You can also download APK (Android app installation) files from the web or install other third party Android app stores such as 1Mobile Market to install Android apps. Android apps that make use of Google services don't work. Also, push notifications don't work unless the Android app is running as an active frame.
The BlackBerry 10 operating system relies on swipe gestures and doesn't come with online or hardware keys for navigation. You minimise or exit apps by swiping up from the bottom and access additional settings by swiping down from top.
Swiping up from any screen gives you a peek into your notifications and swiping up and immediately swiping to the right takes you to the BlackBerry Hub.
Similarly unlocking the screen is through a swipe up gesture. The phone offers a tutorial app in addition to making users aware of these gestures at the time of setting up the phone.
The Passport's big screen complements the software and makes the experience fluid. Having said that, it does have a learning curve, especially if you're used to Android, Windows Phone or iOS devices that come with dedicated Home buttons.
We liked the interface, especially the hub which makes managing multiple email and messaging accounts very easy. You can add all your social networking accounts including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to the hub.
Interestingly, there is no dedicated app for email. There's an app shortcut for Text messages that takes you to the hub. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp can run as stand-alone apps and even through the hub.
BlackBerry has also introduced Blend, a software tool available for PCs, Macs, iPad and Android devices that lets you access your BlackBerry phone if both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. We used the tool on a Mac and an iPad mini and found it to be really useful. It's like BlackBerry Bridge which was limited to BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet, but also offers alerts for phone calls. You can reply to and send texts, BBM messages and emails through the other device and copy files across them via the Dashboard.
The Passport also offers gesture based advanced interactions that uses sensors of the device to detect actions and perform tasks. It supports gestures such as lift to wake, flip to mute, and flip to save power. These modes worked as promised.
Overall, the BlackBerry OS is focused on communication and messaging and outperforms other platforms in this department. However, it falls short when it comes to good quality third party native apps.
How videos look on the Passport (left) | Some apps don't work
BlackBerry claims that the Passport offers better productivity; it does come with Docs To Go office suite and Evernote, but these apps are available on all mobile platforms. Maps are not so good when compared with Google and Here maps, though support for directions is now included.
We also found some bugs in the software. At times, the hub was inaccessible and the issue was resolved only when we restarted the phone. The keyboard backlight also refused to turn on at times (even in the dark) and only a reboot fixed the issue.
Camera
BlackBerry Passport sports a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), 5-element f2.0 lens, Back Side Illumination, LED flash and support for 1080p HD video recording at 60fps. It also sports a 2MP fixed-focus front-facing camera that supports 720p video capture.
The Passport's camera also offers Panorama, time shift and burst modes in addition to HDR mode. You can choose between 1:1 square, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio for photos.
Pictures shot in daylight looked great with good amount of detail, accurate contrast and exposure, although colours were a little oversaturated. Even low-light photos were good though there was some noise.
HDR photos were like hit and miss and also had a bit of noise. At times, we noticed a minor lag while launching the camera app.
The phone can shoot 1080p video and recording quality was satisfactory. The front camera takes good quality selfies.
Performance
BlackBerry Passport is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor (MSM8974-AA), Adreno 330 GPU (450MHz) and 3GB RAM. With all the power under the hood, we expected the phone to run smoothly and it did not disappoint.
In our use, we did not encounter any lag or stutter while navigating through the hub, recent app and launcher panels, and while opening and browsing websites. Android apps also run fine though not as smoothly as the native BlackBerry 10 apps.
Since the apps are running over a special runtime, performance is not at par with native BlackBerry 10 apps. Android apps, including Shazam and TuneIn Radio, take time to load and switching between them is also not very smooth. Instagram did not work and returned an 'incompatible device' error.
However, we were able to play casual games like Temple Run 2 without any hiccups.
BlackBerry-optimized games like Asphalt 8 and Beach Buggy Blitz were not supported at the time of writing this review.
The phone comes with 32GB internal storage (with about only 24.5GB usable) and a removable microSD memory card slot that supports cards up to 128GB.
Passport has a 3,450mAh integrated non-removable battery and the company claims it offers backup of 30 hours of mixed use. In our use, the phone lasted us a full day (13-14 hours) with high usage, full brightness and 3G turned on. You'll be able to get more out of the battery if your usage is on the lower side.
We were able to play most video (including full-HD ones) and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. The phone offers good call quality and signal reception. It was also able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud stereo sound output through speakers placed at the bottom edge and the sound quality was one of the best we've experienced.
