New arrivals: BlackBerry Leap in Singapore for business users

The mid-tier 5-inch all-touch smartphone is now available in Singapore for S$389 from M1, Singtel and StarHub.

The new BlackBerry Leap is an all-touch alternative to the mid-tier BlackBerry Classic.

The new BlackBerry Leap is an all-touch alternative to the mid-tier BlackBerry Classic.

BlackBerry Leap is basically the all-touch version of the Classic – the other BlackBerry mid-tier smartphone – for those who prefer an onscreen keyboard over the traditional QWERTY keyboard in the similarly-priced sibling.

Like the Classic, the new Leap is targeted mainly at the business user whose main priority is to get work done – effectively and efficiently – while on the go.

BlackBerry Leap features the latest BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system, an edge-to-edge five-inch HD display and more than a full day’s battery power.

First look

I had a quick hands-on with the new BlackBerry Leap last week when John Sims, BlackBerry’s President of of Global Sales was in town last week to brief the deployment of a new automated fare collection system in Southeast Asia that’s based on the company’s QNX Neutrino OS.

Check out the first impressions below that I had from trying out the phone over lunch.

First impressions

First off, I like the feel of the rubberised back of the BlackBerry Leap.

The Leap measures 144 x 72.8 x 9.5mm and is bigger than the Classic.

The rubberised back has a nice touch and feel to it.

The rubberised back has a nice touch and feel to it.

Its 5-inch screen has 1280 x 720 HD resolution with 16:9 aspect ratio, with an 8-megapixel auto-focus rear camera with flash and 1080p video capture, as well as a 2-megapixel front camera with 720p video recording.
The display looks vivid with its 24-bit colour depth but resolution was not particularly impressive with only HD resolution.

Powered by a Qualcomm 8960 Dual Core 1.5GHz processor with 2GB DDR2 RAM and 16GB eMMC storage, the BlackBerry Leap accepts MicroSD cards for up to 128GB additional storage and is capable of LTE.

Check and respond to all messages in the one-stop BlackBerry Hub.

Check and respond to all messages in the one-stop BlackBerry Hub.

The Leap feels responsive and fast and I like how the BlackBerry Hub makes it easy to monitor all messages and handle them in one place – whether the messages are from SMS, emails, Watsapp etc.

You can view and respond without leaving the BlackBerry Hub to fire up individual messaging apps.

And you can take a peek at the Hub at any time, from any app, without even going into the Hub. Simply drag inwards from the left edge of the phone.

I also found the typing on the keyboard quick and intuitive. And it gets better quickly as the Leap learns your typing style as you go – in terms of word-use and the way the user’s fingers land on specific keys on the screen.

The new BlackBerry Leap is an all-touch smartphone with a 5-inch HD display.

The new BlackBerry Leap is an all-touch smartphone with a 5-inch HD display.

The camera took pretty decent photos and the photo editor provided the usual photo adjustment tools all within the camera app.

Damian Tay, the Senior Director for Asia-Pacific Product Management at BlackBerry showed me how you could take a snapshot, quickly edit it and share it on social media all within the same app – without having to exit the camera app to go into other photo browsing, editing and sharing apps.

His main take on the device was that the Leap was designed to make it easier and more efficient at helping working people get things done – and therefore become more productive.

This philosophy can be seen in how the workflow for the Hub enable the user to monitor and respond to messages in one place.

Overall, the BlackBerry Leap is a good mid-tier phone that’s targeted at the working professional – enabling the user to do his job on the move, with the usual smartphone features for personal use and entertainment.

Top features of the BlackBerry Leap include:

The specifications sheet for the BlackBerry Leap can be viewed/downloaded below.

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