Skip to main content

Swap your iPhone for a Passport and BlackBerry will give you up to $550

BlackBerry Passport black lean
Image used with permission by copyright holder
BlackBerry is going after iPhone users this holiday season, offering owners of Apple’s handset up to $550 if they swap it for the recently released BlackBerry Passport, the business-focused smartphone noted for its square display.

The deal, which kicks off on December 1 and runs till February 13, is valid for U.S. and Canadian shoppers only. In addition, the phone has to be purchased at shopblackberry.com in the U.S. and Canada, or shipped from and sold by Amazon.com in the U.S.

Taking a closer look at the BlackBerry discount, we see that the Waterloo, Ontario, company is offering $150 with a prepaid gift card (CAD$200 for those north of the border), plus up to $400 for the trade-in depending on the model and condition of your iPhone. However, when you realize you can probably get more for your iPhone by selling it yourself, the offer begins to look a little hollow.

The deal is open to anyone with an iPhone 4S and up, but an iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in excellent condition will obviously bag you the top discount of $400, while a beaten up 4S will likely score you next to nothing.

New colors

The company has just made available for pre-order red and white versions of the Passport to go alongside the existing black model, so if you are thinking of dumping your iPhone for a Passport, you now have several flavors to choose from.

But how many sales will BlackBerry realistically make through this limited-time offer? The company’s troubles in the handset business have been documented to death, while the Passport is aimed primarily at business users, cutting out a major chunk of the market from the offset. Perhaps it believes there are former BlackBerry owners out there regretting their hot-headed dash to the iPhone, who long to once again feel a BlackBerry’s physical keys beneath their fingers, and that a trade-in offer like this is precisely what’s needed to win them back. And maybe it is.

Other BlackBerry incentives launched for holiday shoppers include a straight $200 discount on the unlocked black BlackBerry Passport, leaving it with a $499 price tag, and a $100 discount for the white model, taking it down to $599. However, at the time of writing, the red version remains priced at $699 on BlackBerry’s website.

In addition, a hefty $175 has been lopped off the price of the Z30, making it available for $225.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Best iPhone 14 deals: Unlocked and refurbished
The Apple iPhone 14 Pro's camera module

Some of the best Apple deals and best iPhone deals come from the iPhone 14 lineup. While it has been around a couple of years now, the iPhone 14 is still only one generation old as iPhone releases go. This means it still has a lot to offer, including much of what can be found in the newer iPhone 15, but it will often see some impressive price drops. Many of the best iPhone 14 deals we’re seeing right now are on refurbished models, but both new and refurbished models are out there, and each makes for some of the best phone deals going on at the moment. You’ll find all of the information you need to save on an iPhone 14 below, but if you’d like to land yourself the latest and greatest you should also check out the current iPhone 15 deals, Samsung Galaxy S24 deals, and Google Pixel 8 deals.
Apple iPhone 14 -- from $491, was $699

With the Apple iPhone 14 you’re getting what is still one of the most popular smartphones on the market. This is the iPhone 14 model that’s meant for everyone. It holds back a few features you can only get on the Pro model, but it still has an impressive 6.1-inch display, an impressive camera, and dozens of ways to personalize your iOS experience with widgets and fonts. The phone can reach up to 26 hours of battery life on a single charge, and it’s powered by Apple’s A15 Bionic chip. Face ID, emergency SOS via satellite, and super fast 5G cellular connectivity round out the top features of the Apple iPhone 14.
Buy Refurbished at Amazon — from $491

Read more
Become an iPhone video master with this powerful new app
Screenshots from the Kino app.

Avid iPhone photographers will already know the excellent Halide camera app and how it can help transform the stills you take. But they will also know it does not support video, a point the company itself has been well aware of too. That’s why it has launched Kino, a video app for the iPhone that aims to bring similar Halide-style benefits to video instead of stills.

Kino is described as a video app for beginners and experts alike, but to get the most from it, you’ll likely need to be familiar with the iPhone’s video recording modes. For example, one of the main features that makes Kino stand out is Instant Grade, which uses the Log video recording mode, which was introduced on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Read more
Apple offers peek at how it stress tests the iPhone
Apple testing the water resistance of an iPhone.

Apple tests the water resistance of an iPhone. MKBHD

Popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee visited an Apple lab recently to see up close how the company tests the durability of new iPhone handsets.

Read more