back to article Reclothed BlackBerry Passport launched as Silver Edition

BlackBerry has revamped the design of its Passport, putting its monster QWERTY phablet in a new upmarket frame. The “Silver Edition” Passport contains the same guts as the original, launched last autumn, but now sports rounded bottom corners, a tweaked keyboard and new camera housing, as well as a grippier back. The phone, …

  1. danR2
    Meh

    OK

    This is a comment that mentions 'Passport'. What more can be said?

  2. Jim84

    Capacitive Keyboard

    I have never used the Capacitive keyboard other than as a physical keyboard. I imagined that it would be used to move the cursor around in text like the 'trackpad' on the classics. But this never seems to work in any applications.

    What really surprised me is how much I like the wider screen. Yes you can turn a galaxy/iphone sideways, but then the scrolling real estate is reduced to less than that of a passport.

    But I can't see the Passport ever selling in large numbers due to it's weird size and shape. Also the rubber back is actually really good, but will initially put people off in shops.

    My layman's wish is that Blackberry would produce 4 phones each year:

    - Classic

    - Budget classic with the same screen, but everything else cheaper parts.

    - iPhone/Galaxy alike with a capacitive trackpad/nub combo home button.

    - Slightly thicker version of the iPhone/Galaxy alike with a somehow decent slide out keyboard.

    My other wishes are for a metal back that is somehow dimpled so that it is not slippery, but is still cool to the touch (the iPhone 6's are ridiculously slippery). Also for the classic and slide out to have two or more LED lights under each key, lighting up different characters on the key, allowing for a contextual keyboard.

  3. Hans 1

    The weird thing is, that BB10 is more stable than Acer android devices, when it comes to running some android apps. I have two Acer tablets, two BB10 Z30's in my household and the one game we play on all devices is the most stable on the BB10's.

    The Acer devices don't like to wake from sleep (as in, the screen goes off), on one, you have to make a swipe up movement (after you have unlocked the device) to to get the touchscreen to register your input in the game, the other needs you to restart the game after you unlock it.

    I want an upgraded z30.

  4. jzl

    Tried one once

    Could they really not bring themselves to put number keys on the keyboard?

    It's like Microsoft with their Start Menu in Windows 8 on a smaller scale.

    1. Blane Bramble

      Re: Tried one once

      The kind of Manager/Director who needs a Blackberry doesn't understand numbers. That's for Nerds.

  5. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

    O_O Why not a replacement Q10

    I am not interested in the reskinned special "Some Posh Brand" Blackberry, replace the hideously out of date models for those of us Blackberry users who are still left!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: O_O Why not a replacement Q10

      "replace the hideously out of date models for those of us Blackberry users who are still left!"

      If your company do it will probably be with another brand. Blackberry is now a disinvest platform for many businesses. Here (a FTSE 100) they recently announced we are migrating all Blackberry devices to Windows Phone.

      1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

        Re: O_O Why not a replacement Q10

        Its my own personal phone, I'm not impressed with my work Lumia.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: O_O Why not a replacement Q10

          "I'm not impressed with my work Lumia."

          Well I am - the Lumia Swype type keyboard is much faster than using a Blackberry. In fact it did at one point hold the record for the world's fastest phone keyboard...

          1. Captain Scarlet Silver badge

            Re: O_O Why not a replacement Q10

            I don't like typing on touchscreen phones, for me typing on the Q10 makes my typing more accurate therefore overall faster.

  6. Z30

    With PassPort :

    We don't need to have basketball player hands.

    We don't need a foot long pocket

    We don't need a 3rd hand for a Pen

    "Well ! Where is my pen?"

    "I lost it, once again ... Pffft !"

    We don't have to worry about folding our 900$ phone 3 time a day.

  7. Z30

    Since, Connors and Borg popularized the two-handed winning shot,

    We have seen new great champions like Djokovic, Nadal or Cilic !

    Be the new Two-handed champion with Fantastic BlackBerry PassPort.

    This Messaging Powerhouse is a Laptop Killer.

    1. mstreet

      Since, Connors and Borg

      Connors and Borg? Was not the two handed winner made most popular by one James T Kirk?

  8. Z30

    Like Lewis Hamilton holding the steering wheel of his Mercedes Silver Arrow; be the new world champion with the New PassPort Silver Edition... The Fantastic Stainless Steel Road Warrior

  9. Z30

    PassPort is Pocket Friendly Device is a Laptop Killer...

    The industrial design of the Silver Edition is a real Wow Factor !

  10. Z30

    Leap over MalwarePhone and get the Best Fantastic Smartphone...

    PassPort to Success with the Silver Edition.

    The Keyboard, is a Marvel... That's the paradox of simplicity with this Wonder...

    You see the inner beauty of this fantastic Powerfull BB10 RTOS when the screen come alive...

    A physical keyboard that has no rival...It's so great.

    This touch sensitive keyboard is fun like a PinBall Machine !

    Flick the words showing off at the bottom of the screen.

    BlackBerry is the World only manufacturer making smartphone running with a real time operating system...

    BB10 is based on QNX.

    QNX RTOS is only 35 years ahead of anyone.

    QNX's Micro kernel can deal a 1000 threads simultaneously.

    So BlackBerry don't need a V12 Ferrari engine to be fast. unlike the others, like iOS or androïd's Big kernel, which can deal only one data at a time

    1. Anthony Hegedus Silver badge

      I don't doubt that the BB10 is sophisticated, but... 35 years ahead of anyone? Really? How do you come to that figure? And the only smartphone running a real time operating system... what's a "real time OS" if it isn't the kind of OS that's installed on Android and Apple phones, and even Microsoft phones?

      Don't get me wrong, I've had a little play with the Passport and I like it. It's the right shape and size (even if it looks odd) and the UI, though unusual, was quick to learn (unlike Microsoft's windows 8 on a phone thing, which I found hard to get used to). The UI on BB10 was very responsive and seemed to be geared to actually getting things done. But the real dealbreaker for me was that I couldn't get google apps to work. I want to be able to edit google docs in real time like I can on android/ios. And the selection of apps is relatively poor. It reminded me of the older blackberries. Plenty of really obscure, badly designed and pointless apps. I know that it's supposed to run android apps. I believe google docs is an android app and it was nowhere to be found.

      I would actually buy and android version of the passport

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