Blackberry Passport review: Dares to be square!

Over three days using the Blackberry Passport, I had a niggling thought: The radically new keyboard concept -- three rows of hardware keys, morphing seamlessly into three more rows of virtual keys -- reminded me of a very similar concept -- but what? Finally I got it! The Passport keyboard is the infinity pool of smart phones. Remember those seaside swimming pools in luxury hotels, where the pool seems to merge seamlessly with the waterline of the sea? Well they transferred the idea to the first phone where hard keys and soft keys just flow into each other.

Radical may not always be right: I had some problems getting used to the combo keyboard. But the Young and Restless, I'm guessing, will lap it up.

The other big departure with the Passport is its square 1:1 screen -- a departure from conventional wisdom which suggests we are all into a 16:9 era. A 4.5 inch square screen with a 1440x1440 pixel HD display, featuring Corning Gorilla Glass 3 gives a rugged feel to the phone. Spreadsheets, presentations and other business applications are easier to view and edit on a square screen, but the experience is not as pleasant for viewing videos simply because videos do not come in a square format!

If you have been a regular BlackBerry user, the transition time to adapt yourself to the 1:1 format for viewing emails and presentations might be slightly lesser, but if you are migrating from say an Android device, it will take some getting used to.

 Bottom line – The Passport is a daring departure to square phones, with a rugged form factor and a design which screams ‘I mean business’. Complete with good battery life and an innovative keyboard experience, this one is for the adventurous buyer, someone who questions the normal and takes on the future based on his or her own terms. Presuming of course, that one thinks the future is worth the asking price of Rs 49,990.