Blackberry PlayBook

RIM has added the BlackBerry PlayBook to its catalog of mobile hardware devices and is targeted mostly at the business user. Despite the name, the PlayBook tablet features apps and technology geared toward more serious functions and in most areas it succeeds excellently.

The sober look of the PlayBook tablet echoes that of the Apple iPad and, while not exactly exciting, certainly shows off the 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen in perfect fashion for displaying video, PowerPoint presentations and the like.

Additionally, PlayBook does offer connectivity that the iPad doesn’t, including micro HDMI and micro USB ports. Strangely, however, there is no standard USB port to connect the tablet to a laptop or PC. Up to a big 64 GB is available for storage on the highest-end model. Incredibly, despite the extra hardware, the PlayBook is still just 0.4” (about 1 cm) thick and 0.9 pounds (0.4 kilograms), both marks besting the iPad 2. Flash 10.1 is supported, and the BlackBerry PlayBook includes a custom Adobe reader as well.

Speed and efficiency get the BlackBerry PlayBook high marks as well. The 1 GHz OMAP microprocessor is among the tops out there, and the QNX operating system is noted for driving security measures particularly well. Battery life is decent, with the PlayBook managing a bit over seven hours with heavy use; this falls a couple hours short of Apple’s tablets, but still bests the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000 tablet.