BlackBerry Passport 32 GB SIM-Free Smartphone - Black

Intriguing to BlackBerry fans, ridiculous to Apple fans, the Passport is basically just a big Q10/Blackberry Classic which gets round the essential design limitation of those two phones - i.e. the small screen - by having a BIG screen. There are some other major enhancements though: the main ones being an increased 32GB onboard storage expandable by a further 128GB, a 13MP camera and the ability to use the keyboard as a quasi-touchpad allowing fast scrolling through documents and avoiding accidentally selecting something on the screen. THE OPERATING SYSTEM: The revised BlackBerry 10.3 operating system has, partially, addressed the well known issue of lack of apps by allowing access to Amazon Appstore. Significantly this allows access to Spotify which was lacking from earlier versions of BB10. There are however still some noteable omissions - e.g. Instagram, and the Passport, whilst not lacking in functionality in any way, remains a phone for the individualist rather than the crowd-follower. DESIGN/BUILD QUALITY: Two words - top end. The size may be a little unwieldy for some - it really depends on what you want from your personal communications device. I was looking for something with the versatility of a laptop but the instant accessibility of a phone or tablet (as I did not actually want to buy a tablet) and that is exactly what I got. Existing tablet owners therefore may be happy with a smaller, more ergonomic phone. It's a matter of personal choice. The Passport still fits comfortably in the inside pocket of a jacket or the front pocket of a pair of Levi 511s - though you might want to take it out before taking part in any athletic activity . Its square-ish edges and slightly increased weight (though it's not a heavy machine for what it does) might, time will tell, lead to some wear and tear on pockets - particularly suit pockets. Surprisingly the headphones have not been upgraded from the Q10 - which is fine as they are perfectly serviceable though it might have been nice to see an updated version. Also the volume buttons are a little small and less substantial than my old Q10. The onboard sound on recent BlackBerries is very good and this one is even better, with stereo speakers positioned at the bottom of he unit. The observant will note that the Passport does not have an HDMI connector - don't worry though, the phone is still HDMI enabled but you will just need to buy one of these if you want to use this feature: Official Slimport to HDMI adapter for Amazon Fire, Blackberry Passport, Nexus 5, LG G3, and more - Connect your Slimport phone or tablet to an HDMI TV, monitor, or projector [SP1004 ]. FUNCTIONALITY/PHONE/EMAIL/TEXTING: Blackberry have continually improved the BB10 Operating System and many of the niggles of the earlier iterations have been sorted out. The function to "flick" the predictive text suggestions on to the screen is a good idea but one that take some getting used to. The numeric keys and symbols appear as and when required on screen, though I find the additional symbols display can sometimes be slightly tricky to get rid of when I'm finished with it. Not a major difficulty, since all that does is reduce the size of the viewing screen, just an annoyance. The BlackBerry Hub remains a central feature of the BB10 operating system and is not much different from other BB10 phones and works well. The larger screen makes the phone itself easier to use and to select quickly options like speakerphone when required. WARNING: be careful when placing the Passport down on a coffee table as it could easily be mistaken for a beer mat! CAMERA/VIDEO: Having been very impressed by the 8MP camera on the Q10 I was excited about using the 13MP one on the Passport and it IS an improvement though perhaps not quite as big as I was expecting. Whilst I haven't done technical comparison of the lenses, I'm pretty certain the lense on the Passport is not as much of a wide angle lens as the Q10 - which I personally prefer. The selfie camera remains at 2MP - this lack of improvement could be considered either good or bad by the vain! ACCOMPANYING SOFTWARE: I quite like the accompanying BlackBerry Link software (used for syncing and backing up the content of your phone with your computer) but I do find it to be a little slow and I do hope it gets an update soon. In particular data transfer from your old BlackBerry to the new one isn't great because Link currently overlooks the fact that someone might be upgrading from one BB10 device to another (as I was). The transfer is still fairly easily do-able, if time-consuming, and will depend on how much data you have on your old unit - just be sure to backup before getting underway. The newest version of BB10 also features Blackberry Blend which allows you to use some of the features on the phone, such as texting and the calendar, from your computer if both are on the same WiFi network. This is a nice feature as you can send and receive texts whilst working and without having to dig out your phone. THE CONTRACT: For those not buying