[mgmueller]

First impressions:

I like the touch and feel. Not quite iPad quality, but close enough.
I'd describe it "somewhere between Apple and Samsung".

So far, I love the OS and functionality.
Example:
In WiFi settings, I can prioritize my WiFis.
I hate it, when my iPad chooses the stronger, albeit significantly slower one in some areas in my house.

The keyboard works great.
The letters are in 3 physical rows.
A fourth row with context sensitive additional keys is on the screen.
The physical keyboard is my main reason for loving BlackBerry. I tend to write lengthy emails and especially in taxis and on bumpy roads I'm not a fan of touch keyboards. And they simply cover lot of screen estate. Might not be that big a problem on phablets like iPhone 6+ anymore, but still is not perfect in my opinion.

The OS obviously is based on the one we found on BlackBerry Playbook (which I loved as well and which at its time had been way ahead of iOS and Android, but simply died due to lack of apps).
One swipe from the top opens the settings menu of the respective screen/app you're on. One swipe from the bottom puts the app into the background for multi-tasking.
Of course I can use my PlayBook ID, so I should have some apps for download already.
So I'll head over to the BlackBerry app store now and after that to the Amazon app store, in which I should have plenty of apps as well.

Scrolling via the physical keyboard works great!

Interesting enough, it's less bulky than I had expected. The screen is huge of course and the square form of course adds some bulk. But the 3 key rows are smaller than I (for whatever reason) would have thought. I easily could imagine myself using it as a phone, although I certainly will use a headset anyway...

So far, I really like it.
It very much reminds me of BlackBerry PlayBook: Great OS, serious lack of apps. Thank goodness, this time at least they've added the Amazon App Store. I still miss all the Google apps and probably will try to side load them. But at least for the standard apps I don't have to fumble around with Java and stuff, like before on PlayBook.

The keyboard is great, nothing to criticize there.

With the Snap app, I can install my apps from Google Play. Not all are working well on the square screen, but now I've got 3 sources: BlackBerry store, Amazon App store, (kind of) Google Play. I search exactly in that order: BlackBerry store, as those apps tend to be optimized to the screen format. Amazon App store, after all it comes pre-installed. Snap as my "last resort". I still can't find all apps respectively some need Google Play services and others crash for no apparent reason. But I find maybe 80% and those are mere gadgets anyway.

There's one slight disappointment: As on iOS; I can't add "real" signatures to emails. I can add pure text and some HTML. But no CI-conform signatures with logos, corporate fonts and such. I guess, this really only can be done in Outlook to full extent. So I still will take some Windows tablet with me, when on the road. But BlackBerry Passport probably can be my main companion for a quick note or mail or message "on the fly". I'm not even that much faster on the relatively small keyboard than on touch keyboards. But I enjoy it much more, it has some more natural "flow".

My momentary verdict:

Pros:
I'm a fan of physical keyboards. Swype as an alternative is great and actually I'm not that much faster with physical keyboards. But I find it way more convenient and can use it under all circumstances (taxi, bumpy road, ...).
The context sensitive prediction works surprisingly well. Often enough, I find the next word already as a suggestion, without having to type a single key.
It efficiently switches between languages automatically.
Battery life is fantastic, I can't make an entire day on my iPhone 4S, but here the battery still holds another 50%.
I like the form and size. I can type with 2 fingers without having to lay it down.
I like the BlackBerry hub, where all the communication is collected in a single app.
I like the OS with its swiping gestures.

Cons:
It very much reminds me of my (once beloved) BlackBerry PlayBook: Great OS, great hardware. Still I rarely us it due to lack of apps.
For the Passport, its a bit better: The Amazon app store comes pre-installed and you find the most important apps there. You can install kind of a portal to your apps in Google Play. But the latter often don't work, they'd need Google Play services. I can install Google Maps, for example, but for now it's not working.
For now, I only miss half a dozen apps or so. But the limited assortment definitely is a bottleneck.

Anyway: I'll replace my iPhone 4S by it still this week.

I really love the job-related possibilities.
Basic stuff, such as syncing my reminders/tasks is so much more convenient than on iPhone.
I don't seem to be able to solve my issues about email signatures and email fonts, though.
Still: Huge improvement over iPhone and definitely my business phone from now on!

Interesting experience:
For most of my gadgets, for example last for NVIDIA Shield Tablet, it's many about tuning it.
On NVIDIA Shield, I've spent a lot of time with rooting, moving apps to the ROM and such.
On BlackBerry Passsport, it's mainly about simply using it. Great experience. I really like it!

A bit annoying:
The Micro SD card is pretty useless. We've seen this before on some Android units, for example. There's no option to move apps or at least content (i.e. maps in navigation or travel apps). There aren't that many interesting apps, so the internal 32GB probably will do. But for now, the SD card only can be used for movies, music and such.

I love the swiping gestures, liked them on BlackBerry PlayBook before as well.
They seem rater trivial, but come quite naturally.

I love the password entry on the start screen.
Haven't seen this method before:
You define a password, as usual.
Additionally, you choose a picture with a grid. And you choose a number.
After that, each time you have to enter the startup-password, you find a matrix of numbers. This matrix changes every time. You look, where you find the number you chose in the matrix. Then you move the entire matrix, until your number aligns with the position on the picture grid you've defined. It can be done in 2 seconds and seems relatively secure to me. Even if somebody would watching me, dragging around the matrix, it would be of no use for the next attempt.

A bit annoying:
Some apps from the Amazon App Store don't work.
Some crash entirely, some simply don't work well on the square screen.
But they all show in the Amazon App Store on the BlackBerry Passport.
Amazon probably isn't responsible: They simply provide a single store, I guess.
But BlackBerry either should implement a filter. Or at least offer a refund, similar to Google.
It's no biggy, the apps are cheap enough. Still, I have bought half a dozen apps I'll never be able to use (no need for those business apps on my Kindle Fire HDs.)

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