BlackBerry Limited has recently introduced the new BlackBerry Passport to the Philippines. Announced internationally awhile back, the Passport features a 4.7 inch square screen with 1440 x 1440 resolution and 453 dpi, and an all new touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard. Built for business professionals, the smartphone’s large square screen is optimized for viewing and creating content, and makes everyday tasks like reading and writing emails, reviewing documents, and web browsing more comfortable and effortless.
One of the best features of the new BlackBerry is the new touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard. The device allows gestures by swiping across the keys, making editing and reviewing a document easier. One nice thing they showed us was that you can tilt the device to its side, and then use the keyboard as a scroll bar. It was actually pretty cool.
A quick hands-on shows the device to be quick and intuitive. The overall shape may take some getting used to, but its nice in the hand and feels very premium. Its about the same size as a regular passport. The screen is bright and contrast is great as well. Typing on the keyboard felt really nice. It has been quite some time since I used a physical keyboard on a mobile device.
In terms of OS ecosystems, the Passport has two pre-installed app storefronts in the BlackBerry World and the Amazon Appstore. You probably won’t find most of the apps you’re used to, but you can install some Android apps on it.
The Blackberry Passport is now available with an SRP of P35,790. Its a bit on the expensive side, but if you’re looking for a premium phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard then you might want to give this a look.
Blackberry Passport specs:
- 4.5 inch square LCD In-cell touch panel display (1440 x 1440, 453 dpi); Gorilla Glass 3
- 2.2GHz quad core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 CPU
- Adreno 330 GPU
- 3GB of RAM
- 32GB of storage (+microSD up to 128GB)
- 13MP main camera (AF, OIS)
- 2MP front camera
- LTE, HSPA+, 3G
- WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth 4.0
- USB 2.0
- Touch-enabled QWERTY keyboard
- BlackBerry 10.3 OS
- 3,450 mAh
- 128mm x 90.3mm x 9.3mm
- P35,790
