In 2005 few would have predicted that the leader of the smartphone market would become the "also-ran" brand of 2014, but that is exactly what has happened to the BlackBerry.

Though not without its ardent supporters, consumers have known for a long time that the once-popular brand is in critical need of a jump start. And that is what the company is looking to do with the BlackBerry Passport.

One thing to make no mistake about: the Passport is designed with the productive, professional and business individuals in mind. The powerful hardware, physical keyboard and even BlackBerry branding are all a testament to the utility that the company used to own. 

The BlackBerry OS 10.3 is a testament to its preference of business rather than fun. The app selection is woeful, but the inclusion of quite a few Android apps is certainly a plus along with the Amazon Appstore. Still, no Google play store or apps are a definite downside any way that you look at it

The aspirations of business are certainly strong enough to build a product around, but they all underline one major flaw: The 4.5 inch square phone is clumsy. If anyone still laments the larger phablets as the most cumbersome devices on the market, I challenge them to handle the Passbook for an extended period. Sure it is only 6.9 ounces, but it is also 3.5 inches wide, making it wider than the the Note 3 and the iPhone 6 Plus, the leading phablets on the market. That also means that the phone is all but impossible to handle with one hand. Moreover, both of those devices make much better use of their real estate than this phone with their vibrant displays.

Not only that, but the keyboard feels very difficult to operate because the screen takes up so much space. This is a new mashup of both the virtual and the digital, with only three rows afforded to the letters. While it takes some getting used to, it is entirely usable. However, having to put your hands on the very bottom of the device to try and use the meager keyboard is just flat-out uncomfortable and for such a business focused device.

That is not say that the display is not without its benefits. it has a 1,440-by-1,440-pixel resolution with 453 ppi. That makes for very crisp documents and vivid pictures and videos. In fact editing documents is one of the highlights of the phone. Using the keyboard as a sort of touch bad to place the cursor exactly where you want it works brilliantly and makes managing long documents finally possible on a smart phone.

Overall, the BlackBerry Passport is not without its positives. Productivity is clearly the name of the game, and the phone is certainly good enough to carve its own identity in the smartphone space. If users can look past the blocky aesthetics and the cumbersome use of the phone, the business end of things may be enough to persuade some that the BlackBerry is worth using again. 

The BlackBerry PassPort will be available for $249.99 on-contract and $599 without contract.