BlackBerry Leap
BlackBerry Leap
On the outside, the BlackBerry Leap emulates a design seen in the Z3, a lower end touchscreen device. The build quality feels quite solid and the device weighs around 170-gms. The Leap comes with an edge-to-edge 5-inch HD display offering a resolution of 1280 X 720 pixels, BlackBerry’s latest 10.3.1 operating system and a promise of more than a full day’s battery power.
Overall, the BlackBerry Leap feels a bit big for a 5-inch device. The power button with the headphone jack and a microphone is situated at the top edge of the device.
On the right edge, you will find the volume buttons, while the left edge features a flap that reveals a micro SD card slot and the micro SIM slot. The micro USB port and a microphone are situated at the bottom edge of the device.
On the back of the device, you will find a 8-megapixel auto focus camera module along with the LED flash unit right next to it. Furthermore, the device also comes with a 2-megapixel front camera for all your selfie and video-calling needs.
Inside, the Leap’s specs include a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus chip, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage. We were quite surprised that the Leap features exactly the specs as the two-year-old Z10.
One of the biggest strengths of BlackBerry devices is the software and in this department, the Leap does not disappoint. As mentioned earlier, the Leap runs BlackBerry 10.3.1 as the operating system, just like the BlackBerry Classic. The new operating system relies a bit heavily on gestures than other mobile operating systems you find on the market.
As soon as you switch on the device, you will see a plain home screen. To bring up your app grid, all you do is swipe to the left. While swiping up from the bottom bezel will minimize what you’re looking at and pin it to the home screen, swiping down from the top bezel anywhere within the OS will give you access to a quick-settings dropdown.
One of the key features of the BB10 is BlackBerry Hub, which can be accessed by simple swiping to the right from the homescreen. The BlackBerry Hub puts all of your messages and notifications in one place – this includes text messages, emails, tweets and IMs to Facebook pokes, your call history, calendar appointments and low-battery reminders.
BB10 also comes with the BlackBerry Assistant and in the Leap, you get a dedicated button between the volume keys to summon the assistant. You can use the BlackBerry Assistant to instruct changes in settings, launching apps, messaging a friend, and so much more.
With BB10.3 you also get BlackBerry Blend, which lets you pair your BlackBerry Leap with your PC or Android/iOS tablet. All you have to do is install the Blend client on your PC or Android / iOS device and then pair it with a BlackBerry to access that phone from anywhere.
Overall user experience on the BlackBerry Leap was quite good. The included 8-megapixel camera takes some really good pictures. We liked how the camera interface on the device was light to use. The performance of the BlackBerry Leap was also good.
If you are an enterprise user who wants a device that offers awesome productivity features, the BlackBerry Leap could just be the device for you.
malikmuddser