Several tech websites criticized the BlackBerry Passport because of its odd square design, but it is surprising that the initial BlackBerry Passport sales report is impressive.

According to reports, the BlackBerry Passport pre-orders reached 200,000 within 10 hours after the device was made available on Amazon and on the company's website.

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The Passport's strong start is important for the company to turn its situation around. It is BlackBerry's first flagship handset released this year under the new leadership of CEO John Chen. The company attempts to target power professionals and productivity-focused people who would rather have a keyboard and focus on email and messaging.

The Passport reflects Chen's strategy to shift its target to people who work in large government agencies and corporations which value messaging and security capabilities. AT&T announced that it would sell the Passport but availability date is still unclear. The unlocked smartphone costs $599 in the U.S.

The BlackBerry Passport has a QWERTY touch-enabled keyboard which has three rows off keys. The 4.5-inch display supports 1440 x 1440 pixels resolution with 453 ppi.

The device is powered by a Snapdragon 801 chipset that has a quad-core processor clocked at 2.2 GHz. It has 3 GB or RAM and features a 13 megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization. It comes with 32 GB of internal storage and 3540 mAh battery capacity.

The BlackBerry Passport runs on BB OS 10.3 which features a voice assistant call the BlackBerry Assistant similar to Google Now and Siri. This operating system supports Android apps via the Amazon Appstore.

TagsBlackberry Passport, John Chen, Blackberry