BlackBerry has launched their latest smartphone targetted for the enterprise customers which is dubbed as BlackBerry Passport, at an event in New Delhi. The BlackBerry Passport features a large square touch screen and new QWERTY touch-enabled keyboard. This smartphone is ideal for doctors for viewing x-rays, medical reports in one go, architects, chartered accountants and other business professionals.
BlackBerry Passport is priced at Rs. 49,990 and would be available from 10th October. This smartphone is now open for pre-booking at Amazon.in and at all BlackBerry Exclusive Stores from today onwards till October 10, 2014. Customers pre-booking their BlackBerry Passport on Amazon.in would receive a gift card worth Rs. 5000/ which can be redeemed for future purchases on Amazon.in. Additionally, frequent fliers with Jet airways would also receive 5000 complimentary miles to their existing JP account.
The BlackBerry Passport is inspired by the size of actual passports, which symbolises mobility and the modern business professionals also reflect the same character. The size and form factor of BlackBerry Passport is such that it is not only portable but can be easily carried in the pockets. It is made of forged stainless steel and the display screen comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 for the added strength.
The BlackBerry Passport features a 4.5-inch 1440×1440 pixel resolution (453 dpi) IPS LCD display with the three-row hardware keyboard with capacitive touch sensitivity. You can scroll web pages, flick to type or slide along the keys to move the cursor, leaving the full screen space for viewing. In other words, the users can type on the Passport’s keyboard to enter text, or swipe lightly across it to navigate through the phone. The company claims that BlackBerry Passport’s new QWERTY keyboard is almost four times more accurate than BlackBerry 10 virtual keyboards – the error rate is on average 74% lower.
The BlackBerry Passport is powered by a 2.2GHz quad-core Snapdragon 801 processor with Adreno 330 GPU, coupled with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage, which can be extended upto 128GB via microSD card. It is equipped with a 13-megapixel rear OIS camera with a BSI sensor and also houses a 2-megapixel front camera. This smartphone is fuelled by a massive 3450mAh battery, which is claimed to provide up to 30 hours of mixed-use life.
The dimesnions of BlackBerry Passport are 128×90.1×9.3 mm. For connectivity, it offers options of Wi-Fi a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 LE, NFC, GPS, DLNA, Glonass, GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, and 4G LTE etc.
The BlackBerry Passport runs the latest BlackBerry 10.3 operating system, which has new features such as BlackBerry Assistant, BlackBerry Blend and Amazon Appstore. It has a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar so that each user’s most commonly accessed functions are in the center of their screen.
With BlackBerry 10.3, the users of BlackBerry Passport will get access to the Amazon Appstore for Android, which will come preloaded on BlackBerry Passport. The latest Android games and apps, such as Minecraft – Pocket Edition, Candy Crush Saga, Pinterest, Temple Run 2 and Cut the Rope 2, can be accessed through Amazon Appstore.
BlackBerry Blend feature has been introduced on BlackBerry Passport, which enables you to use your smartphone onto your computer and tablet. You can get instant message notifications, read and respond to your work and personal email, BBM or text messages, and access your documents, calendar, contacts and media in real time on whatever device you are on.
BlackBerry Passport will work across desktop operating systems, including Mac OS X 10.7 +, Windows 7+ and Android tablets running Android 4.4+ via cellular, USB or Wi-Fi connections. The downloadable version of BlackBerry Blend for Macs and PCs is now available at www.BlackBerry.com/Blend, on the Apple App Store for iPad tablets, and the Google Play Store for Android tablets.
The BlackBerry Assistant is BlackBerry’s first digital assistant and can be used with voice and text commands to help users manage work and personal email, contacts, calendar and other native BlackBerry 10 applications. BlackBerry Passport also comes with powerful speakers and a quad microphone system that delivers a high-quality listening experience.
“It is a matter of immense pride to launch an industry defining product as we continue to build on our productivity portfolio. BlackBerry sets yet another benchmark with the BlackBerry Passport, that will radically transform the mobility experience of today’s power users and enable them to achieve more,” said Sunil Lalvani, Managing Director, BlackBerry India. “With its unique design and innovative features, the BlackBerry Passport is a testament to our continued focus on innovation and productivity, specifically to strengthen our enterprise segment offerings.”