Verdict
The BlackBerry Passport is the most powerful phone the company has ever made. The phone boasts of solid build quality, an excellent display and a decent camera in addition to industry leading communication and security features.
However, it's not without flaws. The keyboard takes a lot of time to get used to and still doesn't offer a fluid and fast typing experience. The phone is too wide for comfort and feels awkward to use. At Rs 49,990, we feel the phone is overpriced, especially taking into consideration other options available in the market.
BlackBerry's own Q10 and Z30 are great phones if you're looking for a premium communication tool. The Q10 costs less than half the price of the Passport and offers a better typing experience. The Z30, at about Rs 30,000, offers high-end specifications and better multimedia playback.
If you don't need a BlackBerry phone for work, you can also consider other flagship smartphones including the HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S5 and even the iPhone 6. These also offer a richer ecosystem of apps and services, including support for Microsoft Office. The Samsung Note 3 is also a great big-screen option with the added benefit of an intelligent S-Pen stylus if you're only looking at big screen devices.
BlackBerry says it targets 'power professionals' or high net-worth individuals who won't mind spending extra for productivity features. We feel that unless you're upgrading from a BlackBerry phone, or your work requires you to use a BlackBerry, there's really no reason to switch to a Passport from an Android device or iPhone.
It's as 'businessy' as a BlackBerry device can get, but the super-wide screen and the short keyboard surely make it look awkward. People's reactions upon seeing the phone ranged from "it looks like a larger than life calculator," to "what is this, a phone?" to "look at that miniature laptop!"
BlackBerry decided to name the phone Passport as it essentially sports the same dimensions as an American passport at 128x90.3x9.3mm.
Weighing 196gram, the phone is anything but lightweight. The dimensions-to-weight ratio is not bad though the upper half of the phone seems to be more hefty.
Passport has a stainless steel frame that makes it a sturdy device. Unlike other BlackBerry devices, the back panel is not completely removable, but this also makes the device less clumsy. A small removable strip at the back hides the nano sim-card and microSD card slots. Removing the strip is pretty simple thanks to a small opening at the top edge.
The back sports a smooth matte finish and the metal accents give the phone a premium feel. It also sports the BlackBerry logo and a slightly protruding strip that houses the camera lens and the LED flash.
The right edge features two distinct volume keys with the mute switch placed in between, in line with BlackBerry's traditional button placement. The 3.5mm headset act is at the top edge while the micro-USB charging port sits at the bottom.
The front of the device sports a 4.5-inch square-shaped, IPS display. The rest of the front panel comprises of the three-row, capacitive touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard.
Overall, the BlackBerry Passport breaks the mould when it comes to design, evoking mixed responses. We felt that even though the phone is built like a tank, it heavily loses marks in the ergonomics department. It feels odd holding the phone to your ear mainly because of its increased width. It's also a phone designed for use with two hands and not just one. It just about fits in your shirt pocket, but sticks out if you're carrying it in your jeans pocket. Different isn't always better.
Keyboard
BlackBerry is known for its hardware keyboards and it is, in fact, the main reason why some users have been loyal to the brand. Make no mistake, the Passport's keyboard is no traditional BlackBerry QWERTY. You'll be disappointed if you're expecting a keyboard similar to the one found on the company's Bold and even Q10 devices. It won't be wrong to call it a semi-hardware keyboard.
Passport sports a three-row, capacitive touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard. There are no assigned number keys or shift buttons. Instead, symbols and numbers appear on the display when you're in the text entry mode.
The keyboard takes some getting used to but in our opinion it's not as good as other BlackBerry keyboards. We were not able to type as fast as we're able to do on a touchscreen keyboard or on other BlackBerry keyboards especially when it also involves the use of numbers and symbols. In the middle of typing something on the keyboard, you need to reach out to the screen and press the shift key to enable the numeric keypad and tap, thus breaking the flow. It's hard to get used to switching between typing and tapping even after using the device for a week.
Also, typing on the keyboard is strictly a two-handed affair. We found the keyboard to be a little cramped especially due to the awkward shape and placement of the space key. The keyboard does retain the clickety feel of BlackBerry keyboards and tactile feedback was decent.
The good thing about the keyboard is that it is touch sensitive and can be used as a trackpad to scroll across lists and webpages without touching the display. It can also be used to track the cursor during text entry and select text, but that again involves long tapping on the shift key.
Interestingly, taking a cue from its soft keyboard, the touch keyboard gets split into three portions each representing the three word suggestions on the screen; swiping your finger across that portion selects the corresponding word. We're still not sure if the touch feature aids in enhancing usability.
