BlackBerry PlayBook Hands On Preview

15 April 2011, Singapore – The BlackBerry PlayBook is multi-processing, multi-tasking, enterprise-ready and marketed as a professional grade tablet amongst the huge variety of tablets that will be released this year. First impression of the tablet is its simple and chic design which fits comfortable in your palm and ,most importantly, it’s very light weighing only 425g, making it one of the lightest tablets available.

The 7″ LCD display (1024x600p) produces crisp and clear images, and is Full Adobe Flash 10.1 enabled.  Playing a HD Youtube video on the PlayBook looks great and you get clear and loud sound from its built-in speakers. Surfing the web is easier compared to some other mobile devices because the web browser is not recognised as a mobile device, so websites will be loaded as full websites (like those you see on your desktop) as opposed to the shrunk-down mobile websites.

The BlackBerry PlayBook comes with a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 3 megapixel front facing camera which the tablet supports video chat functions. We did not have a chance to test out the picture quality of the cameras as it was not bright enough where we had our hands on for this new product.  We hope to show you more when, and if ,we get our review set from RIM.

The BlackBerry PlayBook is equipped with 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB RAM and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS, which supports symmetric multiprocessing that provide users with true multitasking experience and highly responsive touch screen experience when using the tablet. Check video below to see Multiprocessing in action.

On the flipside, the BlackBerry PlayBook does not allow you real time access to your Emails, Calendar, Address Book, Task List and BlackBerry Messenger. You need to be a BlackBerry Smartphone user to access these with BlackBerry Bridge to wirelessly connect your BlackBerry PlayBook. Real time access to these functions are only exclusive to Blackberry Smartphone users.   Alternatively, for non-BlackBerry Smartphone users they can use web based solutions, like Gmail or Google Calendar to replace these functions.

For BlackBerry Smartphone users, the PlayBook can use the 3G connection on the smartphone by establishing a link between the two devices using BlackBerry Bridge.

The BlackBerry PlayBook will be launched in USA on 19 April 2011 with three variations, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB WIFI editions with prices starting from US$499.

BlackBerry PlayBook was officially launched on 8 June 2011 at a celebrity filled launch party at the Red Dot Museum in Singapore.  Check out the photos here.

I personally like the overall experience. The BlackBerry PlayBook offers, sleek & powerful hardware and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS user interface is quite easy to pick up and get used to. But I hope that RIM will address the issue of opening up more functions for non BlackBerry Smartphone users which may a show stopper for non BlackBerry Smartphone users.

Check out the first look video by Daniel from Tech65.org:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr3PWmDXODk

 

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