Smartphone real keyboard fans? BB Passport!

[SwissJonese]

Launch date today for the BB Passport. I've had my BB Z10 for the last 2 years and think it is brilliant for work use. Yes you don't get many apps, but who cares, I'm not a 10 year old kid and only use it for emails/calls which is does a brilliant job.

Not sure about the BB Passport as it would make it a bit big to use as a phone, but will need to see one in the flesh to decide.

[AmitG]

Agree, I'm looking forward to trying one out. Regardless of the Passport's success, I wonder if the form factor will catch on.

[RobinBanks]

ZesPak said:

Interesting, we had a couple of demo devices and they were generally hated (you have to give these things some time though).

The Z10 I had for a couple of weeks was ok, but imho in no way better than android, a lot less support and the battery was plain dreadful. As good a device as it might have been, if it doesn't last the day it's as useful as a brick.

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed with the handset itself but it took me about 5 minutes to love the OS (that was going from an iPhone on iOS 7, for reference).

If it hadn't been stolen, I would still have it now, although I thought the battery life was crap.

[FourWheelDrift]

1/2 inch wider than an iPhone 6+ and punctuation marks/characters are on the screen not the keyboard. Massive two hander phone.

Review - http://gizmodo.com/blackberry-passport-review-when...

[anonymous-user]

I have just had one delivered and I am playing around with it.

It look a bit strange that is for sure. It is almost exactly the same size as a real passport and is nicely put together.

Overall I am liking it and with the addition of the Amazon Android Appstore it has every app I use on a day to do basis

Blackberry blend looks interesting. The screen is pretty good and the large screen coupled with the physical keyboard means I can view much more of the email/message I am replying to or creating.

If I can get on with the new keyboard it looks very promising.

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 26th September 12:52

[MuffDaddy]

I've had a play with one and I have to say I like it. It's not necessarily aimed at the S5/iOS crowd and certainly won't sell in massive numbers. But for those who just need to do, this is a pretty solid piece of kit.

[FourWheelDrift]

According to the WSJ Blackberry have taken 200,000 passport orders.

[anonymous-user]

Just to update this - I have had it for a couple of weeks now and I have to say I love it.

Took a few days to reacquaint myself with BB10 and get used to the keyboard. Not to mention the strange looks.

The battery lasts a full day and in the past only a Galaxy Note has done that. The physical keyboard means the full screen is available when replying to emails - this is a massive positive for me.

Overall I am very impressed.

[cirian75]

tempted to get one, has rekindled my memories of my 8800 and Bold

Loved them phones, it was just the small displays and no netflix that stopped me coming back, now you have had yours a while

what is your long term opinion ?

[JonRB]

Hoofy said:

AmitG said:

I would love to see a smartphone with a slide-out keyboard like the old Psion series 5.

I stopped using my HTC with a slidey out keyboard about a month ago.

Mine died about a year ago, and I was really scratching my head over what to replace it with. In the end I replaced it with a Moto G as an interim measure and was surprised to find that a virtual keyboard is fairly usable. Also it weighs about half what the Desire Z does and also runs 4.4.4 KitKat. Since then I haven't really missed it that much.
Recently I traded up that Moto G to the new 2nd Gen Moto G with Dual SIM and am loving it.