The software that powers the phone learns from your typing habits and offers relevant suggestions, which is a good thing.
Overall, we feel the keyboard on the phone does not offer a better experience compared to the Bold series phones and the Q10. Even the soft keyboard on the Z10 and Z30 is better. We miss the number pad and shift key that make the BlackBerry keyboards a delight to use.
Display
BlackBerry Passport sports a 4.5-inch square-shaped, IPS display (1440x1440p resolution, 453PPI). The display is wider than the one on the Apple iPhone 6 and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and this makes it nearly impossible to use the phone with one hand.
The pixel-dense display is very bright and offers vivid colours.
Text and graphics look good and make the phone ideal for reading and working on documents. However, the 1:1 screen ratio is not that great when it comes to playing video clips. You'll see black bands above and below the video. Viewing angles were wide and touch sensitivity was good.
Overall, the wide display is great for reading and editing presentations, documents and spread sheets, and even for specialized applications like examining X-Rays or other medical reports. It's not good for watching video though.
Software
Passport runs BlackBerry OS 10.3, the latest version of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The new iteration of the OS comes with some cosmetic changes as well as functional improvements.
The basic structure remains the same. The UI is essentially divided into the hub, active pane and app panel. The hub stores all sorts of messages and notifications; the active pane shows the last accessed apps (up to eight in number) in widgetized format, offering information for a glance; and the app list features icons for all installed apps.
In BlackBerry OS 10.3, the apps icons are no longer surrounded by borders and shadows and are flatter compared to older iterations. As a result, you get an extra row and an additional column in the app list pane. There's no limit to the number of apps you put inside a single folder.
The active pane screen does not disappear if you dismiss all apps and instead displays a wallpaper. It can display up to eight apps but the size of the frames are not uniform. The pull-down quick settings menu can now be invoked inside apps by using two fingers.
The OS features the Priority Hub that highlights important interactions in one place. The hub has also got minor improvements including a prominent contextual action button. For instance, the button lets you compose a message in the hub, but the same button changes to 'reply' when you're reading a mail.
It also supports downloading all attachments at once, deleting original text of an email (while replying), and arranging sent messages into folders. The Hub also features instant actions buttons to perform actions on messages without opening them. For instance, you can delete or archive email messages once you've seen them without the need to open them (or long press) again.
The native apps, including the phone and camera apps, have also been tweaked visually.
A major feature of OS 10.3 is the BlackBerry Assistant, a virtual assistant similar to Siri and performing the same functions. It can be summoned by pressing the mute key (the key placed between the volume buttons), by launching it through the apps pane, or by typing randomly on the Passport's keyboard while being in the home screen.
It can set remainders and alarms, post messages on social networks, open apps, play music, make calls, check the weather, send and search email and answer questions through the Wolfram Alpha database, among others. In our usage, we found that voice recognition was really good and accurate, but it takes time to perform actions. It doesn't offer contextual information like Google Now.
The phone comes preloaded with the Amazon Appstore to find and install Android apps.
You can also download APK (Android app installation) files from the web or install other third party Android app stores such as 1Mobile Market to install Android apps. Android apps that make use of Google services don't work. Also, push notifications don't work unless the Android app is running as an active frame.
The BlackBerry 10 operating system relies on swipe gestures and doesn't come with online or hardware keys for navigation. You minimise or exit apps by swiping up from the bottom and access additional settings by swiping down from top.
Swiping up from any screen gives you a peek into your notifications and swiping up and immediately swiping to the right takes you to the BlackBerry Hub.
Similarly unlocking the screen is through a swipe up gesture. The phone offers a tutorial app in addition to making users aware of these gestures at the time of setting up the phone.
The Passport's big screen complements the software and makes the experience fluid. Having said that, it does have a learning curve, especially if you're used to Android, Windows Phone or iOS devices that come with dedicated Home buttons.
We liked the interface, especially the hub which makes managing multiple email and messaging accounts very easy. You can add all your social networking accounts including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare to the hub.
Interestingly, there is no dedicated app for email. There's an app shortcut for Text messages that takes you to the hub. BlackBerry Messenger and WhatsApp can run as stand-alone apps and even through the hub.
BlackBerry has also introduced Blend, a software tool available for PCs, Macs, iPad and Android devices that lets you access your BlackBerry phone if both devices are on the same Wi-Fi network. We used the tool on a Mac and an iPad mini and found it to be really useful. It's like BlackBerry Bridge which was limited to BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet, but also offers alerts for phone calls. You can reply to and send texts, BBM messages and emails through the other device and copy files across them via the Dashboard.
