Blackberry Playbook- a classy 7 inch portable tablet

The RIM Blackberry Playbook is a business, 7 inch tablet released by RIM, the company behind the highly successful line of smart phones released under the Blackberry monicker. The tablet runs on the proprietary Blackberry OS, which is a modified version of the QNX operating system, that RIM purchased a while back and developed to serve a 7 inch tablet. The slate is aimed at business professionals and of course that it can be part of a nice, little ecosystem with a Blackberry phone for moving files and synching content.

But it’s not everything the tablet can do, as the powerful hardware and good screen recommends the slate also as an entertainment device. But let’s start with the design. The 7 inch tablet has a rubber plastic coating on the back, that feels both smooth and offers a great grip. It’s that type of classy finish we find only on hind end machines, without making the tablet feel bulky or something, as the Playbook weighs only 425 grams. The edges also have a rubbery coating going over the buttons, while the front of the device is all glass, with a black bezel framing the actual screen under the edge to edge glass.

The 1024 x 600 screen is a great addition for a 7 inch slate

The screen has a 1024 x 600 resolution, which is very good for a 7 inch tablet. It’s a resolution that allows for good text viewing, both in landscape and portrait mode. The screen supports multi touch gestures and is very bright and responsive, as well as having good viewing angles. What’s cool about the touch experience on the Playbook is that not only the actual display is touch sensitive, but also the black bezel going around it. So if you want to kill an app, all you have to do is swipe up on the bezel and you can stop it, without having to go hit and miss with the red close button hovering around the application window.

The Playbook comes with a dual core, 1 GHZ processor and 1 GB of RAM, a hardware setup similar to those on other high flying tablets. As a plus, the Blackberry OS is said to be better at dealing with RAM and multiprocessing, so you might have a smoother experience on the Playbook than on other tablets. The OS of the Playbook is quite original, but it’s really easy to use even by people new to mobile devices. The notifications areas are situated on the top and bottom of the screen, informing you about incoming messages, battery status and the works. Moving through apps is done horizontally, by swiping to the left or to the right of the screen. This takes you through card like previews of the apps and in order to launch it, you just have to tap on it.

Gaming and video playback are a treat on the Playbook

The Playbook, which comes with Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support, can deal without problems with 1080p playback (both locally or on an external display via the HDMI port), gaming, productivity tools and basically any kind of app that a tablet might need. Also, the OS is going through some modifications in order to support Android apps. Right now, the Playbook has a rather small number of available apps and coming with support for Android apps and the Android Market would definitely make this a much more popular tablet.

The device comes with WiFi and blue tooth, and 3G is possible via a 3G able Blackberry phone by tethering. A 4G version of the Playbook will be released by Verizon during the Christmas season of 2011. The cheapest Playbook goes for $499, and for that money you get the basic model, with only 16 GB of flash storage. For an additional 100 bucks, you get the 32 GB version, while the $699 top model comes with 64 GB. It’s definitely cheaper than the Motorola Xoom tablet and is very similar to the cheapest iPad; of course, both have bigger displays.

Although not large, the current selection of available apps for the Playbook offers enough games and other entertainment apps

Overall, the Playbook is one of the most important tablets we’ve got out there in 2011. It’s a superbly built machine with very good hardware, as well as packing an exciting new OS. If RIM can deal with the still unfinished OS (the same problem Honeycomb has) and will come with more apps for their community, the Playbook may be the next 7 inch wonder that tries to hinder with the 10 inch form factor.

Tags: 7 inch tablets, BlackBerry PlayBook, dual core processor

Last updated: March 30, 2012 | Published: May 1st, 2011 | See the comments or add yours!