BlackBerry Passport Specs Leaked

Terry Olaes

I Used to be the [H] News Guy
Joined
Nov 27, 2006
Messages
4,646
From the "Why do they keep trying?" department, BlackBerry has a new phone/tablet/phablet/thingy coming out in September and the specs have been leaked out. Of course, the keyboard is still there so fret not, BlackBerry adherents.

The company revealed a couple of months back that it will be formally announcing the BlackBerry Passport in September. The date is yet to be announced but already BlackBerry has described quite a few of the Passport’s salient features. A purported full spec sheet of the upcoming smartphone has appeared online, giving us what might be our first look at full specifications of the BlackBerry Passport.
 
That thing is awesome! BB is finally concentrating back onto what made them awesome in the past, email.
 
Super weird form factor. It's a bold move, Cotton. Let's see how if it pays off...
 
1) Small physical keys aren't necessarily better than larger keys on a keypad
2) Form factor with sharp edges looks like a PITA to pocket
3) Why not have a bigger screen with a slider?
 
Already have my wife wanting one since shes always been a BB user.
 
I just cant understand why anybody would want a physical keyboard. It's dreadfully slower than a touchscreen, and with today's level of autocorrect you dont need accuracy. I text in portrait mode completely blind, just staring at the results and not the keystrokes and it always gets it right. I dont even feel like im remotely hitting the right keys, just vaguely placing my thumbs in the general area, and somehow "adskfj wj3jjx ajjal" comes out to "I love you!"
 
And people complain about how the Sammy Note series is un-pocketable...

I have a Note 3 and I could fit like 5 of them into any normal pocket. Hipsters in skinny pants might have a problem.

But then again, a Note 3 would be too cool and mainstream for one of them anyway.
 
I just cant understand why anybody would want a physical keyboard. It's dreadfully slower than a touchscreen, and with today's level of autocorrect you dont need accuracy. I text in portrait mode completely blind, just staring at the results and not the keystrokes and it always gets it right. I dont even feel like im remotely hitting the right keys, just vaguely placing my thumbs in the general area, and somehow "adskfj wj3jjx ajjal" comes out to "I love you!"


i already miss the physical keyboard on my Droid 3, the tactile feedback is so much easier to type fast on than a screen. It sucks.
 
Recently went back to smartphones (again) after drowing an E63 nokia.

This is right up my alley and would definitely be a contender if I remain on smartphones. Wonder if someone will get android running on them..

Touchscreens, even with latest prediction are still nowhere near as good as a keypad in my books. Using the latest iphones is a frustrating experience for me. Androids not much better in this regard either, if at all.

I'm considering buying another BR56 battery for my V3i motorola. Makes slim phones today look fat and ugly and does what I need it to do primarily - call and text. If you need to get me on the go, call.
 
Recently went back to smartphones (again) after drowing an E63 nokia.

This is right up my alley and would definitely be a contender if I remain on smartphones. Wonder if someone will get android running on them..

Touchscreens, even with latest prediction are still nowhere near as good as a keypad in my books. Using the latest iphones is a frustrating experience for me. Androids not much better in this regard either, if at all.

I'm considering buying another BR56 battery for my V3i motorola. Makes slim phones today look fat and ugly and does what I need it to do primarily - call and text. If you need to get me on the go, call.

All Blackberry 10 phones havea built in Android runtime on them. They run BB apps alongside android apps. Compatability seems to be spot on. QNX is a version of Linux just like Android is so it wasn't hard for them to get it working right.

As of right now the latest 10.3 leak even comes with the amazon store built in, and there is an app called Snap that you can sideload and will give you direct access to the google play store.
 
All Blackberry 10 phones havea built in Android runtime on them. They run BB apps alongside android apps. Compatability seems to be spot on. QNX is a version of Linux just like Android is so it wasn't hard for them to get it working right.

As of right now the latest 10.3 leak even comes with the amazon store built in, and there is an app called Snap that you can sideload and will give you direct access to the google play store.

QNX isn't a version of Linux
 
All Blackberry 10 phones havea built in Android runtime on them. They run BB apps alongside android apps. Compatability seems to be spot on. QNX is a version of Linux just like Android is so it wasn't hard for them to get it working right.

As of right now the latest 10.3 leak even comes with the amazon store built in, and there is an app called Snap that you can sideload and will give you direct access to the google play store.

QNX emulates Davlik, which is also why a good portion of the Android apps have terrible performance. I do agree that it can load and run a majority of the apps fine.
 
I have a Note 3 and I could fit like 5 of them into any normal pocket. Hipsters in skinny pants might have a problem.

But then again, a Note 3 would be too cool and mainstream for one of them anyway.

I carry a Note 3 in my jeans pocket and I barely know it's there. Hell, I'd like a 6" version. Maybe 6.25".

I often notice the size of everyone else's phones, and I end up feeling sorry for anyone I see using a phone with a tiny screen. I don't know even one Note 3 user that thinks it's size is any kind of issue.

Samsung makes some awesome phones. That said, I'm starting to think that Google is a skeezy company because they try to feign the role of the altruistic benefactor, while they are busy harvesting everyone who comes near their service.
 
This looks one inch wider than the note...no way that fits in pockets "comfortably".
 
Looks like BB continues to not to grasp why they are failing and going bankrupt. Looks like something straight out of the 90's.

Welp, this will fail miserably. Sure it will be popular with the few hundred people who still want that horrible keyboard for whatever reason, the rest of the world will ignore it.
 
I mean I like what they're trying to do here, and thats come up with a genuinely new and unique idea. We need more of that. The phone is designed to force you to use it in it's optimal state at all times, a mostly squarish orientation. How often do you actually do heavy surfing or other phone functions in portrait mode on your Galaxy/LG/whatever? You probably start in portrait mode, but quickly find yourself rotating the phone to landscape mode because it just works better. Some apps/games may force you to tilt the phone. If you go back to the homescreen you're probably forced to tilt back. So you end up with this little song and dance where you're constantly rotating your phone back and forth depending on the situation. BB is trying to say "no, just keep it optimal all the time".
 
Looks like BB continues to not to grasp why they are failing and going bankrupt. Looks like something straight out of the 90's.

Welp, this will fail miserably. Sure it will be popular with the few hundred people who still want that horrible keyboard for whatever reason, the rest of the world will ignore it.

This phone is designed for business users.

Not hippers and their any birds!

This phone will sell well for its intended market business professionals.

The children can continue to buy iphones.
 
This phone is designed for business users.

Not hippers and their any birds!

This phone will sell well for its intended market business professionals.

The children can continue to buy iphones.

LMAO...you realize that iPhones are the corporate business pro favorite now...right?

BB's historical market, that of corporate business, is long gone.
 
This phone is designed for business users.

Not hippers and their any birds!

This phone will sell well for its intended market business professionals.

The children can continue to buy iphones.

I've been in IT for a long time, about since when BB became big. I was a diehard BB user for years.

However they failed to keep up with the times and this shows it. This isn't what business users want or need. iPhones and Android dominate for a reason and it isn't because of the hipster crowd. As a Business user and former BB fan I called this exactly what it is. It is going to fail miserably just like their other save the business attempts because BB STILL doesn't get that it isn't 2004 any longer.
 
LMAO...you realize that iPhones are the corporate business pro favorite now...right?

BB's historical market, that of corporate business, is long gone.

Considering I work for a large law firm which has both BB10 and iphones.

And that isn't the case in canada!
 
I've been in IT for a long time, about since when BB became big. I was a diehard BB user for years.

However they failed to keep up with the times and this shows it. This isn't what business users want or need. iPhones and Android dominate for a reason and it isn't because of the hipster crowd. As a Business user and former BB fan I called this exactly what it is. It is going to fail miserably just like their other save the business attempts because BB STILL doesn't get that it isn't 2004 any longer.

Blackberry's still own for security and its the reason business still buy them. In my corporate environment we don't even allow andriods phones. As someone that supports mobile devices in a Corporate environment the passport will do fine. The lawyers i won't with care about doing work and making money.

Iphones and andriod phones only dominate the consumer market because comsumers are mostly noobs and only care about the next shiney Igadget and those clowns will sleep in front of stores like they have no lives to get the next Iphone. The people I work with have more product things to do with their time.

We determine what the IT needs are of our staff not the USERS.
 
