Introduction
Many thought the days of BlackBerry were numbered yet the company is still here, pushing new phones. The Canadians might not be the leading smartphone manufacturer that it once was, but it's still got a loyal fanbase that the BlackBerry Leap comes to cater to.
You get a 5" HD display, dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, an 8MP shooter and a rich connectivity package - not the kind of specs to make a geek's pulse race, but adequate for the mid-range that the Leap is targeting. The design is instantly recognizable - square edges, plastic unibody and dotted rear panel with a huge BlackBerry logo. It's more of the classic kind, rather than modern or fresh, but that's a good thing to say for a business-oriented phone.
Key features
- 5" 720p LCD capacitive touchscreen, 294ppi
- Dual-core 1.5GHz Krait CPU, 2GB of RAM, Adreno 225 GPU; Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset
- 8MP autofocus camera, single-LED flash; HDR, Panorama
- 1080@30fps video recording
- 2MP front camera, 720p video recording
- 16GB of built-in storage, expandable via a microSD slot
- Cat. 3 LTE (100/50Mbps); Wi-Fi b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0; GPS with A-GPS; FM; microUSB
- 2,800mAh battery
- BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 with native Android app support (4.3 Jelly Bean API)
Main disadvantages
- BlackBerry OS 10 not quite as functional as major rivals
- Processor is decidedly underpowered
- Non-IPS screen
- No NFC
- Non-removable battery
The BlackBerry Leap is hardly a hero device set to lift the profile of the company - instead it's a workhorse that should bring in some extra sales and help keep the maker afloat until it figures out its next strategic move. And on paper it looks capable of handling the task.
BlackBerry Leap official pictures
Of course we shouldn't forget that competition in the mid-range has never been this fierce. What was once a land of underperforming handsets trying to replicate flagships designs with cheaper materials and often failing spectacularly now hosts a bunch of very solid smartphones that can cater to the needs of many a power user. The Leap needs to convince us it's got what it takes to compete there, offering enough standout features to attract attention and a well-balanced experience to make customers reach for their wallets.
Let's see how this one goes - we start with the unboxing and hardware inspection after the break.
Display
The Leap boasts a 5.0" LCD screen of 720p resolution (720 x 1280 pixels). It's a regular LCD unit, as the company obviously felt IPS was out of budget. The pixel density clocks in at 294 ppi, which is way below what this season's flagships offer - but, admittedly, crisp enough for comfortable reading and viewing.
The transition from AMOLED and IPS screens to regular LCD panels has cost the BlackBerry Leap somewhat in terms of contrast, but it manages to keep it over the high notes. The colors are still pretty great, but the viewing angles took a major hit - colors get washed and distorted once you start looking the screen at an angle.
| Display test | 50% brightness | 100% brightness | ||||
| Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | Black, cd/m2 | White, cd/m2 | |||
| - | - | - | 0.48 | 472 | 972 | |
| - | - | - | 0.46 | 617 | 1341 | |
| - | - | - | 0.38 | 575 | 1532 | |
| 0 | 152 | ∞ | 0 | 301 | ∞ | |
| 0.21 | 223 | 1087 | 0.49 | 533 | 1078 | |
| - | - | - | 0.34 | 626 | 1819 | |
| 0.3 | 273 | 943 | 0.58 | 561 | 974 | |
Sunlight legibility is average, as testified by the BlackBerry Leap's performance in our dedicated test.
Sunlight contrast ratio
BlackBerry Leap does auto-brightness correction all the time and there is no option to turn it off.
Battery life
The BlackBerry Leap packs a non-removable 2,800 mAh battery of the Li-Ion kind. According to the official specs it should be enough for up to 25 hours of mixed use, 12 hours on talks or two weeks on standby. BlackBerry even promised it will be enough for 9.5 hours of video playback.
We did our traditional battery test and we found the BlackBerry Leap to be behind the curve. It achieved and endurance rating of 45 hours, which means you can rely on it for two full days if you use the Leap for an hour of 3G calls, video playback and web browsing each day. Its standby performance is really poor and that's affecting the total performance a lot.
BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 introduces a Battery Saving Mode, which allows you to optimize your daily usage even better. You can configure it to limit the CPU performance, location and data services, notifications, and brightness, and advanced gestures. The Battery Saving mode can be either activated manually, or set to turn on automatically at certain battery level. Using the Battery Saving mode may boost your battery life so we recommend trying it.
Connectivity
The BlackBerry Leap has all your basic connectivity needs covered. It's an LTE-capable smartphone, with maximum speeds under Category 3 standard - up to 100Mbps for download and up to 50Mbps for upload.
The smartphone has Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n only in the 2.4GHz spectrum, but does have Miracast and hotspot support. Bluetooth is the 4.0 iteration, with A2DP enabled for audio streaming. There's no NFC, but there is an FM radio.
There's GPS with A-GPS support, but no GLONASS positioning.
The microUSB 2.0 port supports USB syncing with a PC and data transfers, but no USB OTG. A standard 3.5mm jack completes the wired connectivity package.
[via GSMARENA]
