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BlackBerry Passport: A hybrid workhorse coming your way
âIs that a phone?â âWhoa, so huge!â âI thought it was tempeh
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'Is that a phone?' 'Whoa, so huge!' 'I thought it was tempeh.'
These were just a few of the many remarks that people in the crowd around me made as I used my brand new, square BlackBerry Passport. The latest model of the smartphone is expected to hit the local market by the end of the year, and it is fun to hear people light-heartedly comment on my gargantuan phone.
My teenage daughter teased me as to why in the world I was still going around with yet another BlackBerry when most of the manufacturer's local fans have shifted their loyalties to Android and iOS phones.
I have long been a diehard fan of BlackBerry, which first came on to the local market back in 2004 and then commanded 42 percent of the local smartphone market during its heyday until its more innovative competitors, iOS and Android, took over the reign.
My first device was a shiny black 9800 Curve my wife gave me as a birthday gift back in 2008 when BlackBerry fever in Indonesia was partly boosted by news that the then US presidential front-runner Barrack Obama, who happened to live in Jakarta as a child, was a big fan of the smartphone.
But the thing that actually hooked me about the Curve was the neat three-line softly clicking QWERTY keyboard. What was more revolutionary was its instant messaging system that liberated me from my desktop computer. It put a litany of emails in my pocket and I could reply to them from wherever I was and of course the great BBM service cost me nothing.
Now, after years of a slowdown that allowed its rivals iPhone and Samsung to lead the premium smartphone market, BlackBerry is introducing the Passport to woo back its one-time fans and to prove to the world that it isn't dying as many believe.
As a diehard BlackBerry fan, I was excited when I had the chance to attend the newest model's launch in London on Sept. 24 and to get my hands on it.
The Passport ' so named to symbolize global mobility ' is surprising enough to grab the world attention the company badly needs to boost its turnaround bid.
The Passport, which belongs to the BlackBerry 10 series, is a completely different BlackBerry, whose neat, softly clicking signature physical keyboard charmed millions like me. It is basically a hybrid phone which combines the touch-sensitive physical keyboard and virtual keyboard functions.
So why has BlackBerry been so bold as to create a bulky square model? John Chen, the company's executive chairman and CEO said, 'The BlackBerry Passport was created to drive productivity and to break through the sea of rectangular-screen, all-touch devices.'
It's so wide that you have to use both hands to operate it properly so that it won't slip out of your grip. Mind you the 11.43 cm (4.5 inch) handheld weighs 190 grams so a fall could result in serious damage.
Despite the sheer size and weird shape, it can still be held easily when making or receiving call thanks to its thin frame.
But don't let its unconventional looks deceive you. When it is idle, this work phone looks plain and lifeless, like a real passport, but once it comes to life, it is a digital battleship!
Inside the sturdy device rimmed with forged stainless steel is the latest top-of-the-line technology, such as a quad core 2.2 GHz processor, 3 gb ram, crisp 13 mp ois rear camera, 32 gb memory and a 3,450 mAh battery that can last for up to 30 hours of mixed use.
The Passport, along with the Porsche Design P'9983, is the first device armed with BlackBerry's state-of-the-art operating system platform, BlackBerry 10.3. It is preloaded with the new productivity-enhancing features, including BlackBerry Blend and BlackBerry Assistant, as well as the BlackBerry World storefront and Amazon Appstore.
It is designed for a niche market: the mobile professionals who want their work done on their smartphone and this group accounts for only 30 percent of smartphone users globally, according to BlackBerry executives.
The size is the reason this model is a great device for viewing images and reading text. The Corning Gorilla Glass 3 touch screen with a 1,440x1,440 pixel resolution is the most impressive feature. It is able to display 66 eight-point fonts per line. You don't have to rotate the display to read long sentences.
The big screen is excellent for viewing and creating content, and makes routine jobs like reading and writing emails, reviewing and editing documents, web browsing, and map navigation comfortable.
Fonts and images are incredibly crisp. The fonts can be set to 18 points, so large that even my granny would enjoy reading on the phone. On the home screen sparkle colorful app icons neatly arranged on two pages that you can view by swiping left and right effortlessly.
The touch-sensitive keyboard works well. It functions like the trackpad in the older models, performing touch functions, such as scrolling and flipping directly so that you don't have to do the swipes on the screen while viewing or editing content.
The combination of the physical and virtual keyboards makes it nothing like your traditional BlackBerry. The gestures, the swipes and the button hold-downs, need precision that is difficult to master, especially if you are not familiar with touch-screen devices.
I spent two weeks and still had to occasionally go back to the tutorial to learn to use my phone properly. Have I been losing agility? Or is it simply 'technology shock'? I wonder.
Scrolling up and scrolling down through long texts is incredibly smooth by swiping (in fact, 'flipping' would better describe this action) up and down the touch-enabled keyboard.
The physical QWERTY keyboard consists of three rows of straight, plain character buttons. I miss the traditional markings above each character, the shift, return and the home keys that made life easy with my 'traditional' BlackBerry. On the Passport the function keys have been moved to the virtual keyboard that will appear on call or automatically pop up when you are running certain apps.
The steel lining across the physical keyboard helps reduce typos. A problem is the physical keyboard is placed too far below, making the device top-heavy when you are typing. The angled keys are large but sluggish. The space key is just too short and this reduces my typing speed too.
A very useful feature to improve my typing speed and reducing typos is the predictive text.
The Passport demonstrates it remains true to its 'work phone' tag with the BlackBerry Hub feature, which enables professionals to open a whole list of new SMS, BBM, emails, notifications, WhatsApp and Facebook messages and voicemails with a single swipe to the left.
If productivity on the go is what you are after, your workhorse is on the way.
