BlackBerry Leap was an April 2015 release, a point of inflection for the legendary brand in efforts to recapture a chunk of the cutthroat smartphone market. Legacy creator of secure and productivity-aimed devices, BlackBerry intended with Leap, which talks modern design while still targeting the traditional business-oriented audience-to capture a new generation of users. Leap is a fully touchscreen smartphone, a big jump from BlackBerry’s traditional use of physical keyboards as one of its well-known signatures for years.

As slim and as muscular as BlackBerry Leap with a simple design that offers a balanced appearance that sets it as a cheap but very functional device for the working class who need a sturdy but effective smartphone. It’s got a 5.0-inch IPS LCD screen, a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus CPU under the hood, plus a fine 2,800mAh battery. With such specs Leap should be good for performing daily tasks with ease but also have enough battery power to last long. Yet, despite these promising attributes, Leap faces serious challenges from the competition regarding app availability and overall performance.

While Leap may not have a landmark design, there is something more profound — how BlackBerry created a smartphone that looks unassailable, professional. The necessity to combine formal and informal activities in one device is the key idea of the project. But as we consider the features and performance in more detail, it appears that, while BlackBerry Leap has some high spots in terms of its security features and productivity tools, major limitations put it behind in an extremely competitive smartphone market.

What really makes Leap special, however, is its focus on endurance and reliability. In the current world, most devices are aiming for how hard and how much raw CPU power and how many camera modules the device manufacturer can fit into the outer casing of the device, Leap devotes its assets to battery duration, protection measures and means of communication. This is a perfect strategy for its target market: mobile businesspersons who require a device that will not lag them during the busy workday.