BlackBerry Passport: The “Power Pros” Productivity Powerhouse

For several years, BlackBerry grappled with the iPhone, a battle it significantly lost. Deciding to leave the fight, the company is returning to its origins: building gadgets designed for work. The pinpointed BlackBerry user is one who doesn’t have time for trivia – no time for games, Snapchat, or any frivolity. This user is solely focused on accomplishing tasks. BlackBerry fittingly dubs these individuals as “Power Pros,” and the BlackBerry Passport is tailored explicitly for them.

BlackBerry smartphones were once a consumer favourite, but gradually these users swapped their BlackBerrys for greener pastures flush with apps. Even the firm’s traditionally robust enterprise position is being surpassed. Why lug around a BlackBerry that’s not enjoyable to use when all of your company’s data and tools are accessible on an iPhone or Android phone that’s already on hand? BlackBerry’s solution: re-emphasizing productivity.

The $249 ($599 unlocked) BlackBerry Passport is the company’s boldest creation yet. This massive, square, assertive smartphone embodies BlackBerry’s legacy. It is more at home in the boardroom than in your living room. Almost resembling a suit, it is built for efficiency. While other smartphones are often berated for inadequate productivity tools, the BlackBerry Passport has a single-minded attention to procedure. BlackBerry promises that the Passport will bring it back to the battleground, back to the boardroom, and back in the pocket of a Brooks Brothers suit. However, space for the Passport might be limited for multiple reasons.

Let’s cut to the chase: the BlackBerry Passport reminisces a colossal square drink coaster. With measurements of 5.03 inches tall, 3.55 inches wide, and 0.37 inches thick, it has an uncanny semblance to an international passport. Weighier and wider than both Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Apple iPhone 6 Plus, the Passport can feel cumbersome to use and carry around. Attempting to operate it with a single hand can be challenging, and It has dropped out of my grip more than once during the weeks I’ve been testing it.

Nevertheless, its size and weight give the Passport a sturdy feel. Its stainless steel frame and matte plastic construction are robust and practical. Even after dropping it multiple times, my review unit still looks immaculate. An iPhone or Galaxy phone breaking on impact is a productivity killer, and BlackBerry is well aware of that. The Passport does away with the need for cumbersome protective cases.

The Passport’s seemingly odd dimensions are to accommodate its square display. With a high-resolution, 4.5-inch, 1,440 x 1,440 pixel IPS LCD boasting a dense 453PPI, the screen provides high-quality viewability. It was developed with reading in mind, providing ample amounts of visible content. While it is highly suitable for reviewing spreadsheets or slide presentations, it doesn’t fare as well in performing typical smartphone activities. Scrolling through Twitter feeds requires continuous scrolling, and videos annoyingly display black bars on the top and bottom, wasting valuable screen space.

Below the screen is what truly screams BlackBerry – a bona fide physical keyboard. A rarity in today’s smartphones, the keyboard harks back to BlackBerry’s popular models. BlackBerry persists that such a resource is vital for efficient productivity on the move. But the Passport’s three-row layout falls short of the older designs. Typing with one hand is a challenge, and for some inexplicable reason, the spacebar is crammed between the third row of letters, causing a divide in the keyboard layout that confuses the thumbs. It’s hard to comprehend why BlackBerry didn’t just extend the Passport slightly longer to accommodate a fourth row of keys — a minor increase in size could have significantly improved the keyboard layout.

Despite BlackBerry’s efforts to brand the Passport as a productivity tool, its design more often hindered than helped. With its awkward dimensions and uncommon keyboard layout, I never felt at ease with the Passport in my hands, and consequently, getting work done on it was a struggle. For a Power Pro, the productivity tool should facilitate work, not obstruct it. Too often, the Passport blocked my work-flow.

The Passport runs on BlackBerry 10.3, an upgrade from earlier versions of BlackBerry 10. It looks sharper, performs more efficiently, and is overall more user-friendly. Despite its reliance on many unintuitive gestures and swiping actions, BlackBerry 10.3 is not an easy operating system to master quickly. BlackBerry 10 centers around the Hub, an excellent concept, but poorly executed. It’s frustrating when a myriad of Twitter or Facebook messages, work emails, personal emails, Foursquare alerts, text messages, and Blackberry Messages, are all crammed into one place.

BlackBerry’s take on widgets is a blend of Android’s widgets and Microsoft’s Live Tiles, but it’s not as practical as either. Moreover, the major new feature in BlackBerry 10.3 – the virtual assistant (BlackBerry’s answer to Siri, Google Now, and Windows Phone’s Cortana) – although a solid first attempt, falls short the competition.

One of BlackBerry 10’s major faults has always been its lack of third-party apps. In an attempt to address this, BlackBerry preloaded the Amazon Appstore on the Passport, providing access to a myriad of apps that were entireley unavailable to BlackBerry users before. Loading apps from the Amazon store, however, is a tedious process and not all essential apps are available, such as Instagram and Snapchat.

Despite a multitude of admirable features like great battery life and sturdy construction, the Passport hindered my productivity more often than it facilitated it. Despite BlackBerry’s claims that Power Pro users are still likely to carry two phones, even with the Passport, why bother with two devices if one can cater to all needs? That summarises BlackBerry’s struggle: the Passport, with its awkward dimensions and confusing interfaces, simply does not offer sufficient tools to get the job done. It certainly cannot replace the standard smartphone uses such as gaming and video streaming.

Although some people may appreciate a device like the Passport (Power Pros uninterested in YouTube and who don’t use Google’s services), they would have to tolerate its many shortcomings to enjoy its big screen and a hardware keyboard. The Passport encapsulates BlackBerry’s journey of the last decade and a half, but sadly, most of this is not very relevant in today’s digitised world. It appears to be the best that BlackBerry can offer, but unfortunately, it’s just not enough.

*_This article was updated in 2025 to reflect modern realities._*

[UPDATED_TB_2025]