BlackBerry's newly launched Passport isn't meant to please everyone, according to CEO John Chen, and so it's not surprising the reviews of the passport-sized smartphone are aptly mixed.
The Passport boasts a 4.5-inch display that Chen says was chosen to maximize viewing of spreadsheets, schematics and the like. The more popular rectangular displays offered by rivals focus on entertainment content viewing needs, according to Chen.
The Passport's square form factor has been off-putting to some reviewers and critics have concluded its display isn't suitable for watching videos, but they do place high value on the smartphone's usability in business environments.
Re/code's Bonnie Cha writes the Passport is more difficult for her to wield than larger phablets and the device isn't a comfortable fit in pockets.
"In some ways, I almost found it more difficult to manage than other phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and iPhone 6 Plus, because it's so wide at 3.56-inches across," states Cha. "I had a hard time wrapping my hand around it. Admittedly, I have small hands, so I let a couple of my guy friends try it out, and they agreed that it was uncomfortable to hold. The phone is also not very pocket-friendly."
Yahoo Tech's David Pogue writes consumers will learn to appreciate the Passport's virtues once they get over the phone's form factor. They may even feel guilty for laughing at it, he writes.
"If BlackBerry can get its act together and finish assembling all the pieces," states Pogue, "if it can get corporate worker bees to try it ... if it can somehow get onlookers not to point and laugh ... then the Passport might have a future, although a limited one with a select audience."
That limited audience of enterprise users is exactly who BlackBerry hopes to sway with the Passport. The Passport is having to establish itself in a market crazed about new iPhones and Galaxy devices, yet it's BlackBerry's newest software that is stealing some attention away from the company's phone.
Flanking the launch of the Passport, BlackBerry released Blend, its answer to cloud sharing. Blend uses the individual's smartphone as a hub to sync content between the user's other devices, all without the risk of sending data through a cloud server.
"This could bring considerable appeal to enterprise users who use different platforms on multiple devices, yet want to quickly access email, text, calendar, etc.," said Cormark analyst Richard Tse.
