On the earnings call that followed BlackBerry’s latest financial results announcement, CEO John Chen announced that the next device the company will launch will be the BlackBerry Passport. It is none other than the rumoured Windermere device that regularly surfaces in rumours for a while now.
Not surprisingly, Chen revealed no further information about the device beyond to add that it will get an official launch in September in London.
Past rumours have suggested that the BlackBerry Passport will come with a 4.5-inch (1440×1440/480PPI) display and a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. Its most interesting feature could be its three-row physical keyboard. It could be touch-capacitive, allowing you to not only type but also use swiping gestures across the keyboard. For example, a swipe to the left could be used as a backspace.
Other expected specifications include BlackBerry 10 (10.3 likely), 3GB of RAM, a 13MP rear camera, a 2MP front camera and a non-removeable 3,450mAh battery.
The BlackBerry Passport is the second device to drop BlackBerry’s letter naming (Q for QWERTY devices and Z for all-touch affairs) convention. The BlackBerry Classic coming in November was initially announced as the BlackBerry Q20 before its recent name change.
Update: We now have a picture of the BlackBerry Passport courtesy of Canadian Press reporter David Friend:
It certainly gives you a sense of the size of this upcoming phablet.
Sources : CrackBerry // @dj_friend