14 DAY TRIAL // BlackBerry fans are probably still celebrating the fact that the Canadian company has announced fewer than expected losses for the first quarter of the year.
But this is not the only reason for celebration, as BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen has confirmed that his company will launch two new smartphones by the end of the year.
They have been revealed as BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Classic, but were previously leaked as BlackBerry Windermere and BlackBerry Q20.
There’s even more good news as both smartphones have been showcased during the earning calls meeting. As a matter of fact, Mr. Chen had both BlackBerry handsets with him and showed them to the media.
If BlackBerry Classic follows the same design line as the Q5 and Q10, the BlackBerry Passport is really something that we haven’t seen before coming from the Canadian company.
The Passport looks very much like a… passport. Seriously, the smartphone’s square form factor does make it stand out from other smartphones already available on the market.
This is probably one of the reasons that BlackBerry decided to go for the square form factor in the first place, to attract more users who are looking to differentiate themselves from the rest.
But form factor is not everything that Passport brings to the table when trying to appease customers. The smartphone is said to pack a powerful quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor inside, along with no less than 3GB of RAM.
The 4.5-inch capacitive touchscreen display is square and supports 1440 x 1400 pixels resolution. Right under the screen, the smartphone features a 3-row keyboard that only has the letter keys. Due to the lack of space, the physical keyboard does not have dedicated punctuation buttons.
Here's a clearer shot of John Chen and the #BlackBerry Passport pic.twitter.com/LevDPCqFVu
— David Friend (@dj_friend) June 19, 2014
Among the rumored specs that should be part of the BlackBerry Passport, we would also like to mention the 13-megapixel photo snapper on the back, which will feature autofocus, LED flash and at least full HD (1080p) video recording.
Thanks to the pictures taken with the phone, we also know that the Passport will pack a secondary front-facing camera for video calls and selfies.
Last but not least, BlackBerry Passport is said to be powered by a high-capacity 3450 mAh battery, which will probably be rated soon after the official release of the smartphone.
Speaking of which, BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen has confirmed that the Passport will be introduced during a dedicated event held in London, UK, sometime in September.
What do you think about BlackBerry’s upcoming Passport passport-like smartphone? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Photos via CrackBerry.