the phone outright, the contract on Amazon is as cheap on O2 as you will find anywhere (at time of writing), undercutting Carphone Warehouse. I went for the cheapest option of £23.50 per month - which by my calculation, factoring out the price of the phone, works out at £7.50 per month for the actual contract - which is not bad and in effect a cheaper option than buying outright. If a new SIM is required Amazon will supply this as well (mine came with an O2 nano SIM) automatically, so that you are good to go out of the box on delivery. IN SUMMARY - This is a great phone for work and play. The storage capacity is awesome making it brilliant for music fans such as me (and the music player is good too, plus you can now add Spotify). Some might query why so much storage is required, but anyone who regularly travels around the UK (never mind elsewhere) will know that we don't yet have sufficient 4G or Wi-Fi coverage to be able to place reliance on the cloud. For me, this is the best mobile phone currently on the market - though I am biased towards BlackBerry. I would recommend demoing one in shop before purchase, to check you're happy with the size. If you're not, but you're still a BB fan after a bigger screen, then try the new, cheaper, BlackBerry Leap SIM-Free Smartphone - Shadow Grey which is all touchscreen and has a decent spec though sadly not one to match the Passport, which for now remains the flagship model.

Having had a Q10 for several years, and prior to that a classic Blackberry, the move to a Passport was natural, and I was not disappointed. Especially at £365 (Feb' 2015.) In the interim I had taken a spin with an iPhone 6 and absolutely hated the way it dragged the user constantly towards Apple branded cloud and iTunes online services (in a similar way to some android devices incessantly pointing users at Google services). That much is said because the Passport does not behave that way. Blackberry don't constantly send end users to their own online portal, which is a good thing. Bad points? Blackberry have a bug in the OS 10.3x operating system, which will be fixed, but is causing some screen flickering - a slight annoyance - it's a known bug and the developers are working on an update to solve matters (look on Crackberry for affirmation). In every other respect this is a fine piece of kit and it performs flawlessly and for the most part, it's intuitive. It's a pity we can't have the AT&T version, which has the rounded corners, but that said it's purely an aesthetic change. From late 2014, just like the iPhone 6, this device won't run Flash (due to security fears surrounding that platform) so there are some webpages which don't work as intended because those elements won't run. Solid and flawless design of this phone gives the impression its far better engineered that Samsung and Apple offerings which flex and creak in the hand, this phone feels right and has just the right weight. Battery life estimations and claims, thirty hours? I didn't find it too hard to deplete the battery in less than half that time, but I did have multiple app's and setup screens open whilst initially playing with it. After a day or two when I'd fine tuned all the settings to suit me the autonomy increased considerably and it seemed much more willing to go the distance - and in any event it's battery is bigger that those of its competitors. Value for money, it's great. App's now available from the home screen Blackberry World and Amazon Store icons. Not all of them like the square 1440 x 1440 screen resolution though. None of the minor drawbacks outweigh the fact this is a brilliant bit of kit. Buy one. PS... The screen flickering bug in the release OS of 10.3x can become very annoying indeed, to the point where it ruined the functionality of some app's. Blackberry haven't publicly released a fix/upgrade yet. None the less you can overcome it by loading OS v10.3.1.2558 (which is going to be available OTA shortly). An autoloader for a Windows PC (works through USB cable connected to a mainboard USB outlet, not a hub) is available from this link:- http://www.filefactory.com/file/158csszcjjtf/ PPS... As a result of the comments made on my review, about Flash, I've added this - even if the comments were somewhat farcical. The reason it's been abandoned is because it's deemed a security risk by Adobe, who are no longer developing or updating the application as a result. In other words there is clearly a caveat about using it on your Passport, especially in the native browser. For those who absolutely 'must have' Flash working in their browser there are two options. One is to download an Android Browser from the Google App's Store that still has native Flash support. The second is to follow the instructions on the following link, which shows how you can re-enable it in the native Blackberry Browser. Link:- http://www.filearchivehaven.com/data/YeahSo/

I like the product very good and nice. Except that it seems Blackberry passport OS lets it down due to the lack of apps. For e.g Facebook is not an app, but rather browser based on the BB Passport.

