BlackBerry Passport Latest News: That design is the device's biggest talking point, as it is both the Passport's biggest strength and biggest weakness

BlackBerry Passport Latest News: That design is the device's biggest talking point, as it is both the Passport's biggest strength and biggest weakness

Blackberry launched its latest smartphone called Passport, after hearing this many people responded saying "Is BlackBerry even still around? "It's a fair question. Not long ago, BlackBerry and Nokia were the only brands that mattered when it came to mobile phones. Now both are fighting to stay relevant in the increasingly brutal smartphone game.

BlackBerry's previous attempt saw them try to fight head on with Apple and Samsung to land devices in the hand of the general consumer. While their devices weren't that bad, they still didn't offer enough for users to jump back to BlackBerry. The Canadian company's latest effort, the Passport is taking the company back to its roots and focusing squarely at business users, or who BlackBerry calls "Power Pros". The BlackBerry Passport, which has been launched in India just days after it was revealed for the world, is the most unique phone we have seen in recent times. Priced at Rs. 49,990, it has a large, square touchscreen, as a well as a full QWERTY very BlackBerry-like keypad. However, the innovation is not in the shape or form factor, but in making the keypad more functional that in any other device. While you can type like in any BlackBerry phone, the keypad here is also touch sensitive and can be used to move the cursor around or flick suggested words like with all-touch BB 10 smartphones. The keypad is so good you will not need to touch the extra large 4.5-inch square touch display.

There's a reason the phone itself is called the Passport, and that is of course, because it was designed to be the same dimensions as an international passport. That design is the devices biggest talking point, particularly the square display. It's also both the Passport's biggest strength and biggest weakness.

Firstly, the screen is incredibly sharp with text and images displaying much clearer than any BlackBerry before it. The width of the screen makes it exceptional for browsing the web and reading emails, with more text able to fit on each line meaning you don't have to scroll as often. It is a genuine beast for anyone who spends a lot of their time on their phone reading. But, despite all of that, the width of the screen makes the device uncomfortable to hold with one hand and because of the square shaped screen, videos always have black bars on the top and bottom.

Passport will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 with 2.2GHz Quad-Core CPUs (MSM8974-AA) processor with 3GB RAM. It will have 32 GB flash memory, expandable up to 128 GB. The USB port allows charging and data synchronization. The 13 megapixel auto-focus camera comes with Optical image stabilization LED flash and 5x digital zoom. The front camera is 2MP.

The app situation has also been improved on the Blackberry Passport Burning the Amazon App Store could be seen in the new OS and giving them access to 2,00,000 top Android apps. Battery life on the other hand is phenomenal, easily lasting a day of very heavy usage between 6:30 in the morning to when I go to sleep at 10 o'clock at night, often with about 30% remaining

The phone will initially be available only on Amazon.in and BlackBerry stores. Those buying the phone on Amazon before October 10 will get gift vouchers worth Rs 5,000 and Jet Mileage for the same amount. Pre-booking has started.