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BlackBerry Passport: Will this new, weirdly-shaped BlackBerry take off?

The newly unveiled BlackBerry Passport will be one of the most unusual smartphones on the market in 2014 and one of the strangest ‘Berrys’ ever.

Amidst Thursday’s finanical report from BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen, it was revealed that amidst the forthcoming lineup of BlackBerry 10-powered smartphones for 2014, one – the Blackberry Passport will come with a standout square design and a killer 1:1 display.

The BlackBerry Passport is expected to sport a 4.5-inch, 1440×1440 display, which amounts to 452 pixels per inch. This level of screen quality rivals that of the latest iPhone, although doesn’t really compare to the WQHD (2560×1440) HD smartphones being touted by LG and Samsung.

BlackBerry Passport

Underneath its square display, the charcteristic physical QWERTY keyboard may support touch-sensitivity, allowing you to trace words and easily correct mistakes without actually having to press any keys, similar to the onscreen keyboard experience offered up by candybar BlackBerrys like the Z10 and Z30.

The news that BlackBerry was working on a square smartphone shouldn’t have come as a surprise to anyone. The Canadian smartphone manufacturer has been dropping hints about it since May, when it announced the launch of the BlackBerry 10.3 SDK.

Prior to that, popular BlackBerry fan site Crackberry had published multiple leaks about a phone -codenamed Windemere –  from the embattled Canadian smartphone manufacturer bearing a square footprint. This would also be the first BBOS 10 device to drop the ‘letter, number’ naving convention we’ve seen thus far.

Although long in decline, BlackBerry has recently enjoyed a reversal of fortunes, with the company moving from the consumer market to the profitable enterprise and prosumer market, and with the latest revenue call showing a slight profit of $23 million. Also recent talk of Amazon’s Appstore making its way to BlackBerry’s mobile platform may change the odds too.

The BlackBerry Passport is expected to arrive on the market sometime in September.

Source | Via

Image source: Crackberry.com

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