BlackBerry's back with 'Passport' the smartphone targeted at professionals

Furthermore, the mobile will serve as one of the few smartphones on the market with a QWERTY touch-based keyboard allowing for gesture-based shortcuts.

In the UK, the mobile will initially retail for £529. BlackBerry said the smartphone was named the Passport after a designer claimed that it was around the same shape and size as a travel document.

On the mobile’s design, John Chen, executive chairman and CEO at BlackBerry, said: “As we set out to design BlackBerry Passport, we were guided by a simple yet challenging idea - to set aside the limitations of traditional design and to instead simply build a device that fundamentally changes the way business professionals get work done on their smartphone.

“The BlackBerry Passport was created to drive productivity and to break through the sea of rectangular-screen, all-touch devices.”

Perhaps the selling point for business-class smartphone users is the fact the device is capable of operating on a full charge for a whole 30 hours.

Microsoft's Windows Phone looks set to overtake Blackberry as the UK’s third most popular smartphone, however, if the Passport is a return to form for the firm, it might be a close call between the two companies.