Three years go by extremely fast for the majority of us. Usually, nothing groundbreaking happens in a period of time of this length. However, in technology, three years is quite a long time and many things can change. Sometimes people don’t even realize how much technology has improved in a year or three. We can only understand the pace in which technology works when we start comparing products that were top-tier in the past with current models. The BlackBerry Passport was, in 2014, one of the best smartphones available on the market. This year, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 impressed a lot of people. Let’s see what has changed in terms of high-end features in the past three years.
BlackBerry Passport
The BlackBerry Passport was, in its time, a truly amazing handset. Even though its squarish design was not everyone’s cup of tea, it was something else, and many people appreciated it. Also, three years ago, BlackBerry was a lot more popular among smartphone users than it is now. The BlackBerry Passport was probably one of the most successful models of that year. Its design was quite unique and the physical keyboard was one of its best features. It was also quite a powerful handset for its time, with high-end specs and features, comparable to other 2014 flagships.
The BlackBerry Passport had a 4.5-inch display with an amazing 1440 x 1440 pixels resolution, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3. Under the hood, it had a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset, and it included 3GB of RAM and 32GB internal storage. Thanks to its microSD card slot it also supported up to 256GB additional storage. It was the last handset to run BlackBerry OS, not Android. Its successor, the BlackBerry Priv, already came with Android on board. While BlackBerry still offers its amazing security features, its proprietary operating system was quite different from the Android BlackBerry handsets nowadays run.
BlackBerry’s Passport came with a 13MP back camera and a 2MP front-facing camera for selfies and video calls. The smartphone featured a micro USB port for charging and data transfer, and it offered Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. The handset’s battery was quite large. The 3,450 energy ack was able to ensure quite an impressive battery life under normal conditions. Even judging by the standards in place in 2014, the BlackBerry Passport was not an expensive smartphone. It was more affordable than the Android flagships of the time and it was also less expensive than the Apple smartphone that launched in 2014. Overall, the BlackBerry Passport was a powerful and reliable handset that impressed a lot of smartphone users.
Specs
– 4.5-inch 1440 x 1440 pixels resolution screen, 1:1 ratio
– quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset
– 3GB RAM
– 32GB storage
– 13MP rear camera, 2MP secondary camera
– 3,450mAh battery
Samsung Galaxy Note 8
Samsung’s latest flagship is, without a doubt, one of the best smartphones to launch this year. It has a modern design, even if not an innovative one, with its bezel-less screen and rounded display. Even though the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a good-looking device, it does look a lot like other flagships that launched in 2017, so it’s definitely not as unique as the BlackBerry Passport was back in 2014. To be honest, until today, there has not been another smartphone that looks like the Passport, so it still is one of a kind. We must admit though that it is a lot more comfortable to handle than the Passport was. Naturally, being a high-end handset, it comes with some of the most amazing specs and features that are available right now.
The 6.3-inch display of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and it has an impressive 1440 x 2960 pixels resolution. This translates into a higher pixel density than the one of the Passport’s screen, however, the difference is not necessarily a notable one. The BlackBerry Passport’s display was already a great one. The Galaxy Note 8 sports an octa-core Snapdragon 835 chipset, or the powerful Exynos 8895 SoC. Both are incredibly powerful, especially when paired with the 6GB of RAM the smartphone includes. Yes, that’s double the amount of memory than the Passport offered. Samsung’s flagship runs Android nougat out of the box, however, it will soon get the Android Oreo upgrade too. This smartphone doesn’t only double the amount of the memory of the Passport, its base models also doubles the amount of storage. The Note 8 is available with 64GB, 128GB or even 256GB internal storage. Just like the Passport, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 also features a microSD card slot that allows users to add up to 256GB storage to the smartphone.
The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is the first flagship of the South Korean tech giant to come with a dual camera setup on the back. The dual 12MP camera is definitely able to capture more impressive images than the Passport’s single 13MP camera was. On the front, the Galaxy Note 8 has an 8MP sensor that will take some cool selfies. Bluetooth also got a lot faster in the past few years, as it got to version 5.0 which is extremely fast and efficient. Another thing that changed is the USB Type-C port which replaced the micro USB port of the BlackBerry Passport. The S Pen is also a nice feature, many users buy the Note 8 especially for this.
Probably the most impressive changes are noticeable when it comes to sensors. While the BlackBerry Passport didn’t even feature a fingerprint sensor, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 comes with an iris scanner, a fingerprint scanner, and facial recognition technology. That’s a whole lot of tech only for securing a handset. The battery of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 is a little smaller than the one the Passport came with. It is only a 3,300mAh one, however, the Galaxy Note 8 compensates for this with its support for fast charging and wireless charging. Unfortunately for smartphone users, devices not only got smarter, they also got a lot more expensive. The Galaxy Note 8’s starting price is quite close to $1000. In comparison, the BlackBerry Passport’s price was somewhere around $250 when it launched.
Specs
– 6.3-inch 1440 x 2960 pixels resolution screen, 18.5:9 ratio
– octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835/Exynos 8895 chipset
– 6GB RAM
– 64GB/128GB/256GB storage
– 12MP dual rear camera, 8MP secondary camera
– 3,300mAh battery
What changed in three years?
The answer to this question is quite a lot. Smartphones got a lot more powerful and now have a more modern design with extremely slim bezels. Also, smartphones got more secure and more fun to use. Unfortunately, their prices also got a lot higher, so not everyone can afford a flagship device anymore. However, if you do afford to buy one, it will offer you a great user experience.
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