According to a patent filed awarded this month, BlackBerry could be working on the Passport’s successor already. The patent displays a regular rectangle slab phone described as including “a storable keyboard having a pivoting cover”
The images below show the keyboard hidden before rotating the bottom half of the device to uncover the full keyboard. It’s definitely and interesting concept and definitely a new way for the slider phone, but more importantly, it seems like BlackBerry is attempting the “all in one” package with the alleged to be all-touch 5.5-inch display, a 1440p display on a LCD unit and running Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 MSM8974AB including a keyboard for the physical keyboard die-hards.
Take this news with a whole bag of salt, a patent filed and rewarded does not mean BlackBerry will go ahead and develop the idea into a fully fledged device. It’s interesting and it’s definitely something we’ve not entirely seen before, but if BlackBerry manage to get this device right in all terms including aesthetics, it’s definitely a winner. If this all goes through, we can expect these devices to launch sometime in Q2 2015.
Source: CrackBerry via BerryReview