Blackberry Playbook review
RIM has finally released its tablet device that they called the Blackberry Playbook. As you all know, the competition that the Playbook will encounter is no ordinary. The benchmark tablet is still the iPad from Apple and there are other competing forces from Samsung and Motorola. Will RIM ever break even and captivate its audience just like it captivated the masses with the Blackberry? Does the brand have what it takes to appeal to the consumer market? Lastly, is the Blackberry Playbook a worthy investment?
Let it be straight to the point here: Blackberry Playbook may have a lot of things going on like the robust hardware, cameras and a fast processor. However, the hardware is just half of it all. Once people get past from the hardware, the real battle begins and it is the battle of software. Honestly, the operating system is still a far cry from the consumer giants namely Android and iOS. It might be more practicable if the system undertakes a little bit more incubation period before the release.
Hardware
RIM nailed it in the hardware department. It is robust and quite solid. As a 7 inch tablet, you can expect that it will be very easy to set on your hands. This makes it easier to use it outside. For example, you do not have to put it down on a flat surface to type effectively. You can use your thumbs to do the typing. In this sense, it is a very portable and easy to carry device. The screen aspect is also quite nice. Even with 1024×600 pixels, the images are quite crisp and clear. The viewing angles will amaze you but for outdoors, what can you expect, it will need a little bit more work. The screen is capacitive and is very responsive.
Usability
The Playbook runs on the Blackberry Tablet OS. This OS is based on the QNX that RIM acquired in 2010. There is a great similarity between the Blackberry Tablet OS and the WebOS. The home page has a background and the icons are floating above it, pretty much like iOS. The scrolling effect is intuitive and there is an additional bouncing effect if you reach the end. You can categorize the icons into Favorites, Media and Games. Sadly, you cannot make custom categories so it is quite limiting for those people who are vary anal about their application organization.
Data
Right now, the BB Playbook is available on WiFi model only. The WiFi is 802.11a/b/g/n but at times this tends to be a bit flaky. When it connects, the speed is quite decent and can utilize them available bandwidth. The tablet also uses Bluetooth and this can be used for the Blackberry Bridge applications and you can also connect to your BB phones for calendar and email synching. One good thing about this is that you can use the internet connection of your smartphone for the Playbook. Another good thing is that the network drive can be accessed wireless so as long as you are within reach; you can pull data from the tablet.
There are other aspects with the tablet that will give you mixed emotions. The battery life can last a day but not as robust as iPad. The app store is flat and is quite scanty compared to the iPad apps. The browser is also quite raw at the edges but it seems pretty nice and functionality. Overall, this tablet might be good but there are some things that needs more time to address, we will still await how it fares in the market and how others see the product.
Unboxing and review video of Blackberry Playbook by Mobileburn part 1
Unboxing and review video of Blackberry Playbook by Mobileburn part 2
No related posts.
Sign up to the Gadgetmix Newsletter (free) for news and reviews mailed directly to your mailbox CLICK HERE
