BlackBerry announces new Passport 'phone'

BlackBerry – yes, it still exists – has announced its next new model, the Passport … which looks to be more phablet than smartphone.

Company CEO John Chen said on Thursday that the phone was set to launch in September at a special event in London.

The Passport has been rumored for several months under the code-name Windermere, according to the CrackBerry blog.

Blackberry says that the Passport will have 4.5in, 1440×1440 resolution display that’s square, not rectangular.

According to SlashGear, the 4.5in screen makes the BlackBerry Passport broader than Samsung’s hefty Galaxy Note 3 phablet, which is 2.79in across.

It will also sport the standard BlackBerry QWERTY hardware keyboard, which is rumored to be touch-sensitive for gesture interaction.

Other rumoured innards of the BlackBerry Passport include 3GB of RAM, a 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 3450mAh battery.

The Canadian handset company also confirmed the launch of its low-cost touchscreen smartphone, the BlackBerry Z3, in India on June 25.