BlackBerry Leap review: Bouncing up and down

Unboxing the BlackBerry Leap

There is nothing out of the ordinary within the BlackBerry Leap retail box - there is a 1.3A charger, a microUSB cable and a pair of headphones. That's it - no additional accessories like travel adaptors or leather pouches, but we no longer expect to find such goodies anyway - even flagship go as basic as possible these days.

BlackBerry Leap retail package

BlackBerry Leap 360-degree spin

BlackBerry Leap spreads at 144 x 72.8 x 9.5 mm and tips the scales at the rather heavy 170g. The bezels around the 5" display are slightly above average and you can definitely feel the heft of the phone that contributes to the solid in-hand feel but also makes it slightly uncomfortable in some pockets.

In comparison to the 4.2" BlackBerry Z10, the Leap is 14mm taller, 7mm wider and about 33g heavier. All notable differences, but not ones that couldn't be expected given the bump in screen size.

Design and build quality

The BlackBerry Leap has a classic design that will certainly find its set of fans. It isn't going to be everyone's favorite due to its slightly conservative nature, but it won't completely disappoint many people either.

Better yet, the industrial design with square edges, thick plastic and dotted matte finish is instantly recognizable in the crowd of mid-rangers and that's an achievement of its own. The Leap isn't going to be a conversation starter when you are with your friends, but it's classy enough to let you put on the table in front of your business partners.

BlackBerry Leap

The BlackBerry Leap's unibody shell is made out entirely of thick matte plastic - either black or white, depending on your preferences. Glossy plastic is there but it has been used sparingly - only for the four control keys.

As a nice side effect to that, BlackBerry Leap isn't prone to fingerprints and smudges, no matter which color you opt for. The screen's protective glass is easier to mess up as is the norm, but it's very easy to clean, so that base is covered too.

Handling the BlackBerry Leap

The BlackBerry Leap feels great in the hand - it has excellent build and the body feels perfectly solid. The Leap is slightly too big to be operated with just one hand all the time, but it's still possible in many cases, once you get used to the cool gestures Blackberry's built in its operating system.

Controls

The BlackBerry Leap has a rather standard placement of controls. Above the screen we find the earpiece flanked by the 2MP front snapper and a couple of sensors.

A peek above the display

The left side of the Leap has three separate keys - the volume controls and the centered Voice Assistant hotkey.

The left side of the Leap has three keys

There is a huge plastic cap on the right, which gives access to the hot-swappable microSD and microSIM slots.

The two slots are on the right, under a protective plastic cap

The top of the BlackBerry Leap houses the 3.5mm audio jack, the Power/Lock key and the secondary microphone. Note that the display can be unlocked by a gesture, so we can live with the uncomfortable placement of the power key.

The top and bottom of the BlackBerry Leap

The bottom of the BlackBerry Leap is where the microUSB port and the primary microphone are. There are lots of regulatory inscriptions around as well.

The 8MP camera and the LED flash are at the back, placed on a thin piece of glass. The loudspeaker grille is in the bottom left corner.

The 8MP camera is at the back