BlackBerry Leap Price $275 USD, Complete Specs, Features : 2015 Full Touchscreen BB, Officially Unveiled at Mobile World Congress 2015
Canadian electronics giant, BlackBerry, has just formally announced an exciting midrange smartphone via their presentation at the 2015 Mobile World Congress currently taking place at Barcelona, Spain.
Made for professionals who are looking for a device that can help them masterfully balance work and play all while staying secure and protected, BlackBerry Leap is essentially an affordable 5-inch HD full touchscreen smartphone with BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS, long battery life, and best-in-class virtual keyboard that optimizes personal productivity and control.
"In today's mobile world – influenced by trends like BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) – where personal and corporate data are frequently under attack from hackers, companies and everyday consumers are finding out the hard way that mobile security is paramount. BlackBerry Leap was built specifically for mobile professionals who see their smartphone device as a powerful and durable productivity tool that also safeguards sensitive communications at all times," shared Mr. Ron Louks, President for Devices and Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry.
He added, "With BlackBerry Leap complementing the latest BlackBerry portfolio, including BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Classic, we continue to provide products and services that meet the needs of our consumer and enterprise customers."
Design Identity
BB Leap flaunts a highly corporate look highlighted by a heavily structured face framing its 5-inch HD display. Flipping the phone over, you will see its non-removable plastic back plate with bedimpled matte finish, which supposedly gives it fine, soft texture when you hold it all while increasing traction or friction with your hand to decrease the chance of accidental drops.
Security, Productivity, Communications and Collaboration Tools (information c/o BlackBerry)
As expected from a BlackBerry smartphone, BB Leap features applications and services that allows you to do more while protecting you against threats and letting you stay private.
Security to Maintain Privacy – You can feel safe in the knowledge that BlackBerry Leap was designed with the highest standards of security in mind to protect your privacy. It is equipped with support for encryption, plus built-in malware protection and back-up, wipe and restore. All to give you control and help secure your data against the next embarrassing and potentially costly cyber-attack.
Battery That Powers Through a Full Day – With up to 25 hours of heavy use, the BlackBerry Leap will power through even your most demanding day. The impressive 2,800 mAh battery and optimization of power consumption in BlackBerry 10 gives users more than a full day of productive usage.
Best-in-Class BlackBerry Keyboard – Type faster and more accurately on a touchscreen keyboard that learns how you write. With superior error correction, multi-language support, customized adaption and flow, BlackBerry’s touchscreen keyboard helps to reduce the mistakes and missteps that can hold you back.
BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 – BlackBerry Leap comes preloaded with the new BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, offering a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar so that users’ most commonly accessed functions are in the center of their screen. Additional features include:
BlackBerry Blend – BlackBerry Blend brings messaging and content that is on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet. Get instant message notifications, read and respond to your work and personal email, BBM or text messages, and access your documents, calendar, contacts and media in real time on whatever device you are on, powered by your BlackBerry. BlackBerry Blend works across desktop operating systems, including Mac OS X 10.7 +, Windows 7+ and Android tablets running Android 4.4+ via cellular, USB or Wi-Fi connections.
BlackBerry Assistant – The BlackBerry Assistant is BlackBerry’s first digital assistant and can be used with voice and text commands to help users manage work and personal email, contacts, calendar and other native BlackBerry 10 applications. It’s the only smartphone assistant on the market today that can access both personal and work content in your work perimeter. BlackBerry Assistant intelligently determines how to respond to you based on how you interact with it – if you type, it responds silently, if you speak, it speaks back and if you activate over Bluetooth, it speaks back with additional context because it assumes you might not have access to the screen.
Dual app storefronts pre-loaded for access to a huge selection of apps for work and play:
BlackBerry World – BlackBerry World offers essential business and productivity apps for professionals looking to drive efficient communications and collaboration including Box, Evernote, Cisco WebEx Meetings and Documents to Go.
Amazon Appstore – Discover and download popular Android apps and games through the Amazon Appstore including Candy Crush Saga, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Kindle and Amazon Shopping.
Decent Technical Specifications
In terms of specs, BlackBerry Leap is not particularly a powerhouse smartphone but what it has should be good enough for most consumers. The handset comes with an 8 MegaPixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 2 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, Full HD 30fps video recorder, and 4G LTE connectivity support, which is quite a treat given its affordable price. Under the hood, BB Leap runs BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 with its Dual Core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU and Adreno 305 GPU based Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset, has 1GB of RAM, and comes with a sizable 16GB of expandable storage.
Pricing and Availability
BlackBerry Leap is now available for pre-order in Europe and the United States for only $275 USD off-contract -- that's around Php 12,150 with current conversion. The company hasn't disclosed details about the handset's availability in Asia but I believe we could expect to see it in store shelves in the Philippines within Q2 2015.
Made for professionals who are looking for a device that can help them masterfully balance work and play all while staying secure and protected, BlackBerry Leap is essentially an affordable 5-inch HD full touchscreen smartphone with BlackBerry 10.3.1 OS, long battery life, and best-in-class virtual keyboard that optimizes personal productivity and control.
"In today's mobile world – influenced by trends like BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) – where personal and corporate data are frequently under attack from hackers, companies and everyday consumers are finding out the hard way that mobile security is paramount. BlackBerry Leap was built specifically for mobile professionals who see their smartphone device as a powerful and durable productivity tool that also safeguards sensitive communications at all times," shared Mr. Ron Louks, President for Devices and Emerging Solutions at BlackBerry.
He added, "With BlackBerry Leap complementing the latest BlackBerry portfolio, including BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Classic, we continue to provide products and services that meet the needs of our consumer and enterprise customers."
