BlackBerry launches square-shaped smartphone Passport at Rs 49,990

BlackBerry has launched its unconventional new square-shaped smartphone dubbed the Passport in India at Rs 49,990.

The smartphone will be available for pre-order starting today at BlackBerry exclusive stores and Amazon.in. Those who book the smartphone between today and October 10 get a Rs 5000 gift voucher on Amazon.in as well as 5,000 frequent flyer miles on Jet Airways.

The device is the size and shape of a closed passport, with a large square touchscreen as well as a keyboard. It sports a 4.5-inch touchscreen (1440x1440p resolution, 453PPI) and a capacitive touch 3-row BlackBerry Keyboard, featuring contextual auto-correction, next-word prediction and a learning engine that gets to know the way users type.

Powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor (MSM8974-AA), Adreno 330 GPU (450MHz) and 3GB RAM, it comes with 32GB internal storage and a removable microSD memory card slot (support for up to 128 GB cards) located under back cover. The Passport has a 3,450mAh integrated non-removable battery and the company claims it offers backup of 30 hours of mixed use.

BlackBerry Passport sports a 13MP rear camera with optical image stabilization (OIS), 5-element f2.0 lens, Back Side Illumination, LED flash and support for 1080p HD video recording at 60fps. It also sports a 2MP fixed-focus front-facing camera that supports 720p video capture.

The Passport runs BlackBerry’s new BlackBerry 10.3 operating system and also features a Siri-like voice assistant. Passport users will be able to download apps from Amazon’s app store, previously only available for Android-based phones. BlackBerry announced the deal that cleared the way for its customers to access Amazon’s store in June.

In terms of connectivity, the phone supports 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE), GPS and NFC.