Blackberry Playbook - new pc tablet review

It seems that the Tablet PC market has just got a helluva lot more interesting - now that Research In Motion, creators of all things Blackberry have announced the early 2011 release of the new Blackberry Playbook. And it looks the business. Aimed at the Business Market, the Playbook is packed with features many complained were missing from Apple's iPad. Well, fear not. If it's Flash display-ability you like, Games to love and die for, Apps to work on, usb / hdmi connectivity, ebook readability with wifi and bluetooth to boot, then you may want to consider trading up that iPad to this clearly superior device, the Blackberry Playbook.Oh, and it's way compatible with Blackberry Smartphones too.

Blackberry clearly want users to have full access to everything on the web, so the Playbook comes with a Browser with HTML 5 and Flash 10.1 display capability. Like the many Smartphones it makes, Blackberry clearly sees the gap provided by Apple's refusal to support Flash as an opportunity to corner this important market. Most advertisements and Video content on the entire web are Flash-based. The Playbook comes with front and rear-facing HD cameras for Video Conferencing. It sports 1 GB of Ram, a 1Ghz dual Core Processor. The full list of specs is as follows:

-- 7" LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch
and gesture support
-- BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
-- 1 GHz dual-core processor
-- 1 GB RAM
-- Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD
video recording
-- Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
-- Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
-- HDMI video output
-- Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
-- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
-- Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
-- Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5,
Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL,
Java
-- Ultra thin and portable:
-- Measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
-- Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
-- Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will
be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail
outlets.
-- RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the near future.

As can be seen, this Blackberry has the very same capacitive touch-screen technology used in both iPad and iPhones. While developers are about to get their lucky hands on some models - it goes on sale in the start of 2011 in America, with the rest of the world following in Q2 of 2011. The price has yet to be confirmed, but Blackberry say it will be competitively priced against the Apple iPad. We live in hope.

So the Battle of the Tablet PCs begins in earnest. Admittedly, RIM has yet to set a price, but it's thought it will fall in the lower range of prices for consumer tablets already in the suddenly congested market.

Kate Solomon of mobile news and views site Recombu.com said - "it's by far the most exciting thing we've seen from BlackBerry for a while and for once the buzz seems to have been justified."

Although the Memory storage has not been stated, Blackberry say it will easily rival that of the iPad from Apple. Already sporting the ability to Multi-task and perform split-screen applications, such as presentation and note jotting ability all on the same screen - it appears that the Playbook is for serious users.

The Playbook's major appeal comes in the 7-inch screen with front and rear facing cameras to enable video conferencing, an important feature that will appeal to the business market. Another surprise is the operating system, which not use new Blackberry OS 6 but instead opts for QNX software. This was recently acquired by RIM and has extensive expertise in embedded systems for the car. RIM are clearly moving in a new direction with this product, and for iPad lovers, the competition is underway. This new OS is designed specifically for the tablet size computer and will avoid the difficulties that come from adjusting a smartphone OS to the tablet platform.It could also see Blackberry possibly getting into the future portable PC market in other ways. Could we be seeing another Android-type system in the works here?

Users and owners of the Amazon Kindle will be impressed by the Playbooks ability to read ebooks. Already with full HTML and Adobe Reader technology enabled, this is going to be a great eBook reader, and may have many important uses in the educational market. I do not see the ePub standard supported here, but will watch future announcements closely.

In a conference called TechCrunch Disrupt, (eerily similar to a well-known TechCrunch Blog we read here,) Todd Bradley, a company's executive vice president for the personal systems group in Hewlett Packard admitted tablets are going to be a huge market in the next few years - worth $40bn.

And not to be out-done, Samsung recently introduced its Galaxy tablet, as Dell did also with the 5 inch Dell Streak. Other companies waiting in the wings with Tablet PCs include Lenovo, Asus, HTC, (another major smartphone maker in Taiwan) and Acer, as are Google (with the Android OS) and Microsoft.

Now the world has woken up to the fact that tablet PC's are more than just some gadget or gimmick, and now seem to have a clear definition of a market to appeal to. While the Apple Apps vary from essential to almost useless and thus free to download, Blackberry have put manners on Apple with a serious Tablet PC that does serious tasks. And with an expandable and entendable system - it seems that Blackberry's stock has definitely gone up. The future is looking better already.

Article Copyright (c) 2010 Cheeky Girl