You might not like the look of the BlackBerry Passport all that much, but just like an octogenarian CEO a bunch of money makes it a lot more attractive.
Right now, the Waterloo, Ontario smartphone maker is offering iPhone users the chance to pocket a fat wad of cash if they make the switch to a Passport. They’ll give you up to $550 to defect — $600 in Canada. Sounds pretty sweet, right?
Before you go wrapping your iPhone in bubble wrap, though, there’s a few things you should know about the deal. For one thing, you’re not going get all those dollars in a form you can spend. You’ll get a credit against the price of your new Passport equal to the trade-in value of your iPhone and a $150 Visa gift card as a “top-up” from Blackberry.
For another, like all trade-in deals, your iPhone is going to be seriously undervalued. The $400 max trade-in is for an iPhone 6, and we’ve got to assume that means the 128GB version if it’s really the maximum. New, that particular iPhone would have cost you around $850… and you can’t possibly have owned it for more than two months. That’s kind of a big hit to take.
When the trade-up program kicks in next week, Amazon and BlackBerry will be selling the Passport for $599. Make the switch by trading in the top-end iPhone 6 and you’ll be out $50 when it’s all said and done. Sell your 128GB iPhone 6 yourself, and you could score almost enough cash to buy two discount Passports. Or a OnePlus One, Nexus 5, iPhone 5S, HTC One M8, Moto X, and a BlackBerry Passport.
Trade-in deals are rarely as good as they sound, and BlackBerry’s is no exception. Then again, if you really, really hate your iPhone 6 already, this is definitely one way to dump it in a hurry and replace it with something that a lot fewer of your friends own… so that’s something.
If you’re looking to ditch an iPhone 4S, on the other hand, you can actually come out a little ahead. BlackBerry will give you up to $90, presumably for the 64GB 4S. Toss in the $150 gift card, and you’re at around $240, and they’re easy enough to find unlocked for under $200.
