Blackberry released a new phone and showed a new smartphone prototype at MWC 2015, even though the company was not officially listed as an exhibitor. In a private event, the company showed that it is still alive and working on developing new phones.
The new LTE smartphone LEAP is of the touch only type and more in line with other smartphones in the market today. It has no separate keyboard, one of BlackBerry’s staple features in the smartphone market. The LEAP comes with a 5″ HD display (294 ppi), 16GB of storage and a 25h battery life on mixed use (9.5h on video playback).
The new phone runs, of course, on BlackBerry 10 OS and claims superior security features, another staple of BlackBerry. The company also says that its touch-based keyboard is the best in class and has the ability to learn how the user types.
According to The Business Insider, the LEAP is aimed at Indonesia and Brazil initially. The cost is $275 and it will also be rolled out in the USA and some European markets. As the price and the specifications indicate, this phone is not aimed at the high end market, but rather at the lower mid-range market.
The company also showed off a new prototype phone that was much more exciting from a display perspective. This new phone has no name at the moment, but shows off a flexible AMOLED display, bent at the edge similarly to the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. OLED-Info.com showed a picture of this new phone that in addition to the curved display also features a pull out keyboard.
Analyst Comment
The display seems to come from Samsung, indicating an ongoing relationship between BlackBerry and Samsung. BlackBerry has used Samsung OLED displays before and also has access to flexible AMOLED displays. Considering that these displays are somewhat of a crown jewel for Samsung Display at the moment, the prototype does indeed indicate a good relationship. Even though Samsung had announced not so long ago that it has no interest in acquiring the assets of BlackBerry (Samsung has no Interest in Buying BlackBerry) – NH
