Background Story..
I may just be overly obsessed, or there maybe something of value to what im about to talk about. I’ll be the first to admit, ive got a tech problem, and i’m a steadfast workaholic. I am constantly looking for ways to improve the efficiency of my life. One of the things that I believe you need to be working at peak efficiency is consistency. Having things constantly change in ways that are meaningless is a unneeded distraction and a waste of time. Time wasted for me, feels like a guilty sin to which there is no return… and this is where I begin my rant of the blackberry passport in 2020.
To illustrate the extensiveness of my OCD and testing I will list the smart phones that have been in my possession over the last 1.5 years.
1. essential phone ph1
2. samsung note 8
3. blackberry key one
4. blackberry key two
5. nexus 5 (running lineage os and ubports)
6. Axon M (yes the bi folding phone)
7. Iphones…(not bad copying bb10 gestures)
8.samsung s10
9. Mi Max 3 (largest phone you can get)
10. lgv30
11. Titan Unihertz(decent phone)
12. Blackberry Passport
Now each of these phones ive got something good to say, except apple phones(apple phones have the highest speed browser score and are really nice, but there kind of useless to me in my line of work)
The samsung phones were awesome screen and camera. But they were so loaded with BS ware they were discusting. I had to use adb shell to remove/stop much of the background processes.
The axon m almost won me over, but there were some essential design issues.
The nexus 5x was impressive with ub ports and lineage os
The essential phone ph1 was the best android phone I ever owned.
The blackberry android phones failed for me…
Which brings be to the blackberry passport… in 2020.
BB10 & the Blackberry Passport
So lets begin, first you need to understand what I do and why I am apparently a Blackberry fan. I work in web, deep web, I code daily, work with servers and need to remember an uncanny amount of passwords, I spend my days transporting to different terminals and solving an unending amount of problems… Fun for me is doing anything but working on a computer. When I have time to improve my work flow I look for technology that will last where I can transfer 100GB of wikis & files for reference and have access to them at light speed, emailing and text is important to me as well, having a fast way to check emails and text is very critical.
Why the Passport?
The blackberry passport keyboard and screen size makes in the best tool for the job when SSHing / RDPing into remote servers, the keyboard is amazing for this. The odd 4X3 screen size is very well suited for this kind of work, and anyone that would try a passport keyboard may be convinced as well (a misspelt command in a linux terminal can be a very bad day). The passport unique style and feel in the hand is unmatched, the fact that its cases have the look and feel of an actual wallet helps me limit the stuff I carry when on the move. The overall design is beautiful.
Finally BB10
And here lies the core reason for me staying with the blackberry passport. Blackberry did an amazing job of bb10 (BTW the new Apple iOS and Android 9 pretty much copied there gestures …) The software is fast, its actually just as fast today as the leading devices. I can check all my emails and text in 2 swipes, one up, one to the left. Have a look at this video.
The file manager in BB10 is the closet you will get to a desktop experience, its seamless. Complete with .zip extraction, and a easy ability to copy and paste to other directories and manage extensions. Honestly find a bb10 device if you’ve never had one and try it out. I could rant about the other improvements included in the interface, but for me the primary way it interacts with SMS and email and the hub is very impressive sleek and in my opinion there is nothing like it.
The app store contains an odd selection of very useful software, not sure what it is about BB10 apps, there uniquely useful in strange ways. To give an example I have a selection of apps that can automate SMS,be a Dash Cam, FM Radio and SIP client that is truly like nothing i’ve ever used.. its as good of quality as the phone which confuses me… The RDP app for bb10 is the best i’ve ever used, the notes, calendar and alarm are perfectly designed.
The most important and crucial thing for me is notifications, I can not explain this one, but for some reason the android runtime for the apps I use is the best for notifications. I can go buy a brand new s10 samsung, configure it to not optimize my battery etc etc and start up one of my apps where I need to get notifications every and 10 minutes later it doesn’t send a notification when its off. its does sometimes…. but it misses many. iOS is actually better at this, but my bb10 passport never, ever misses a notification. When people need to get a hold of me because a server goes down you can thank you my trust bb10 passport. It always works.
Lastly, the keyboard and retroarch cascades is amazing, playing retro games is an incredible experience, also what other phone can play World of Warcraft classic like this?
World of Warcraft Classic on Smart Phone (blackberry passport)
Honestly I would spend 3K for a new blackberry passport with an upgraded camera and faster processor.