Blackberry's still own for security and its the reason business still buy them. In my corporate environment we don't even allow andriods phones.
Say what? How exactly are they more secure, considering Android devices have excellent encryption which you can easily force as a requirement on Active-Sync?

We finally abandoned Blackberry in favor of Samsung S5s, and everyone is SO much happier including myself. The only sacrifice we made is of battery life, but we knew that going in as the S5 is very powerful with a huge screen.

Previously what we had happening is that most people were emberassed to be seen with their crappy Blackberry, and so would just leave them on their desk and setup call forwarding to their personal device and they'd use webmail or later Active-Sync before we finally just got rid of BBerry entirely.
 
Say what? How exactly are they more secure, considering Android devices have excellent encryption which you can easily force as a requirement on Active-Sync?

We finally abandoned Blackberry in favor of Samsung S5s, and everyone is SO much happier including myself. The only sacrifice we made is of battery life, but we knew that going in as the S5 is very powerful with a huge screen.

Previously what we had happening is that most people were emberassed to be seen with their crappy Blackberry, and so would just leave them on their desk and setup call forwarding to their personal device and they'd use webmail or later Active-Sync before we finally just got rid of BBerry entirely.

I'm not going to dig for information that is available all over the internet.

The andriod platform didn't pass any of our security audits hence why its not allowed in the law firm I work at.

Talk to anyone that does IT security for a living.

"Previously what we had happening is that most people were emberassed to be seen with their crappy Blackberry, and so would just leave them on their desk and setup call forwarding to their personal device and they'd use webmail or later Active-Sync before we finally just got rid of BBerry entirely."

Only children and teenagers/ and impressionable people care what other people think of there devices. Hopefully you get to work with some real adults next time.
 
I'm not going to dig for information that is available all over the internet.

The andriod platform didn't pass any of our security audits hence why its not allowed in the law firm I work at.

Talk to anyone that does IT security for a living.

"Previously what we had happening is that most people were emberassed to be seen with their crappy Blackberry, and so would just leave them on their desk and setup call forwarding to their personal device and they'd use webmail or later Active-Sync before we finally just got rid of BBerry entirely."

Only children and teenagers/ and impressionable people care what other people think of there devices. Hopefully you get to work with some real adults next time.

*Australian accent*

Shhh dont make a sound, what we have right here is a wild business in the brush. If you observe quietly you can see it struggling to justify its existence. Oops, I think it may have heard us! While it poses little danger to us now, it's remarkable to watch as a company who had a lock on the entire mobile email market completely self-implodes clinging to talking points from decades past. You can almost hear the death cries about security, hipsters, toys, BUSINESS ORIENTED. It shant be too long now folks, only a few rattles left and she's a goner!
 
*Australian accent*

Shhh dont make a sound, what we have right here is a wild business in the brush. If you observe quietly you can see it struggling to justify its existence. Oops, I think it may have heard us! While it poses little danger to us now, it's remarkable to watch as a company who had a lock on the entire mobile email market completely self-implodes clinging to talking points from decades past. You can almost hear the death cries about security, hipsters, toys, BUSINESS ORIENTED. It shant be too long now folks, only a few rattles left and she's a goner!

lol love the accent.

I will let the lawyers that are making 6 and 7 figures salaries and their clients that actually care about data security that they are all a dying breed apparently.
 
I sometimes forget this Forum is full of mostly americans.

And you guys all share this hate for blackberry.

You all want to have just samsung and apple making phones so they can be the only two players on the market, because limited choice and prices that stay stagnant is great for the market.
 
I sometimes forget this Forum is full of mostly americans.

And you guys all share this hate for blackberry.

You all want to have just samsung and apple making phones so they can be the only two players on the market, because limited choice and prices that stay stagnant is great for the market.

Blackberry spent many years releasing poor phones, had poor app support, no clear direction, and showed that they had no idea what customers wanted. In the US they and went from being a top player to a nobody by shooting themselves in the foot repeatedly. A lot of people who currently dislike Blackberry were BB fans years ago, and we all saw the company do nothing but damage itself and fail to deliver competent products.

Blackberry phones were just as expensive as the other players in the market, them being a US market player again won't drive down prices on anything.
 
Yes and blackberry 10 products are nothing like the older devices.

If you continue to hold onto the past you will never see the future!
 
Back
Top