The
tablet competition is heating up this year as almost every company
capable of designing and manufacturing a tablet is coming out with their
own version of the portable computing device.A few days before it hit the shelves in the United States, the new BlackBerry PlayBook was introduced to a few members of the Philippine press, including this writer. It was a seemingly modest preview—no grand launch-type venue, no elaborate stage setups, no cocktails. But it was different and memorable because the venue was moving. The PlayBook was unveiled aboard a party bus that was all pimped out with the brand plastered all around it and decked to maximize the tablet-touring pleasure.
First look would suggest that the PlayBook is the most powerful tablet in the market. It claims to be “the world’s first dual-core, multi-processing, multitasking, ultra-thin, enterprise ready, professional-grade tablet.” What this means is that the device is actually a personal computer in tablet form. At 0.9 lbs displaying a 1024x600 resolution on a 7-inch multi-touch capacitive screen, it’s hard to believe that the super-portable PlayBook can actually process a lot.
But it can. And it does. This is attributed to the “full computing power” courtesy of the 1 GHz dual-core processor running the new BlackBerry Tablet OS, together with the fully enabled Adobe Flash and built-in HTML5 support.
The preview showed that it can carry out true multi-tasking as this writer viewed multiple web pages in full capacity while playing a game and letting a video run in the background simultaneously. Switching between programs is done by swiping, flicking and other finger gestures that correspond to different commands. You can view all your open programs as cards and choose which one to maximize and which one to close. It utilizes the whole screen, which is really responsive, as some commands require you to swipe from the edge of the screen where the black border is.
The PlayBook isn’t heavy on apps as most tablets are. It sets itself apart by mimicking the way a desktop would operate—including being optimized for landscape orientation—and provides non-mobile rendering of Web pages, thus, eliminating the need to rely on apps for optimum functionality. (YouTube is viewed in a complete page, not in light version.) That said, it lacks familiar tablet native apps like email, contacts and calendar. But you can wirelessly connect to your BlackBerry phone to access these features.
Similar to some BlackBerry phones, the tablet emphasizes on multimedia entertainment with dedicated keys at the top of the device to easily access and control music and video files. The device measures 5.1x7.6x0.4 inches. It has a 5MP rear-facing camera and a 3MP front-facing one and can connect to high-speed networks, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The enterprise ready tag is satisfied by out-of-the-box compatibility with the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, corporate data access and security.
No local release date and price points for the BlackBerry PlayBook are available yet as of this writing. For more information
