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Blackberry Leap review: Blackberry's answer to mid range Android smartphones

Blackberry Leap features a 5" LCD display with HD resolution and is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus CPU coupled with 2 GB RAM

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Rohit Arora
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Blackberry Leap
  • Overall Rating

  • Performance

  • Features

  • Price

Price : ₹ Rs. 21,490

Key Specs

    5” IPS LCD HD display (294ppi)

    1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus CPU, 2 GB RAM

    BlackBerry OS 10.3.1

    8 MP rear with LED Flash & 2 MP front camera

    16 GB in-built storage and expandable up-to 128 GB via microSD card

    2800 mAh battery

Pros : long battery life, premium and durable design, good camera, one of the best productivity mobile device, microSD support of up-to 128 GB

Cons : a bit bulky due to large bezels, power button is difficult to reach, BB10 still lacks the app ecosystem, 720p display at 25k doesn’t match the current market standards, non-removable battery

Bottomline : Not much has changed from the last Blackberry touch screen devices we have reviewed and Blackberry Leap is quite the same product with some cosmetic changes. However, it’s definitely one of the best mid range smartphone for professionals who are looking for a secure platform to meet their productive requirements. With Leap, the Canadian giant now has a solid contender in mid-range category. It’s a safe bet if you need something different from myriad of Google based smartphones with uncountable customised user interfaces.

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After introducing two smartphones with physical keypads- Passport and Classic, Blackberry is back with a new touch screen device, targeted to young professionals. Blackberry Leap comes at a price of Rs. 21,499 and will compete against the myriad of Android offerings. Let's find out if the smartphone is a definite Leap for the company or just an another touch screen smartphone.

Design

Blackberry Leap
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Likewise previous Blackberry smartphones, Blackberry Leap is an elegant smartphone built of high quality plastic. It’s strikingly similar to Z3 in design and feel, but that’s not a bad thing as the smartphone was very much practical and appealing in looks.

leap lock

But there are some minor changes in design; like the power button is now positioned on the top, which makes it a bit difficult to reach and lock and wake the smartphone (it was placed on left edge in Z3).  The SIM card and microSD card is placed on left, whereas the volume rockers and the dedicated button for Blackberry Assistant is located on the right side. The Micro-USB port is at the bottom and the 3.5mm audio jack rests at top.

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The smartphone is a bit heavier and wider than the other 5 inchers in the market, which makes it a bit tough to handle with one hand. The back has the same dotted pattern with Blackberry signature logo at the centre and a speaker grill at the left bottom. The top has a black glass strip, which houses the 8 MP camera with LED flash. Overall, Blackberry Leap has a solid and durable design. It feels much better in hands when compared to the other Android offerings in this category.

Display

Blackberry Leap
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Leap features a 5” IPS LCD display with an HD resolution. This can be a disappointment for many as even at 25k the screen is not a 1080 panel. However, in regular day to day usage the display performance is quite good. The colours look punchy, well saturated and the good level of brightness makes the content visible in out-door conditions.

Moreover, the screen delivers a pixel count 294ppi, which is not very good on spec sheet. And as it is an LCD panel, it is a bit reflective and the blacks are not pitch black like in AMOLED displays. But still the icons, text and images look crisp and you will not feel much of a difference in everyday usage.

We also performed the brightness test through the Light meter and Leap’s LCD display delivered a score of 485. This is a good score if we look at the price point of the Blackberry Leap. HTC One M9+ scored 497 in the Light meter test, despite a 2K LCD 3 display. But overall we liked the display on Blackberry Leap.

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 Performance

Blackberry Leap is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus CPU. It is the same processor which was seen in Blackberry Z10, the first BB10 device in 2013. And it is coupled with the same 2 GB RAM to support multitasking.

Considering these specifications, Blackberry Leap surely seems like an oddball in the current smartphone landscape. However, it delivers an acceptable performance in everyday usage with some minor hiccups that is due to heavily animated BB10 UI. The processor effectively handled whatever tasks we thrown at it and the 2 GB RAM serves the multitasking requirements with an ease.

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We also ran our standard benchmark tests. Blackberry Leap scored 8,606 in Antutu, which checks the overall performance of the smartphones. In Quadrant, Leap scored 3,449. And in Vellamo Metal, Leap touched a mark of 815. LG G3 had a score of 1,493 and One Plus One scored 1,662 in the same test.

Software

The Leap runs BlackBerry 10.3.1, like the BlackBerry Classic. As we have mentioned earlier in the review of previous BB devices, the BB 10.4.1 user interface is based on swipes and is quite intuitive to use. A swipe up on the locked screen unlocks the smartphone, which comes quite handy as the placement of power button (on the top edge) makes it difficult to unlock the device from the same.

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Blackberry Leap

Swiping to extreme right gives you Blackberry HUB, one of the key aspects of BB10 operating system’s ecosystem. It serves as a centralized base of all your notifications. You can check text messages, Facebook notifications, Twitter feeds, calendar entries, appointments, emails, call history, and other reminders. You can even filter these notifications according to your requirement.

BB10 also incorporates Blackberry Blend, which lets you access your phone’s messages, documents, calendar, etc on a bigger screen. You need to install Blend client on the respective PC or Android/iOS tablet, to access your phone’s data from anywhere.

Now talking about the app ecosystem, the smartphone has Blackberry World for enterprise level secure applications for productivity and Amazon store, which serves the task for other requirements by offering up to 293,000 Android apps.

 Camera

Blackberry Leap

Leap features an 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for selfie and video-calling. Contrary to expectations, the camera performance is surprisingly good. The rear camera captures amazing shots in ample light conditions without any shutter lags. Moreover the snapper is very quick to lock the subject in focus.

The pictures taken in day-light have good contrast and saturation. The Auto HDR intelligently responds after examining the lighting conditions and the flash light is very bright to take the shots in no light situations. The low light performance is also admirable.  In all, it is the best BB camera we have used till date.

Battery and call quality

This is one department where Blackberry devices beat most of the smartphones in the market. Likewise previous smartphones we have reviewed such as Blackberry Classic, Passport and Z3; Blackberry Leap maintains the standards and does not disappoint.

It easily lasted for a day with heavy usage that includes calling, texting and everything else we do in day to day life. Under such usage pattern, 90% of the non Blackberry smartphones does not survive even for 10 hours. In our standard video playback test, Blackberry Leap touched a mark of 7 hours 25 minutes, which is longer than most of the flagship smartphones in the market.

Call quality is always solid on Blackberry devices. The audio piece delivers loud and clear sound during calls. The speaker output is not brilliant but still effectively serves the multimedia tasks. The smartphone has 16 GB in-built storage, which can be expanded up-to 128 GB.

Also Read: BlackBerry Leap launched for professionals at Rs.21,490

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