News; BlackBerry Classic and BlackBerry Passport phones being released soon!

[Anonymous]

During todays BlackBerry Q1 Earnings Call, the Blackberry CEO, John Chen, announced that the long awaitied BlackBerry "Windermere" is to be released in September sporting BBOS10.3.1 and with a new name: BlackBerry Passport.

Looking at the device it is a very wide phone and to be honest looks a tad "different". However with the rumoured spec of the device and the addition of the features in BBOS10.3.1  it should be a success. It will also be able to have 8 Active Frames open and placed in the style of Windows Phone 8.

* Big 4.5" 1440x1440 display

* 13MP rear camera

* 2MP front camera

* 3450mAH non-removable battery

* 3Gb RAM

* Quad-core Snapdragon MSM8974 processor

In addition to this, it was confirmed that the BlackBerry Classic is still on track for a November release date. This takes the classic "Bold" form-factor with physical keyboard and trackpad and adds BBOS10.3.1 to what is the replacement for the Q10. No word on actual specs yet though.

Source: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-windermere-be-called-blackberry-passport 

[aldaweb]

I do prefer the look of the classic and it seems as though there is no Z30 successor,  that is to say the Passport is deemed to be the Z30 successor and not an all touch phone going by the Blackberry roadmap, though a Z3 LTE is supposed to be released too.

http://crackberry.com/blackberrys-2014-device-roadmap?pg=2#content

[aldaweb]

Where have you seen a Z3 @Toby  ?

[Toby]

I've not aldaweb, but I've seen a few pictures

[MI5]

The Z3 is the Indonesian made version isn't it....?
Made by the Foxconn/BB merger.....

[Anonymous]

---

@MI5 wrote:
The Z3 is the Indonesian made version isn't it....?
Made by the Foxconn/BB merger.....

---

Yup, that was my understanding! I don't think we'll see the Z3 released here

Edit to add, yup, confirmed here that it was code named "Jakarta" and is a low-end device aimed at indonesia and other parts of Asia

[MI5]

That's the one I had in mind....
Confusing with the Sony Z3 though......

[aldaweb]

The Z3 LTE version codenamed 'Manitoba' may be released in more countries, it remains to be seen though.

I agree they could do with renaming if released to a wider market.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully o2 start to support BlackBerry a bit better!

[Anonymous]

So thats the Porsche Design BlackBerry P9983 launched at Harrods today and for the princely sum of £1400. Its the first phone running Blackberry 10.3 and I'm sure in the coming hours it means we'll get to see all of the finished features of 10.3 that we'll get to use on the Passport and Classic before its released for all other BB10 devices.

Source: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-p9983-gets-its-uk-launch-harrods

[Anonymous]

...and a video of the BlackBerry Classic has given us the best look yet of what it looks like just a couple of days before its official announcement: