MWC has always been a platform for the tech giants to showcase their best products. Devices like Samsung S6, taking hit on Apple iPhone 6 and HTC’s One M9 have already been announced and appreciated. And now its time for Blackberry’s latest smartphone – the Blackberry Leap. This device was launched on Tuesday (3rd of March) and is designed for users interested in smartphones with 4G LTE support and a professional feel. Blackberry Leap has been priced at $275 (around INR 17,000). This device is said to launch by April in US. And its availability in other markets is undisclosed yet.
Blackberry Leap sports a 5-inch touch screen offering HD resolution (720*1280 pixels) with 294ppi pixel density. SoC for the device is a dual-core Qualcomm MSM8960 clocked at 1.5GHz. RAM capacity provided is of 2GB. With 16GB internal memory, the storage capacity can be boosted up to a huge 128GB.
For camera unit, it sports an 8MP rear camera which is of auto-focus type. Rear camera is also equipped with LED flash. The front snapper is 2MP, which would be a little discouraging for the shutterbugs. As mentioned earlier, this device supports 4G LTE and other connectivity features include WiFi, A-GPS, FM Radio and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy (LE) and EDR. This EDR is an optional feature for Bluetooth which enables faster transfer of files, going up to 2Mbps.
Sensor units for the device include accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors. Absence of gyroscope can be understood as Blackberry is known for developing devices for corporate feel and not for the gaming fans. It is powered by 2800mAh battery unit, which looks decent. Blackberry Leap runs on company’s own BB10 OS (v10.3.1). Talking about the design constraints, for Leap, Blackberry has adopted its conventional style as adopted in the previous full touch device Blackberry Z3. This device was earlier tipped as Blackberry Rio Z20 in December 2014.
Looking at the specs and the design of Blackberry Leap, initial verdict can be given out that this device will certainly cheer up the executive class once again. Although it doesn’t have Blackberry’s signature keypad, it still looks suave and professional.
Amidst of all the hype around about the trending curved display units for smartphones, Blackberry too has joined the race. At its MWC event, it gave glimpses of unnamed product having a curved display unit and a slider keypad too. Blackberry teased this on Twitter too. It looks like Blackberry is trying to blend the age old idea of slider with the latest dual curved display. It will be interesting to see the outcome of this ambitious experiment.
