Since the decline of Blackberry, the company has been trying to restructure and launch products to compete directly with iPhone and Android devices. The manufacturer's great hope, the Blackberry Z10, failed to win over consumers. Fortunately, the Canadian company seems to have found the right direction with the new Blackberry Passport.
The new smartphone mirrors the company's strategy and positioning for the coming years. Instead of trying to make devices similar to the ones that exist today and dominate the market, Blackberry is strengthening what it does best: focus on productivity and security. And the Blackberry Passport is nothing like what's on the market. It has a square screen and physical keyboard QWERTY.
When it was introduced, it received a lot of negative reviews and was not well received. The truth is that there is still prejudice against Blackberry devices. But it only takes a brief use of Passport to realize that it is an amazing smartphone!
A top of the line niche
Before, it is worth mentioning that the Passport will not compete directly with the Galaxy S5, iPhone 6 or any other high-end device. It is a niche product that will create its own market. Passport is designed specifically for executives looking to increase mobile productivity without having to rely on a tablet or notebook. But it's also relevant for those who produce a lot of content on-the-go, and don't have time to wait to get on a PC to write a text or email.
Elegant and smart design
The design should not please everyone, as it is very different from what there is today. Those who used Nokia smartphones will remember a lot about the E61i. The Passport is elegant and well-finished, giving it a luxury, premium feel. It rescues the time when Blackberry was a status symbol.
The beautiful high resolution square screen is perfect for viewing web pages and for editing documents, texts, spreadsheets in ppt, which is still a pain in the ass on iOS and Android. The keyboard is surprising for being very practical and innovative, as it is physical but still sensitive to the touch, which allows for very interesting interactions.
Cutting edge hardware
The Blackberry Passport impresses with its hardware too. It has a 4,5-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 1440 x 1440 (453 ppi), quad-core 2,3 GHz Snapdragon 801, 32GB of internal storage with support for microSD up to 128GB, 3GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera. The performance is excellent and the photos are very good.
Ecosystem
Even with all that, there's still a big problem with using a Blackberry. The ecosystem still has few applications, compared to Google Play and Apple App Store. Fortunately, the Blackberry 10.3 system already comes with the Amazon App Store, which injects approximately 200 Android apps into the Blackberry ecosystem. It is not enough to reach the numbers of competitors, but it is already a great advance.
Price and availability
According to the company, the Blackberry Passport arrives in Spain only in first quarter 2015. The price? If we take into account the recent launches, we can expect a reasonably high price for the best Blackberry, which can exceed the R$ 3.000 barrier.
The Passport really impresses: excellent screen, decent camera, first-class finish, innovative and an interesting proposition that is non-existent in the market. He is the best Blackberry of recent times. Even so, it should not place the company at the top of the rankings, but it may have an important impact on the positioning and perception of the brand, rescuing part of the value and prestige of the glory days.
