Rumor: Blackberry To Roll Out Silver Blackberry Passport

With the exception of the cramped keyboard, the Blackberry Passport was one of the company’s best engineering feats. The price matched the premium nature of the Blackberry Passport, and it was possibly due to the prohibitive price tag that consumers, who would rather get an iPhone or a Samsung flagship phone, weren’t quick to grab the Blackberry Passport off the shelves.

And so, Blackberry has a brilliant idea: Roll out the same model, built with more affordable materials.

The Blackberry Passport will have a silver-colored twin soon, as the Swiss retailer PCP leaked the news. The new Blackberry Passport model will reportedly sport the exact same specs from the original version, but the company has reportedly cut corners on the material of the new Blackberry Passport: Gone is the high-end steel frame that added to the original’s rich and premium feel.

Leaked Specs for the new Silver Blackberry Passport:

Processor/Chipset: Quad-core 2.26 GHz Krait 400 Qualcomm MSM8974AA Snapdragon 801

RAM: 3GB

GPU: Adreno 330

Internal Storage: 32GB

Expandable Storage: Yes

Display: 4.5 inches, 1440 x 1440 pixels, ~453 ppi

Cameras: 13MP primary camera with OIS and Flash, 2MP secondary/front camera

Battery: 3450 mAh non-removable, possibly Li-Ion battery

In short, save for the steel detailing on the original Blackberry Passport, the silver Blackberry Passport will be every inch exactly the same as the original Blackberry Passport.

Recently, Blackberry was said to be making moves to rescue its precarious position on the smartphone market. Reports of integrating their devices with the Android OS, as well as of releasing a new slider device were hovering on the tech rumor mill, however, these have yet to be substantiated. This recent leak of an odd move by Blackberry is yet another one of those online whispers that tech pundits and consumers will have to wait and see to materialize. Till then, what is on the table is the speculation that a silver twin of the Blackberry Passport. An odd move, as, while most companies would rather churn out new, innovative models, Blackberry opted to refresh a year-old model, and coated it with new paint.

The official announcement is expected to hit the media today, August 4th.