This is a superior quality device that fulfils its purpose perfectly for me. The build quality is excellent and very evident just looking at it. The screen resolution is amazing, I like to fit as much text as possible on the screen and you can make the font microscopic and still read it perfectly (eyesight permitting!) The little refinements to BB10 are nice additions also. At first glance you do think it is pretty wide, bit after a 2 days I couldn’t believe how I managed to get anything done on my old ‘narrow’ phone. Of course it isn’t quite as portable, but the benefits of the wider screen are well worth that sacrifice, you wouldn’t be buying it if you didn’t feel that. For messaging, internet browsing, emailing and document viewing it is fantastic. The Blackberry Blend feature is better than I expected. I use it with a MacBook Air and you get pop-up notifications, but you can also have a full screen interface to control email, sms messages and BBM on your phone. Those coming straight from a 4-row keyboard might require a bit of readjustment to the 3-row layout, but I came from a Z10 & I found no problem using the bottom of the screen for punctuation etc. A feature that I really missed on the Z10 was the precision that a track pad gave for cursor position, and this is addressed pretty well with the touch sensitive keyboard feature. Overall I like the keyboard, would be nice if the space bar could have been wider, but evidently there is no room to do this. The selection of apps is decent enough for me, I have downloaded some from Amazon and they work fine. Those designed for different screen ratio may not be optimum on the square screen though. Some of the so-called ‘professional’ reviews are either brainwashed or biased. It seems that some people will just not accept that a smartphone these days can have a keyboard on it. If you don’t like the form factor that’s fine, it isn’t for everyone. Those who spend all day on Candy Crush, Instagram and Facebook won’t be buying this anyway, but those who need a phone primarily to get work done (without peppering it with the ubiquitous touch-screen spelling mistakes) but also use the phone recreationally, this for me is the perfect combination. I admit I was a fan of BlackBerry in the first place, but I paid £500 of my own money for this device so my opinions are more objective and my expectations high. I wasn’t disappointed and credit to BlackBerry for creating something different.

I think blackberry passport is a very good device however I feel it could have been made better by having a good browser experience and more apps. With regards to the browser, it has trouble with loading some websites and it is not responsive to double taps on link's. And also app selection is an improvement on before but it does not have as many app as other mobile phone. Saying all that it has an excellent smart keyboard and the screen real estate is perfect for me to view the full website. If you are looking to buy this item and you have had either an android phone or iPhone in the past, then you may be disappointed. But if like me, you have had a BB in the past than this is an excellent phone to buy. [when I first started to play around with the device, I had a love hate relationship with the phone but I grew to like it - just need some time to get use to it]

Simply the best phone in the market, if you are like me, a keyboard addict. I hate touch screens so I looked for a phone that has a keyboard. Apparently not everyone is interested in them for some reason but well, I can type much accurate and faster with its keyboard. Do not be put off by BB10 OS, I had never used BB before but I got this phone and I easily started side loading android applications. Their website is very helpful. They have the best way to load android applications. Some applications may not work well but following applications work perfectly. Whatsapp (in BB World) Teamviewer (in BB World) Facebook (in BB World, notifications come to the hub, very useful for FB addicts, I guess) Google maps (side loaded G Play Market) Viber (side loaded, older version only) Trillian (side loaded G Play) Steam (Side lodeaded G Play) Skype (older version in BB World and you can even use the last version through android market) Clash of clans (side loaded G play, HOWEVER, you cannot log in to google play so you cannot play with your town loaded on your account, you have to start from scratch) As you can see most applications work fine. There is also something called Blackberry Blend, which is a PC software that works like outlook. It, as you may guess already, synchronises your emails, calendar etc, all details on your phone. It also lets you use your phone from distance. It is protected by 2 passwords and it is very convenient. I stopped using outlook as it works so fine and has a nice and organised interface. You can even send SMS via Blend. Finally just a small note BB Passport has a processor that is actually BETTER than PRIV. Though BB Passport has a limited compatibility with android, for business use or even for most games, it works completely fine. It is very fast and smooth and it makes the life easier with its keyboard. You can easily write very professional emails by your phone without being bullied by the autocorrect!

