BlackBerry to launch QWERTY phablet Passport in September

NEW DELHI: It was an eventful day for BlackBerry with the company reporting better than expected results and dropping the curtains off its upcoming devices. During the company's quarterly earnings call, BlackBerry CEO John Chen informed media and analysts that the much rumoured 'Windermere' QWERTY device will be called BlackBerry Passport. The name is inline with its passport-like dimensions.The width of the device, however, is said to be more than that of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3.
The phone will be unveiled in September at a launch event in London, Chen said. Passport will sport a 4.5-inch square display with a 1440x1440p resolution. It looks a little odd as the display is accompanied by a short and wide QWERTY keyboard.
The Passport will come in two colour, namely black and white, and will come with a number of accessories. The device is rumoured to come with 3GB RAM, 13MP rear camera and a 3450mAh battery.
After the event, Chen even showed off the device to select media.

The Passport is among the three devices which Foxconn is producing for BlackBerry, the other two being BlackBerry Z3 and BlackBerry Classic. BlackBerry Classic or Q20 is slated for a November release. The Classic is a QWERTY device that also features Menu', 'Back', 'Send' and 'End' buttons and trackpad unlike the previously released BlackBerry 10 QWERTY devices. It comes with a 3.5-inch touchscreen.
The Z3, on the other hand, is a budget segment, full touch device, which is coming to India next week. BlackBerry Z3 sports a 5-inch qHD(540x960p) display. It is powered by a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8230) dual-core processor and 1.5GB RAM. The phone runs BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1, the latest iteration of the OS.
The phone sports a 5MP rear camera and a 1.1MP front-facing camera. The smartphone comes with 8GB storage and a microSD card slot that supports cards up to 32GB. It has a 2500mAh battery, which the company claims, offers up to 15.5 hours talk time and up to 16.2 days of standby time. In terms of connectivity options, the phone offers Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, and GPS.