Just when you might have thought BlackBerry was dead in the water.  Last week, the Canadian-based company unveiled their newest device w/ the Passport.  Sporting a unique form-factor + size, the Passport is their most powerful BlackBerry in existence w/ a quad-core Snapdragon 801 CPU + 3GB of RAM.  We attended a media event this week and got a chance to demo it out.  Enter our 1st impressions of it.  

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  • Like any BlackBerry of any year, the Passport sports a solid build.  BB made sure to maintain a high-level of quality in building this device.  It has a nice metal frame and plastic, soft-touch finish to it to give it a solid heft to it.  Definitely feels like it could take a beating - which is something many devices these can't do at all.  

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The Passport is surprisingly compelling at 1st glance.  

 
  • The design + display is in a class by itself - literally.  There is no other device like this on the market.  The 4.5inch IPS display w/ 1440 x 1440 resolution, 1:1 contrast ratio, and 453ppi.  It is super-sharp and looks beautiful from the fews sites and screens we've navigated on it.  Back to the design, it is a bit weird to use w/ one-hand as the display takes up 90% of the device.   This will have to be utilized w/ 2-hands.  

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  • The keyboard is as stellar as you'd expect from Blackberry.  Just odd that the number/character row is now missing.  They made sure to add sensors underneath the keyboard to offer mouse-like capabilities.  For example: you can scroll through websites, flick to type or slide along the keys to move the cursor - all from the keyboard.  Glad to see BB is still innovating.  
  • BlackBerry 10.3 OS brings you a few new tricks up their sleeve as well.  Offering new icons, an improved Hub for all of your communications, new Camera UI, and more.  Now a lot faster and takes full advantage of the new chipset.  

Of course, more testing is required on the Passport to get a better idea of how well a new BlackBerry works in 2014.  

Categories: Features