Got the Blackberry Passport. Some observations.

Got the Blackberry Passport Monday. Here are some thoughts about it.

1. Best Blackberry ever made. The OS is very fast. 3 GB of RAM, 32 GB of internal storage. Battery is 3450 mAh but non removable.

2. Display is very good. Very crisp and clear. 1440 X 1440. You can actually see the display if outdoors in the sunlight. Very little fading.

3. Keyboard takes a few days to get used to but I am definitely typing faster than on day 2. You can also still set up the speed dial keys. Personal tick of mine. I like the ability to just press a number and the phone immediately calls someone.

4. Very good speakers. You won't listen to your music on speakers alone as they are not up to the level of say, beats by Dre, but I just listened to talk radio for an hour and the sound quality was very good.

5. The screen is 60 characters wide. I read alot of pdfs and word docs during the day. I've gotten tired of pinching and zooming and twistin' and turnin' and landscaping and portraiting. Its nice just to be able to open up a doc and read it. More natural way to read, period.

6. Pay apps. BeMaps and BeWeather are good ones to get. The Nuetron app is a music player that is really good and acts much more as an equalizer than the native one, which is decent. It goes to 11. Effectica is a nice photo editor as well. The native photo editor is decent and will serve your purposes but Effectica just takes it to another level.

Parrot and Callrecorder are good paid apps that turn your phone into a tape recorder or record your phone calls.

7. Browser is really good. One underrated item about the BB phones has been the browser. Probably the best one among smart phones. Browser is so good that sometimes you don't really need the app. You can bookmark the website to the home screen of the Passport where it appears as an app. Did this with Fandango as it has a real good mobile site. Same for my newspaper as well. And TD.

8. The Hub is still the Hub. Nice to be able to get all your Texts, emails, tweets, voice mails, Facebook messages, Whatsapp messages, and Instagram notifications all on one screen.

9. Bedside mode. I really like this feature. Setting the phone to not wake you while asleep. It can be customized.

10. You can set the LED notifications lights to different colors for different types of messages or contacts. Assign purple to Coach Miles and when you miss his text, you will know its him from the purple flashing light.

11. Apps. I got these apps from the BB store: Wall Street Journal, Slacker, NY Times, Igrann Pro (Instagram app), Skyscanner (airline app, cheaper than expedia), Evernote, Pac Man, CIA World Factbook, SMS backup, dropbox, box, Whatsapp, and of course, BBM.

11 a. Android apps. This thing can run Android apps really well. Amazon Appstore is preloaded. Apps I got and use from it: Pandora, Iheartradio, Tuneinradio Pro, Kindle, Scanner 5-0, Drudge, NPR.

11 b. You can also use "Snap" to download other android apps as well. I used it to get Netflix, Washington Post, and The Hill.

12. Blend. REally nice feature. Working on your laptop or tablet and get tired of going back and forth to your phone? Blend lets your phone connect to your laptop. You can see all of your text messages and other things on your laptop. You can respond and perform other actions as if you were on your phone. Disconnect the phone and it all disappears from your laptop.

13. If you purchase the ATT version as I did, pay the money for the screen protector and bodyglove case. Seido now makes a case as well for this version. The rep was nice and put the screen protector on for me. Did a much better and bubble free job than I could have done.

14. ATT version has wireless charging. It also goes into sleep mode when you lay it on a flat surface face down.

15. Size of the phone. Its a large phone. Literally the size of a passport. It WILL fit into your pockets. Shorts, jeans, gym shorts, dress pants, I've tried them all. It fits fine. The bodyglove cover does come with a holster. However, it is not something that is easily used with one hand while driving, which you shouldn't be doing anyway.

16. If you get phone, download the crackberry app. Great site for questions and help. Just ask question in forums and members will quickly help you. If you have the app, open home screen, swipe left, choose forums, Then select blackberry 10 Hub, then Passport. ask away. Great resource.


This is a very nice machine.