On the hardware front, BlackBerry remains focused on business users and enterprises and other than that, it has no investment ideas in the sub-Rs 10,000 price segment. Each phone released by the company is intended for a specific group of customers. BlackBerry Passport is designed for customers who expect the highest quality and stand out from the crowd. The BlackBerry Classic is aimed at QWERTY keyboard lovers, and now the BlackBerry Leap is aimed at touchscreen users who think this device could be better than the current product. The company’s strategy makes it clear that BlackBerry Leap is not intended for price-conscious customers. Read the phone review.
Appearance and Design
The BlackBerry Leap is a sleek phone with a very sleek black front. You won’t see anything on the screen other than the silver company logo at the bottom. The sides and back of the phone have a rubber coating that gives it a premium look. The back cover of the phone cannot be removed, so there is no access to the battery. In appearance, we saw only one drawback; the 8 MP autofocus inscription next to the rear camera looked very strange. Well, this is a very professional looking device.
There are many similarities between the BlackBerry Z3 and the Leap model released last year. If you don’t know much about both phones, you won’t be able to tell them apart. Compared to the Z3, the Leap is a few millimeters wider and slightly heavier. However, there are some differences between the two phones, such as the power button on the top. The SIM and microSD card slots are located on the left, and the volume buttons are on the right. The 3.5mm audio jack is on the top of the phone, while the micro USB port is on the bottom.
Leap is available in dark gray and white. The phone looks solid and reliable. However, it is too large to be used with one hand. The company appears to have reused the same look, taking seriously the positive feedback it received about the Z3’s build quality and styling in some Asian markets. What’s surprising is that the Leap is not made by Foxconn, the company that makes the Z3.
Specifications and software
The Z3 was a budget segment phone due to which there was a slight flaw in the product’s specifications, which is not the case with the Leap. The phone’s display has been significantly improved; the resolution of the 5-inch screen is 720×1280. While this isn’t a unique feature, it’s a far cry from the Z3’s 540×960 screen resolution. Texts look clear enough, colors are easy on the eyes, and overall the phone is a pleasure to use. There are some disadvantages regarding the display of the phone in sunlight. Unfortunately, Leap tried very hard to improve on the old model.
It’s amazing how far technology has come, but BlackBerry still uses a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus processor clocked at 1.5 GHz. The company started using the MSM8960 processor in the Z10 two years ago. If BlackBerry has to compete in this price range in terms of performance, then this strategy is flawed.
The rest of the phone’s specs are a bit modern, but not top-end at all. The phone has 2 GB of RAM. The phone comes with features like 16GB inbuilt storage, microSD card support up to 128GB, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Unfortunately, the Indian 2300 MHz band does not support LTE. The battery capacity is 2800 mAh. You get a proximity sensor and a basic accelerometer. You won’t be impressed by BlackBerry’s capabilities.
The company says the value of its platform lies in its software and services. BlackBerry is the second company after Apple to have its own hardware and operating system. The company hopes people will trust Leap to get the job done. BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 has a lot of nice features, you can use most Android apps and it has a central communications hub through which you can easily view messages from many services. However, we’re not sure that various gestures are the most natural way to use the OS. On the other hand, the phone’s touch keyboard is the best to date.
In terms of features, not much has changed since the launch of the Z3. However, one difference is that the first menu page is now limited to 8 menu tiles instead of 4 app tiles. This was made possible by increasing RAM.
performance
Some flaws were noticed in the BlackBerry Leap after using it for a few days. Often when launching apps or switching, the phone would go into pause mode for a while. Some OS animations took too long. However, there were no problems when using the interface, hub and other simple applications.
It’s impossible to say enough about the capabilities of this phone based on Android benchmarks. In the cross-platform SunSpider and Mozilla Kraken browser tests, the phone scored 1284.8 ms and 26889.7 ms, respectively. Similar figures are observed in ultra-budget Android phones. The battery lasted 7 hours and 19 minutes in the video loop test, which is decent but certainly not impressive. The battery life of the phone was good. The call quality was also excellent.
Camera performance is adequate but not great. But it works for random shots. The textures come out beautifully. There is also less noise and compression in the image. However, when shooting a moving subject, the frames are distorted. The camera took good pictures at night. By default, the camera shoots video at 720p resolution, which is clear but a little shaky.
our decision
Speaking of price, the BlackBerry Leap competes with great Android devices like the OnePlus One. Many Android phones costing half the price or even less provide serious competition in terms of experience. Commitment to the BlackBerry platform may be a reason to buy this phone. The company’s biggest challenge is convincing people to use the BlackBerry platform.
The good thing for the company is that many people are dedicated to their cause and there could be more in the coming days. The target audience of the phone is young people or professionals who are ready to invest money in a hardcore business tool, but this smartphone should be perfect for work. There is also a possibility that many corporations will purchase this phone in large quantities for their employees due to the security of communications.
If you treat the Leap as a secondary phone and only use it at work, then the BlackBerry wins. This is enough to sell the company’s products, so BlackBerry will remain relevant. However, we would like to see the company be aggressive and invest in its core price segment.
