14 DAY TRIAL // The Passport is the next BlackBerry smartphone to be released on the market later today. With just several hours left until the official unveil of the device, we have decided to offer fans and customers interested in this not-so-common smartphone a quick rundown of what they can expect from it.
First of all, BlackBerry Passport will be launched in three major cities simultaneously: Dubai, London and Toronto. The event's livestream is set to begin at 6am PDT / 9am EDT / 1pm GMT / 5pm GST, so everyone will be able to watch the festivities.
In fact, there isn’t much we don’t know about the BlackBerry Passport. Most of the phone’s specs were leaked several months ago and the company’s CEO has recently revealed that the Passport will sell for $599 (€465) outright. Obviously, the price will be different depending on country and carrier, but not by much.
Speaking of which, BlackBerry has also confirmed that the Passport will go on sale the same day it gets unveiled, but only in a few locations and in limited quantity. More details on the matter are expected to be announced during the press event later today, so stay tuned if you consider purchasing one.
The Passport has an unusual square form factor that may or may not appeal to customers
BlackBerry Passport hasn’t been officially introduced, but it has already been received with mixed feelings by those who got their prototype or developer units ahead of release.
Lots of BlackBerry fans can’t wait to get their hands on the Passport, and in their eyes, the unusual square form factor is one of the appealing aspects of the smartphone. Some, however, claim that the device is too wide to easily handle it with one hand.
Anyway, let’s see what’s inside the Passport, BlackBerry’s next OS 10 smartphone. According to the BlackBerry Passport technical specification page, the handset comes equipped with a powerful 2.26GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor, an Adreno 330 graphics processing unit and 3GB of RAM.
Another strong point of the smartphone would be the 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, which features autofocus, LED flash, OIS (optical image stabilization) and full HD (1080p) video recording at 60fps.
The 3-row touch responsive physical keyboard is another innovation by BlackBerry
The high-end device will ship with BlackBerry 10.3 operating system out of the box, but word has it that the Canadian company plans to offer a software update that will add 4K video recording to the new smartphone.
BlackBerry Passport measures 128 x 90.3 x 9.3mm and weighs no less than 194g (battery included). The unusual 4.5-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display supports 1440 x 1440 pixel resolution and features Corning Gorilla Glass 3 coating.
The 3-row physical keyboard is responsive to touch, so Passport owners will be able to control the smartphone without having to use the touchscreen.
We’ll be covering the entire event later today, but we’ll also post various analyses, comparisons and leaks until and after the Passport launch, so stay with us for more on the matter.