BlackBerry announced the new BlackBerry Leap LTE smartphone. The phone comes with a 5-inch HD touchscreen, the lastest BlackBerry OS 10.3.1 and a 2,800mAh to support up to 25 hours of heavy use. BlackBerry said the Leap was designed for "mobile professionals who see their smartphone device as a powerful and durable productivity tool that also safeguards sensitive communications at all times".
The smartphone is equipped with support for encryption, plus built-in malware protection and back-up, wipe and restore. It also comes with BlackBerry's features such as Blend for integrated messaging acorss devices and the voice- and text-controlled Assistant. Leap users will also have access to both BlackBerry World and the Amazon Appstore for BlackBerry and Android apps.
The company did not provide details on pricing or availability of the Leap. According to a report from Recode, the phone is expected to launch this spring for around USD 275. BlackBerry’s President of Devices Ron Louks said at a press conference at Mobile World Congress that the company plans to introduce three other devices this year, including a new keyboard-based model and another that is a curved-screen device with a slide-out physical keyboard. In 2014, the company launched four phones. BlackBerry also announced that the BlackBerry Classic phone will be available soon in blue, white and bronze versions, in addition to the existing black.