Design Identity
BB Leap flaunts a highly corporate look highlighted by a heavily structured face framing its 5-inch HD display. Flipping the phone over, you will see its non-removable plastic back plate with bedimpled matte finish, which supposedly gives it fine, soft texture when you hold it all while increasing traction or friction with your hand to decrease the chance of accidental drops.
At the topmost part of the back plate, there's this glossy plastic strip that frames the camera module and extends to either sides of the phone. For me, this is one of the distinguishing design accents of the handset when you look at it from its rear.
All Photos in the Post are by Mobile Syrup
Security, Productivity, Communications and Collaboration Tools (information c/o BlackBerry)
As expected from a BlackBerry smartphone, BB Leap features applications and services that allows you to do more while protecting you against threats and letting you stay private.
Security to Maintain Privacy – You can feel safe in the knowledge that BlackBerry Leap was designed with the highest standards of security in mind to protect your privacy. It is equipped with support for encryption, plus built-in malware protection and back-up, wipe and restore. All to give you control and help secure your data against the next embarrassing and potentially costly cyber-attack.
Battery That Powers Through a Full Day – With up to 25 hours of heavy use, the BlackBerry Leap will power through even your most demanding day. The impressive 2,800 mAh battery and optimization of power consumption in BlackBerry 10 gives users more than a full day of productive usage.
Best-in-Class BlackBerry Keyboard – Type faster and more accurately on a touchscreen keyboard that learns how you write. With superior error correction, multi-language support, customized adaption and flow, BlackBerry’s touchscreen keyboard helps to reduce the mistakes and missteps that can hold you back.
BlackBerry 10 OS 10.3.1 – BlackBerry Leap comes preloaded with the new BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, offering a fresh look that incorporates updated icons and an instant action bar so that users’ most commonly accessed functions are in the center of their screen. Additional features include:
BlackBerry Blend – BlackBerry Blend brings messaging and content that is on your BlackBerry smartphone to your computer and tablet. Get instant message notifications, read and respond to your work and personal email, BBM or text messages, and access your documents, calendar, contacts and media in real time on whatever device you are on, powered by your BlackBerry. BlackBerry Blend works across desktop operating systems, including Mac OS X 10.7 +, Windows 7+ and Android tablets running Android 4.4+ via cellular, USB or Wi-Fi connections.
BlackBerry Assistant – The BlackBerry Assistant is BlackBerry’s first digital assistant and can be used with voice and text commands to help users manage work and personal email, contacts, calendar and other native BlackBerry 10 applications. It’s the only smartphone assistant on the market today that can access both personal and work content in your work perimeter. BlackBerry Assistant intelligently determines how to respond to you based on how you interact with it – if you type, it responds silently, if you speak, it speaks back and if you activate over Bluetooth, it speaks back with additional context because it assumes you might not have access to the screen.
Dual app storefronts pre-loaded for access to a huge selection of apps for work and play:
BlackBerry World – BlackBerry World offers essential business and productivity apps for professionals looking to drive efficient communications and collaboration including Box, Evernote, Cisco WebEx Meetings and Documents to Go.
Amazon Appstore – Discover and download popular Android apps and games through the Amazon Appstore including Candy Crush Saga, Pinterest, SoundCloud, Kindle and Amazon Shopping.
Decent Technical Specifications
In terms of specs, BlackBerry Leap is not particularly a powerhouse smartphone but what it has should be good enough for most consumers. The handset comes with an 8 MegaPixel autofocus camera with LED flash, 2 MegaPixel front cam for selfies, Full HD 30fps video recorder, and 4G LTE connectivity support, which is quite a treat given its affordable price. Under the hood, BB Leap runs BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 with its Dual Core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU and Adreno 305 GPU based Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset, has 1GB of RAM, and comes with a sizable 16GB of expandable storage.
Pricing and Availability
BlackBerry Leap is now available for pre-order in Europe and the United States for only $275 USD off-contract -- that's around Php 12,150 with current conversion. The company hasn't disclosed details about the handset's availability in Asia but I believe we could expect to see it in store shelves in the Philippines within Q2 2015.
| Name | BlackBerry Leap |
| Type | Slate Form Factor (Full Touchscreen) |
| Price Category | Midrange |
| Dimensions | 144 x 72.8 x 9.5 mm |
| Weight | 170 grams |
| Available Colors | Black |
| Operating System | BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 |
| Display | 5.0 inches (~65.7% screen-to-body ratio), 720 x 1280 pixels (~294 ppi pixel density), capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
| Processor | Dual Core 1.5 GHz Krait CPU, Adreno 305 GPU, Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 Plus chipset |
| RAM | 2 GB RAM |
| Internal Storage | 16 GB, expandable via microSD card slot supporting up to 128GB |
| Camera | Main: 8 MegaPixels, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Front: 2 MegaPixels |
| Video Capture | Main: Full HD 1080p 30 frames per second for main camera Front: 720p 30fps |
| Audio and Video Playback | MP3, WAV, eAAC+, FlAC, WMA, MP4, H.264, WMV player |
| Ports | microUSB v2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Wi-Fi Direct, DLNA, Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0 with A2DP, EDR, 3G HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps, HSPA+; 4G LTE |
| GPS | Yes, with GLONASS and A-GPS |
| FM Radio | Yes |
| Sensors | Accelerometer, Proximity |
| Network | 2G Network Bands GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900, 3G Network Bands HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100, 4G LTE 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600 (Bands 1, 3, 7, 8, 20) |
| SIM Card Type | microSIM |
| Battery | Non-removable 2,800 mAh battery |
| Uptime | TBD |
| Value-Added Features | BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Internet Services |
| Announcement | March 3, 2015 - Mobile World Congress, Barcelona |
| Availability | March 2015 |
| Price | Official: $275 USD (Retail) |
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