The Passport also offers gesture based advanced interactions that uses sensors of the device to detect actions and perform tasks. It supports gestures such as lift to wake, flip to mute, and flip to save power. These modes worked as promised.
Overall, the BlackBerry OS is focused on communication and messaging and outperforms other platforms in this department. However, it falls short when it comes to good quality third party native apps.
How videos look on the Passport (left) | Some apps don't work
BlackBerry claims that the Passport offers better productivity; it does come with Docs To Go office suite and Evernote, but these apps are available on all mobile platforms. Maps are not so good when compared with Google and Here maps, though support for directions is now included.
We also found some bugs in the software. At times, the hub was inaccessible and the issue was resolved only when we restarted the phone. The keyboard backlight also refused to turn on at times (even in the dark) and only a reboot fixed the issue.
Camera
BlackBerry Passport sports a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), 5-element f2.0 lens, Back Side Illumination, LED flash and support for 1080p HD video recording at 60fps. It also sports a 2MP fixed-focus front-facing camera that supports 720p video capture.
The Passport's camera also offers Panorama, time shift and burst modes in addition to HDR mode. You can choose between 1:1 square, 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratio for photos.
Pictures shot in daylight looked great with good amount of detail, accurate contrast and exposure, although colours were a little oversaturated. Even low-light photos were good though there was some noise.
HDR photos were like hit and miss and also had a bit of noise. At times, we noticed a minor lag while launching the camera app.
The phone can shoot 1080p video and recording quality was satisfactory. The front camera takes good quality selfies.
Performance
BlackBerry Passport is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor (MSM8974-AA), Adreno 330 GPU (450MHz) and 3GB RAM. With all the power under the hood, we expected the phone to run smoothly and it did not disappoint.
In our use, we did not encounter any lag or stutter while navigating through the hub, recent app and launcher panels, and while opening and browsing websites. Android apps also run fine though not as smoothly as the native BlackBerry 10 apps.
Since the apps are running over a special runtime, performance is not at par with native BlackBerry 10 apps. Android apps, including Shazam and TuneIn Radio, take time to load and switching between them is also not very smooth. Instagram did not work and returned an 'incompatible device' error.
However, we were able to play casual games like Temple Run 2 without any hiccups.
BlackBerry-optimized games like Asphalt 8 and Beach Buggy Blitz were not supported at the time of writing this review.
The phone comes with 32GB internal storage (with about only 24.5GB usable) and a removable microSD memory card slot that supports cards up to 128GB.
Passport has a 3,450mAh integrated non-removable battery and the company claims it offers backup of 30 hours of mixed use. In our use, the phone lasted us a full day (13-14 hours) with high usage, full brightness and 3G turned on. You'll be able to get more out of the battery if your usage is on the lower side.
We were able to play most video (including full-HD ones) and audio files on the phone without any hiccups. The phone offers good call quality and signal reception. It was also able to lock to GPS without any hiccups.
The external speaker on the phone offers loud stereo sound output through speakers placed at the bottom edge and the sound quality was one of the best we've experienced.
Verdict
The BlackBerry Passport is the most powerful phone the company has ever made. The phone boasts of solid build quality, an excellent display and a decent camera in addition to industry leading communication and security features.
However, it's not without flaws. The keyboard takes a lot of time to get used to and still doesn't offer a fluid and fast typing experience. The phone is too wide for comfort and feels awkward to use. At Rs 49,990, we feel the phone is overpriced, especially taking into consideration other options available in the market.
BlackBerry's own Q10 and Z30 are great phones if you're looking for a premium communication tool. The Q10 costs less than half the price of the Passport and offers a better typing experience. The Z30, at about Rs 30,000, offers high-end specifications and better multimedia playback.
If you don't need a BlackBerry phone for work, you can also consider other flagship smartphones including the HTC One (M8), Samsung Galaxy S5 and even the iPhone 6. These also offer a richer ecosystem of apps and services, including support for Microsoft Office. The Samsung Note 3 is also a great big-screen option with the added benefit of an intelligent S-Pen stylus if you're only looking at big screen devices.
BlackBerry says it targets 'power professionals' or high net-worth individuals who won't mind spending extra for productivity features. We feel that unless you're upgrading from a BlackBerry phone, or your work requires you to use a BlackBerry, there's really no reason to switch to a Passport from an Android device or iPhone.
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