BlackBerry talked up the square screen that will be used in its planned Passport smartphone, stating that the 4.5-inch display “offers the same viewing space as a 5-inch phone but offers an even better viewing experience because of the screen’s width”.

The struggling enterprise mobility player said that “device companies have been emulating the same, entertainment-driven look for so long there’s been a homogenisation of the visual cues in smartphone design”. It said that while a rectangular screen “drives content, media consumption and quick communications”, this de-facto standard design is “perhaps limiting innovations”.

Talking up its productivity potential, the company said that Passport will be “the ideal device for reading e-books, viewing documents and browsing the web…no more worrying about portrait or landscape modes, and no; you aren’t missing anything”.

BlackBerry said that Passport will be launched in September at an event in London. It will be followed by the much anticipated Classic, which is designed to appeal to the core BlackBerry customer base with its familiar QWERTY form factor.