Design, size, haptics
When you open the package and looks for the first time on the Passport you can already get a small shock. It is very powerful and large. Taking it in the hand continues this impression. It has a very pleasant, very heavy and one is hardly accustomed to keep a device of these dimensions in the hands. Admittedly, I have a couple of days needed until I had completely used to it. However, after this period of acclimatization the Passport is safe in the hand (or hands). Also notice that the unit will not "so impractically large" is. It fits in every pocket, whether Jacket, shirt or jeans (though pockets certainly not optimal for this are).
The device has a very high and noble. The metal frame is very rigid and is in a nice contrast to the rest of the black design and the glazed front. The back is slightly rubberized and ensures a good grip. All keys are very well made. There is no rattle or wobble and the pressure points are crisp and give good feedback. The gap dimensions vote anywhere. Here really attention has been paid to detail.
Consistently one always has to keep the feeling something in his hands, that's really dibasic. And prying eyes are each Passport owner guaranteed!
Display, operation, battery
The most striking on this unit is of course the screen. It has a diagonal of 4.5 inches (11,43cm) in the ratio 1: 1 and a resolution of 1440x1440 pixels mighty. With the naked eye no individual pixels can be recognized, edges are smooth and sharp fonts. The unusual for mobile phones width of the display makes reading a lot more comfortable, because you have to jump through the eyes to the next line considerably rarer. Overall, it is just much more present in this format, as on smartphones in the 16: 9 format.
The brightness of the display I would describe as very good, the color representation also. Although I am not an expert but in this subject area.
The Passport is best served with two hands. Easily navigate through and in apps, view images, music tracks etc change works very well even with only one hand, but once you want to type something, the Second Hand. Here we were already at a highlight of Passport: The keyboard. BlackBerry is unrivaled in keyboards on mobile phones. They have proved again this time. As a new feature this hardware keyboard is touch-sensitive. This means that even wiping gestures are detected on the keyboard. If you want to, for example, delete a word, you can sweep your finger from right to left. Also you can use the keyboard to scroll through documents or websites.
The combination of hardware and Touch Keyboard is very well done. All letters, the Spacebar, Enter button and the Back button are physically. Special characters, umlauts and numbers are required appears on the display when. This required safe with me most of acclimatization, but does now fluently.
The operating system BlackBerry OS10.3.1 heard in my eyes the most advanced to date. It can be very intuitive to use with gestures and offers many powerful features, such as about the "BlackBerry Hub", the central collection point for all alerts, emails, SMS, calls, Whatsapp etc. In addition to the native BlackBerry apps can also Android apps run , These can be, among other things through the preinstalled Amazon App Store or any other desired source installieren.Einzig apps that are strongly linked to the Google Service Dependencies, can not be installed without difficulty. For technically minded there is in the relevant forums to use workarounds to many of these apps.
The battery lasts two days with me always. I hear on the way to work on music Spotify, write a lot of news about Whatsapp, BBM, SMS, and follow on Twitter to current events. In the evening I also streame like to a series or a movie about Amazon Prime or Zattoo and the battery simply does not limp.
Criticism:
As an honest evaluation and criticism heard, I would like to express this now.
- The autofocus of the camera is relatively slow. Here BlackBerry may like to make improvements
- To connect the Passport to a non Miracast / WiFi Direct-enabled TV or projector, an SlimPort adapter is required. A separate Micro HDMI output as in the Z10 / Q10 / Z30 does not exist unfortunately.
- The BlackBerry Assistant (quasi Siri for BlackBerry) does have a very good speech-to-text recognition, is in German but not quite as extensive in features like its competitors (or the English language edition). The basic functions such as opening apps, although the active dictation / reading of messages, calls and set appointments work very well, but little gimmicks are still missing. Thus, for example, no direct answer to the question of how the final game of the favorite team has gone. But that is bleating at a high level.
Conclusion:
The BlackBerry Passport is a device that one never lets you down. Perfect for those who "want to have done things" Search and away from the pabulum for innovative ideas. The outstanding keyboard in conjunction with the excellent display are unbeatable in the mobile space and who has come again to enjoy, will find it very difficult to get used again to any other device.