Having had innumerable iPhones, I could no longer stand that iPhone telephone call that goes "hello, hello. hello, hello.... I will call you back". I made the big jump and bought the Blackberry Passport on the advice of a friend. The phone calls are great. It never drops a call. And the battery life really is 1.5 days. And they have a great app which collects together all of your communications into a single place, whether they be by phone, email, whatsapp, sms, Facebook, linkedin, everything - it's excellent. But that's all the good stuff. The form factor of the phone is rubbish - it doesn't fit into any pocket properly so I was constantly fighting with my jacket and I had to buy bluetooth headphones because wired ones were a pain. And there is zero advantage in the wider screen when it comes to real usage IMO, at least I didn't find any in the 3 month I had the phone. There are just no apps for this phone, and the ones that do exist are not very good. And I found that syncing calendar and contacts with iCloud worked most of the time but not all. Running android apps is really terrible; it takes 30+ seconds to load the kindle app, when it loads. And Android apps that need to access the GPS, like maps, don't work. Frankly the whole app experience is very poor. Blackberry people love Blackberry and they will do and say almost anything to get you to come into their miserable place. But really, this device is not nearly good enough when compared to what else is available on the market. If this is Blackberry's big move to win back support, then they are dead men walking! In the end I took the hit and sold the phone at £100 loss, went to the Apple store, and bought a 6s. You will do the same, just save yourself the grief of setting up and learning a new phone, and save the £100. Just go straight for the 6s.

Blackberry is cool and completely relevant again with this phone but that is not the main reason to buy one! 1. General. The Passport is a stunning communication device that is elegantly designed and very well built. For some people, it could quite credibly render your tablet and even your home PC obsolete because it is so efficient and practical; an all-in-one computer in your pocket. 2. Design - Once you quickly get over the unusual size and square aspect ratio of the screen (genius idea), you will likely find it the most productive phone you have ever used. It's actually very thin and not that wide in my small hands; fine for one-handed normal phone use and for scrolling documents, internet pages or photographs, but it does definitely require two hands for any typing tasks. It will certainly fit into your pocket or purse and it is ONLY heavy if, like some media, you insist on comparing it to other fashionably thin but weaker phones which have a small, short-lived battery. This thing is built with a beautiful sturdy steel frame, a massive 3450mA battery and bullet-proof Gorilla glass 3. 3. Phone Features (the most important features) - This is a brilliant phone and communication device with excellent call quality (both ends), strong antenna reception and awesome battery life to get you easily through 1-2 days, without worrying. This is built for secure emailing and does social media equally well. There is no more paying extra for BlackBerry services either (used to be about £5 per month) as that stopped with the introduction of BB 10 last year. 4. Fun Factor - The Passport is actually a lot of fun to use too and you will not get bored with its features or the brilliant gesture based OS. It's so easy to manage and navigate around your apps and the hub is a completely unique and joyous experience for managing all of your emails, social media messages and notifications. It does genuine multi-tasking brilliantly and better than any other phone with it's QNX based processor that has powered NASA computers and Mercedes Formula One race cars, so there is no messing around with loading or fluidity of BlackBerry Apps. 5. Entertainment - As a multi-media device it excels, with its rich sounding stereo speakers, great connectivity (DNLA, HDMI Slimport, Bluetooth, NFC, Miracast) and vibrant screen are best in class. If you must watch movies or youtube videos on your phone and are fussy about the black bars top and bottom, there is a third party youtube app that lets you resize movie images to better fit the screen (not square though). Netflix also allows you to zoom in to a 4:3 ratio format which is a great compromise but you will still get black bars. The Passport's screen is actually wide enough to deliver a perfectly useable movie image (same size viewable image as the iPhone 4/4S in widescreen format) for any hand held device, without having to twist profiles each time because it is square (again genius). Gaming is brilliant with the fast processor and there are many good free games on the Blackberry App store alone but google clearly offer the best and they mostly work brilliantly. It makes a great Kindle, magazine and newspaper reader too. 6. Apps - Blackberry World is very well furnished with quality exclusive apps and many cross-platform offerings (or very good