BlackBerry Leap: Touching biz users with a budget(ish) device

Perfect corporate fleet fodder, if you drive a hard bargain

Budget performer

Running the AnTuTu benchmarks confirmed as much. There's a considerable difference between the Leap and the 18-month-old BlackBerry Z30. The Z30’s runtime scored 26,351 and the Leap’s just 17,780. For comparison, the latest Motorola E (Snapdragon 200) notches up 21,738 – also considerably slower than a Z30.

AnTuTu benchmark results hint at the age of the Qualcomm dual-core chip, although in use it was fine for most tasks

The Z30 beat the Leap for call quality and reception, too, but I think it’s in a class of its own there.

So you can see the Leap is in the same ballpark as contemporary budget Androids. It’s just a pity it didn’t use a Snapdragon 400. We know the potential is there: the BlackBerry Passport runs Android apps so fast and seamlessly few users in reality are able to tell what’s a native BB10 app and what’s an Android app.

As a consumer proposition, it’s a “nearly", with the camera turning in some quite decent results for a budget phone, although the focusing was a little slow sometimes. But the Leap in its current form isn’t a consumer proposition.

BlackBerry Leap: aimed business with the potential to attract consumer interest

The Reg Verdict

Where the BlackBerry Leap does start to look very attractive is as a fleet phone. For comparison, Microsoft’s Lumia 735 retails at £150 now, and its new biz-focussed Lumia 640 XL (a fine, 5.7-inch display slab) will go on sale for around £220. Take the Leap’s £160-ish excluding-VAT price, negotiate a discount, and you’ve got a pretty good deal. Apparently, the Leap was created for just that reason: BlackBerry’s corporate customers only have two new QWERTY keyboard models on offer and some staff prefer a full touch. This fits the bill. ®