Yeah, I know I’m nuts when it comes to smartphones but my smartphone obsession is how I landed this gig (it’s a great story that I will divulge one day) and why I’ve been here 16 years. One thing I like to do with an older phone that I never owned (and even those I did) is go to YouTube and replay the ads, reviews, and other videos about these devices. One phone that has really caught my eye…again…is the BlackBerry Passport.
The BlackBerry Passport has become a cult phone
What made the Passport so unique was the 4.5-inch display with a square 1440 x 1440 resolution screen. The Passport featured a hybrid physical/virtual keyboard that relied on virtual rows on the touchscreen to type lower-case letters, numbers, and punctuation. If you check out ads run at the time by BlackBerry, you’ll see that the company used the phrase “Work Wide” to promote the phone.
These ads would show the advantages of using a phone with a wider display. For example, one commercial showed a doctor able to see more of a patient’s X-ray on the Passport than another doctor looking at the same X-ray using an iPhone. The gist of the ad was that the ‘Berry wielding physician, being able to see a complete imaging at one time, could diagnose the patient quicker and more accurately.
The goal is to keep the old BlackBerry look and feel but with internal components brought up to date. For example, the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8960 application processor will be replaced with a MediaTek Helio99 AP. The 2GB of LPDDR2 RAM will be swapped out for 12GB of LPDDR4X RAM. The 32GB of internal storage is getting pushed up to 256GB of UFS 2.x storage. The phone will sport a 50MP rear-camera and an 8MP front-facing snapper. All global 4G LTE band will be supported.
Other models to get revised could include the Passport and the KEYone
The Zinwa Q25 will ship in August. The exciting news is that the company plans to offer similar upgrades to the BlackBerry KEYone and the Passport.