third party apps). Amazon App store is also pre-installed and they give you a free app every day. You can now also very quickly install Google Play Store by searching youtube or just copy and paste this link into your browser: http://forums.crackberry.com/android-apps-amazon-store-apk-files-f413/google-play-store-blackberry-10-read-first-post-instructions-985344/ I now have 3 app stores to choose from. You will likely find everything you need but, because of the square screen, some apps may not be perfectly rendered, although you'll be surprised how many work brilliant or at least fine. When you swipe down in any google app, you can select the format to optimise the running of the app by changing how it is viewed. I have not had any problems with Instagram, Viber, Flipboard, Spotify, Netflix and many more. You may also find that third party apps from the BlackBerry World are better optimised for the PP e.g Igrann, an Instagram client, I find just works better for the square screen than Android's native Instagram that I downloaded from Google. Instagram in general is perfect on this square screen and is enhanced by the Passport's very high resolution (453 pixels per inch(PPI)) which far out-performs the iPhone 6 and 6 plus (both 326 PPI). Images are genuinely stunning on Instagram and for any picture/photograph based apps! 7. Camera Features - The camera takes great photos, even for a high-end smart phone, although occasionally a little slow to focus but it has the best and simplest panorama feature i have seen on any phone (even from Sony) and I recently brilliantly captured the whole of Stonehenge from inside the circle during the Winter Solstice. You can also shoot by pressing the space bar or one of the volume keys which makes taking pictures with an extended arm much easier (for selfies or awkward, high angles). There are lots of options and features that let you get creative before easily sharing to social media or email. The pre-installed Story Maker app is very useful; a lot of fun and is simple to use. You can easily add photos, music and edit/add video clips to really make a fantastic family memory within minutes and then save them as an Mp4 before sharing them quickly to other platforms or apps. 8. Accessories - There are now many more accessories for the Passport and Amazon sells the lion's share of them. Initially, I would advise you to get the BlackBerry standard hard shell case as it is cheap, compliments the design of the handset, is very lightweight, fits really well and comes with a screen protector. To add a touch of style and luxury, Stilgut make a beautiful leather stitched case which although pricey (on amazon) is much better in quality and at protecting your PP than Blackberry's own leather cases. Update Feb 15: There is now a new Blackberry Leather Shell Flex case which offers a perfect compromise. BlackBerry Passport Leather Flex Shell Cover Case for Smartphone - Black 9. BB OS 10.3. - For those new to BlackBerry 10, please persevere with it and you won't want to touch another OS again for a while as it is very intuitive, slick and excellent for multi-tasking. The email 'triage' in the hub is now far better with OS 10.3 and overall it is much more mature and polished experience. The new Blend feature securely and wirelessly expands the functionality of the handset to other platforms on your wifi network; a genius idea for those of us who still do regularly need a computer or tablet and can now communicate or transfer documents through the Passport. Update Jul 15 - The latest 10.3.2 allows you to open apps, features, contacts etc just by unlocking the screen and pressing a single key e.g. when I press and hold F, it opens Facebook or T for Twitter etc. You can customize this to suit your needs but some functions are fixed such as E for E-mail opens your email accounts and lets you draft one very quickly. Great feature for those on the go. Watch this video for more brilliant tips: (Note: Please take this video with the light-hearted nature that was intended. Watch it all the way through and It may well sway your opinion on this excellent phone). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_vzNxgjDh0 10. Key Features - It has a genius physical keyboard and fantastic square screen which merge seamlessly with OS 10.3 that have taken Blackberry to another level and nothing else at all on the market compares to the Passport because it is so unique. I defy you to hate it, although not everyone will love it. If you want gaming and video playback par excellence then forget it, but if you want them features AND productivity in one package or a solid and secure business phone then this is the one. 11. Price - Update Aug 15 - At approx £350 this phone is now a bargain when you consider what it does and what it actually replaces (tablets and/or PC) It might still seem expensive but this is the only time you should directly compare it with it's flagship phone peers (Iphone 6, Sony Z3, Samsung Galaxy Note 4 etc) and you will see what excellent value it really is. Please feel free to fire me any questions if you are sitting on the fence. Charlie