BlackBerry Passport Review: The QWERTY Challenger

Many, many articles have been written about BlackBerry's fall from
grace; about how it completely failed to read and respond to a
changing market, and the sequence of poor judgment calls that
transformed its product line from a dominant cultural force into a
vaguely unpleasant memory. This is a company that managed to
alienate its core user base, eliminate the feature they loved most, and
not understand for years what it had been doing wrong. The post-
decline BlackBerry product line has had more misses than hits and
the appeal of the platform has all but evaporated.
And still, the company isn't dead. Still, there are people who cling to
their old phones or cry that the ones they've had to move to just don't
feel right. Still, there are people who desperately want the company to
release a phone that feels and functions just like a classic QWERTY
BlackBerry and will race to buy it as soon as that happens.

The Passport is not that phone. It's something entirely new; it might
make some of those loyal customers very happy while disappointing
others, but it also might appeal to those who never thought they'd
consider a BlackBerry again. It's a brave, imaginative device that
rethinks what a smartphone should be and how it should work.
Coming from a company that has spent many years in a mad blind
dash to keep up with its competition, this product represents a
massive change of direction.
This is BlackBerry in attack mode; finding things that its competitors
cannot or will not do, leveraging its strengths in hardware and
software, and exploiting the shortcomings of the homogenous
rectangles that all smartphones have come to be. This is the company
deliberately upsetting the status quo and giving buyers something
different and potentially better to consider.

Look and feel
Customers clearly want large screens, and up until now that has
meant disposing of everything but the screen - keyboards, control
buttons, and most importantly, comfort. Rectangular screens have
become the de facto standard, and although they're good for movies
and many forms of games, they aren't the most natural shape for
many other things. Sensing an opportunity to improve productivity,
BlackBerry has gone with a perfectly square 1:1 screen, with room
beneath it for a three-line keyboard.
This makes the phone wide and squat; only slightly wider and taller
than an actual passport. It will fit in a jacket pocket but will look and
feel awkward in a trouser pocket. It's awkward to hold and carry, but
not more so than any of today's popular phablets. You might love it
or hate it, and either way, it will take a while to become accustomed
to.
Beyond its initial impression, the Passport feels fantastic. Its
construction and material quality are top-notch. The phone is built
around an exposed metal frame and is quite hefty, but you know just
by looking at it that it's a very premium device. The front face is all
shiny glass, and the keyboard has BlackBerry's trademark silver "frets"
between each row. The rear is a soft-touch plastic and is curved just
right to mask this phone's thickness.