It really has been a tablet-filled year. Not to be made irrelevant, Research in Motion has released the first BlackBerry tablet — the PlayBook. Funny it's named that since RIM describes it as "the world's first professional-grade tablet" and its market seems to be more corporate suit than entertainment. And fight well it shall in the corporate suit. The seven-inch screen form factor makes the device very "pocketable" and easy to carry around. Movies won't be as much fun on this but that's not what PlayBook is going for anyway.
The exterior is, unsurprisingly, all black. The back has a smooth matte finish and the front is adorned with a glossy screen surrounded by a thick bezel. The device feels sturdy yet classy. The bottom features the HDMI port, micro USB port and dock connector. The top has volume control buttons, play/pause button and the power button, the last being frustratingly difficult to press. Although it sounds minor, it may just be the biggest annoyance.
The device has two cameras — 5MP at the back and 3MP in front — and both are good. You can shoot full HD video with the rear-facing camera and the PlayBook does a decent job of it.
The width of the bezel would have been an annoyance on any other device, but RIM found a way to make it useful on the PlayBook as it is touch sensitive. You flick across the screen to activate certain menus.
The operating system is fantastic; menu transitions and application responsiveness are very quick. You can flick through the settings, photos and documents very quickly with practically no lag. The keyboard is great to type on, with a solid feedback system. Built on a new platform — the QNX — the PlayBook, in true BlackBerry fashion, does excellently what it does natively.
Unfortunately, it does even less than other BlackBerry devices. Lacking the BlackBerry Messenger, an e-mail client, calendar and even contact; the PlayBook is rather bare-boned on its own. These features can only be activated when paired with a BlackBerry phone using the BlackBerry Bridge application. That means the PlayBook is reliant on another device to be of any real use. RIM has said these applications are coming in a "future software update" so, hopefully, you won't be holding on to an outdated device.
The PlayBook does feature a suite of Office applications including document, presentation and slideshow creation and editing, besides a PDF viewer, all of which work extremely well.
But the battery life takes a beating when compared to other tablets on the market and will get you around seven hours, depending on your usage. Switch off the Wi-Fi and you can push it some more.
There aren't a lot of applications either, but RIM is working on that. Android applications will apparently be compatible on the PlayBook in the future, which should boost this number considerably.
So, for now, the PlayBook is a device with excellent hardware bundled with a mediocre and rushed software ecosystem. Die-hard BlackBerry users will find a special place in their heart for this but the rest should wait it out.
The exterior is, unsurprisingly, all black. The back has a smooth matte finish and the front is adorned with a glossy screen surrounded by a thick bezel. The device feels sturdy yet classy. The bottom features the HDMI port, micro USB port and dock connector. The top has volume control buttons, play/pause button and the power button, the last being frustratingly difficult to press. Although it sounds minor, it may just be the biggest annoyance.
The device has two cameras — 5MP at the back and 3MP in front — and both are good. You can shoot full HD video with the rear-facing camera and the PlayBook does a decent job of it.
The width of the bezel would have been an annoyance on any other device, but RIM found a way to make it useful on the PlayBook as it is touch sensitive. You flick across the screen to activate certain menus.
The operating system is fantastic; menu transitions and application responsiveness are very quick. You can flick through the settings, photos and documents very quickly with practically no lag. The keyboard is great to type on, with a solid feedback system. Built on a new platform — the QNX — the PlayBook, in true BlackBerry fashion, does excellently what it does natively.
Unfortunately, it does even less than other BlackBerry devices. Lacking the BlackBerry Messenger, an e-mail client, calendar and even contact; the PlayBook is rather bare-boned on its own. These features can only be activated when paired with a BlackBerry phone using the BlackBerry Bridge application. That means the PlayBook is reliant on another device to be of any real use. RIM has said these applications are coming in a "future software update" so, hopefully, you won't be holding on to an outdated device.
The PlayBook does feature a suite of Office applications including document, presentation and slideshow creation and editing, besides a PDF viewer, all of which work extremely well.
But the battery life takes a beating when compared to other tablets on the market and will get you around seven hours, depending on your usage. Switch off the Wi-Fi and you can push it some more.
There aren't a lot of applications either, but RIM is working on that. Android applications will apparently be compatible on the PlayBook in the future, which should boost this number considerably.
So, for now, the PlayBook is a device with excellent hardware bundled with a mediocre and rushed software ecosystem. Die-hard BlackBerry users will find a special place in their heart for this but the rest should wait it out.
1 comment:
Nice tablet by them, thanks for info.
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