Review: BlackBerry Leap is a mix of the company's old devices

BlackBerry Leap
PRICE: Rs 21,490

After launching the Classic with the traditional QWERTY keyboard, BlackBerry has again introduced an all-touch phone, the Leap.

The Leap has a five-inch display. Its design seems to be inspired by the company's Z3 device. It has a textured back and its back cover is non-removable. The slots for the memory and SIM cards are placed on the side panel. The power key on the top is easy to reach and the phone is comfortable to hold. While the 720p display is low according to industry standards, the text on the 4G-enabled device is crisp.

It is powered by a 1.5Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with Adreno 225 GPU and is paired with 2 GB of RAM. Overall, the phones performance is good. But not everything is great. The phone comes with 16 GB internal storage, which is a fourth of what you get on Xiaomi Mi 4 and OnePlus One for almost the same price.

The 8 MP rear camera is good and snaps images quickly. But I wasn't impressed with the 2 MP front-facing camera. While the Leap has access to two app stores - BlackBerry World and Amazon Appstore - Google apps are not pre-installed. The onscreen keyboard is smooth to type on. It has a host of security features and a Meeting app to host quick meetings on the phone itself. The biggest leap this device has made is an all-day-long battery - my review unit, with continuous push notifications and long call sessions, survived a day without requiring me to hunt for the charger or a battery pack.

BAG IT OR JUNK IT: A no-nonsense device for BlackBerry fans
PLUS: BlackBerry Hub, Battery
MINUS: Apps