This 1440 x 1440-pixel LCD fits about 60 characters across (depending on the app), compared with 66 characters for an actual book and 40 for the iPhone 5s. With the Passport, I felt like I was using a minicolor Kindle as I read Diane Ackerman's "The Human Age," and I didn't have to flip the phone around to scan important documents.Unfortunately, the display's square aspect ratio makes video viewing scrunched with black bars above and below. When I watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay trailer on YouTube, the tip of Katniss' arrow looked razor sharp, but the overall picture was so small that I felt like I was watching the clip through a peephole. (No, flipping the phone doesn't help.)

At least the Passport's display is quite bright at 423 nits, which is well above the 353-nit average. It also offers accurate colors, registering a Delta-E score of 1.2 (0 is best). The hues in that Hunger Games trailer looked a bit flat, though, which explains why this handset displays only 90 percent of the sRGB color gamut (100 percent or more is best).

I have to admit that using the BlackBerry Passport made me miss the tactile feel of a real, physical keyboard on a smartphone. It's actually hard to make a typo on this ultrawide, sculpted layout, although I'm not a fan of the spacebar being in the middle of the third row.

To save space, BlackBerry moved the special characters to a dedicated row at the bottom of the screen. For instance, if you're typing an email, you'll see the comma, colon, period and other punctuation above the QWERTY, ready to tap. I appreciated having these options at the ready, but ergonomically speaking, switching between the touch screen and "real" keyboard is like dancing with one bare foot and one clog.

On the plus side, as you type, the Passport offers three word suggestions on the screen (above the symbols). You can accept one of these suggestions by simply swiping up on the corresponding area of the physical keyboard -- left, middle or right. I got the hang of this feature in no time.

How did BlackBerry do this? With the addition of a capacitive layer beneath the surface, the Passport's keyboard doubles as a sort of touchpad. You can scroll websites and documents by dragging your finger up and down on the layout. Even more handy, you can drag the cursor around with awesome precision.

My issue with the keyboard is that I just couldn't type as fast as I wanted. Even allowing for the fact that I've become used to touch keyboards, the Passport's layout felt too wide and stiff. Tapping out short replies was a chore, though I improved my pace over the course of a few weeks. Also, forget about typing with one hand.

If you haven't used BlackBerry 10 before -- and not many of you have -- there's definitely a learning curve. You swipe up from the bottom of the display to return to the home screen and see your open apps displayed in a grid. And you make the same gesture, but with a right turn at the end, to access BlackBerry Hub, which displays alerts for email and social networking accounts. With OS 10.3, BlackBerry now displays up to eight open apps ("active frames") on the home screen, which you can move around if you desire.

My favorite new BlackBerry 10 feature is the Action Bar, which prominently displays what should be the most commonly used feature within an app. For example, if you're in BlackBerry Hub, you'll see a large Compose button at the bottom of the screen, but when you click on a message, you'll see a Reply All button flanked by Reply and Forward buttons. The calendar put a big Add button at the bottom, and so on.

It wouldn't be a BlackBerry without robust security. The Passport promises to safeguard your data and identity in several ways. For instance, you can encrypt your data (both on the device and microSD) using 256-bit AES encryption. And you can set application permissions by app and type of function (like location). Although the Passport lacks a fingerprint reader, you can opt for a very secure device password that combines a picture and number.

The Passport also includes BlackBerry Protect, which lets you secure and locate your device if it's lost or stolen. You can locate your device on a map, have it emit a loud sound for about a minute, and display a message on screen (such as "Please return for a reward … call XXX"). If you're not able to track down your Passport, you can wipe the data on the device and microSD card.

There's one big benefit to carrying around such a big smartphone. The BlackBerry Passport packs a huge 3,450-mAh battery into its chassis, which is rated for up to 25 hours of mixed use. I'm a believer. With light to moderate usage, which included music streaming, playing Angry Birds Stella, and checking email and other tasks, this device lasted well over a day on a charge.

After unplugging the Passport at 6 a.m., the smartphone still had 25 percent battery life at 3:30 p.m. the next day. That's epic. (Unfortunately, our usual battery test could not run on BB 10.6.)