BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen Holds Up The Unreleased Blackberry Passport
BlackBerry Chief Executive John Chen holds up the unreleased Blackberry Passport device during the company's annual general meeting for shareholders in Waterloo June 19, 2014. Reuters/Mark Blinch

The current trend corroborates that the bigger the screen size, the better is the phone's chance of survival in the ever-competitive market. Even the iPhones got bigger this year, while its rival Samsung recently unveiled the Galaxy Note 4 phablet at the IFA event. Meanwhile, the unique, mysterious and interestingly designed BlackBerry Passport will be launched on Sept. 24 in Toronto, London and Dubai. Readers who are interested in purchasing the Galaxy Note 4 should check out this comparison to figure out if the BlackBerry Passport can give tough competition to Samsung's latest Goliath.

Display, Design, Exterior And Size

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 features a 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, whereas the BlackBerry Passport houses a modest 4.5-inch IPS LCD display. The screen resolution and pixel density of the Passport are 1,440 x 1,440 pixels and 453 ppi, respectively, whereas the Galaxy Note 4 packs a 2K resolution of 1,440 x 2,560 pixels and 515 ppi density.

Along with the perforated back panel, the Samsung device comes with a metallic rim covering the plastic sides of the phablet, giving it the premium look that was lacking in the Galaxy Note 3. As far as screen detail goes, the Galaxy handset sports ultra-sharp display and thinner bezels. Thanks to the Super AMOLED technology complimented by 2K resolution, the screen difference is notable when the handset is positioned closer. And there is no pixilation especially when viewing videos, reports Phone Arena. No wonder, the Galaxy Note 4 is touted as the device with the best display in the current lot.

The BlackBerry Passport, on the other hand, comes with a unique "square" design, staying away from the traditional "rectangular" display. Will Passport set the precedence for more "square" displays to come? The market might have to wait a little more to get the answer. However, BlackBerry is targeting business and enterprise users who need their phablets to do more than just downloading apps, playing games, watching videos and making phone calls. This device is designed in such a way that both work- and play-related activities can co-exist in one device.

Furthermore, BlackBerry is bringing in the long-forgotten QWERTY keyboard back to where it belongs. The Passport comes with a one-of-a-kind physical QWERTY keyboard that has the capability to double as a touch-enabled trackpad. The keyboard will feature three rows of letters and an additional row for virtual keys. Hence, numerals, special characters and punctuation marks will not be part of the QWERTY keyboard. Meanwhile, the virtual keys are displayed on the screen depending on the context of users' key strokes. As an example, if a Passport user types an email address, the symbols "@" and "." would appear on the virtual key row automatically.

Speaking of size, the BlackBerry Passport is 0.36-inch thick and weighs 194.4 g, whereas the thickness and the weight of the Galaxy Note 4 are 0.33-inch and 176 g, respectively.

Hardware, Software And Memory

The Galaxy Note 4 is powered by a superior quad-core (Qualcomm Snapdragon 805) Krait 450 processor, clocked at 2.7 GHz. The BlackBerry Passport, meanwhile, is powered by a quad-core (Qualcomm Snapdragon 800) processor, clocked at 2.26 GHz. Nevertheless, both phablets are backed by the same 3 GB of RAM. Moreover, Samsung also offers a much-powerful processor choice, i.e. octa-core (Exynos 5433) processor. But this processor will not be available across the globe.

The Galaxy Note 4 runs on Android OS v4.4.4 KitKat with Samsung's TouchWiz UI, whereas the BlackBerry Passport runs on BlackBerry 10.3 OS. When it comes to memory, both devices offer 32 GB of internal storage and microSD card support for expansion. However, the expansion limit of Samsung and BlackBerry devices stand at 128 GB and 64 GB, respectively.

Camera And Battery

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 sports a solid 16 MP ISOCELL rear-facing camera unit with LED flash, whereas the BlackBerry Passport houses a 13 MP rear-facing camera unit with LED flash. Also, the BlackBerry Passport and the Galaxy Note 4 feature 2 MP and 3.7 MP secondary snappers, respectively. In addition, both phablets come with optical image stabilisation, or OIS, support. When it comes to battery, the Galaxy Note 4 houses a 3220 mAh unit, whereas the BlackBerry Passport trumps the Samsung device with a 3,450 mAh battery unit.

Additional Features

1. The BlackBerry Passport can virtually run all the famous Android apps. And many of them will be pre-loaded with the phablet. In addition, there will be a wide palette of apps that can be downloaded. Apparently, this deal was finalised based on an agreement between BlackBerry and Amazon, says Tech Shout.

2. The Galaxy Note 4 has the ability to charge from 0 to 50 percent within 30 minutes, reports Phone Arena.

3. The Samsung device features water- and dust-proof exterior. Nevertheless, the handset is not certified. According to reports, the phablet can survive up to 30 minutes of a 1.5-metre underwater sojourn.

4. Apart from the regular connectivity options, both phablets support NFC.

5. While the BlackBerry Passport comes with HDMI port support, the Samsung device doesn't.

6. The Galaxy Note 4 comes with extra sensors like UV, gesture, heart-rate and SpO2 sensors.

7. Like its predecessor, the Galaxy Note 4 comes with a stylus. However, this time around, Samsung has improved the S-Pen stylus to the level that it couples seamlessly with the screen to give natural writing experience to the user, reports Phone Arena.

8. The Samsung handset comes with a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the device and also to make mobile-based payments. Not to forget, the multi-window support.

9. Potential buyers should note Dropbox offers 50 GB of free cloud storage for 2 years upon purchasing the Galaxy Note 4.

10. While the Samsung handset supports micro-SIM, the BlackBerry device comes with nano-SIM support.

Price

Reportedly, the BlackBerry Passport will be priced at approximately $700 (that roughly translates to AU$780), opines Load The Game. The Samsung Galaxy Note 4, on the other hand, can be purchased for £575 (that roughly translates to US$935 and AU$1,046) at Clove in the UK. And the release date is pegged for Oct 13, reports IBTimes UK.

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