BlackBerry Leap: Will this touchscreen smartphone jump onto your wishlist?

BlackBerry's latest handset, an affordable touchscreen smartphone aimed at young execs, has gone on sale in the UK.

Unlike the company's last two handsets - the Passport
and the Classic - which feature physical Qwerty keyboards, the Leap is a touchscreen-only device. And whereas the Passport and the Classic are aimed at that niche audience of managers who still prefer pecking away on a hard keyboard, BlackBerry is aiming the Leap at the mass market of "young power professionals who want to get things done".
The Leap retails at £199 in the UK (in contrast, the Classic retails at £349, the Passport at £559) and BlackBerry is emphasising its security and productivity credentials in a bid to attract companies looking to roll-out large numbers of devices to junior staff.
The Leap comes with 16GB onboard storage, and microSD card support up to 128GB. The five-inch screen has a 1280 x 720 HD resolution at 294 pixels per inch and the handset also features an eight-megapixel rear camera and a two-megapixel front camera.
It runs the BlackBerry 10.3.1 operating system and the company said the 2800 mAh battery will provide up to 25 hours of heavy use. Users can download business and productivity apps from the BlackBerry World app store and games and other apps from the Amazon Appstore.
BlackBerry said that over the next few weeks the Leap will also go on sale in Germany, France, the US, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and India.