BlackBerry's upcoming Passport smartphone is an oddball

[Shawn Knight]

BlackBerry CEO John Chen took the wind out of the proverbial sails of any further leaks regarding its upcoming handset codenamed Windermere. The chief on Thursday confirmed the handset’s existence and that it’ll arrive as the BlackBerry Passport in September.

Unfortunately the details stopped there so we have to rely on previous leaks. As you can see, the Passport is one of the strangest smartphones to come out of any company to date.

The squareish handset appears to have a large display and a small QWERTY keyboard. Sources claim the phone has a stainless steel band around the outer edge although we can’t verify that from the leaked image. The volume buttons are positioned on the right side, we’re told.

Rumored specs include a 1,400 x 1,400 resolution display, a quad-core Snapdragon MSM8974 processor, 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 2-megapixel front shooter and a 3,450mAh non-removable battery.

Sources also claim the keyboard could be capacitive in nature. For example, a user could swipe from right to left over the keyboard to delete words. Furthermore, when in landscape mode, the keyboard could be used to scroll while in a web browser, photo album, etc.

The specs certainly seem impressive but it’s unclear whether or not the odd form factor would be a hit with the BlackBerry faithful.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57173-blackberrys-upcoming-passport-smartphone-is-an-oddball.html

 

[psycros]

If Amazon had introduced this as the Kindle Phone the tech blog echo chamber would have been salivating over it. Think its a coincidence that their getting the full Amazon store soon? People miss the old Kindles with their physical keyboards and 3G. The only drawback is that to maximize vertical screen inches they chose a slider-style keyboard. That's not what any blackberry fan wants or expects, but at least we now have a phablet with physical QWERTY, and to my knowledge that's a first. So much for Blackberry not innovating.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It looks to be an awkward size and shape to be comfortable the hip pocket.

 

[GhostRyder]

God it looks so big, but I am glad to see blackberry bringing some fresh meat onto the lineup. Its good to see them back on the force of phones. Would love to see a review of this device!

 

[Jad Chaar]

Wow that is hideous!

 

[Arris]

1400x1400, who do they think they are with these wacky resolutions? Apple?

 

[Guest]

My next phone. NOT!!!!
I would rather use a toaster.

 

[Kezhen Gao]

Looks like it's targeted for people with fat fingers.

 

[oldikes]

Dat aspect ratio. im sure its a joy to watch videos on.
Seriously who comes UP with these things?

 

[mctommy]

Talk about having REALLY REALLY BIG black top/bottom bars when you watch video.

 

[misor]

Blackberry= very black, very bleak future.

 

[tipstir]

I'll wait for the transparent smartphones..

 

[Edward Beyer]

I don't know, it could surprise us all. Give it some time to see what the future holds.