RIM BlackBerry PlayBook review

With all the fuss surrounding the launch of the iPad 2 and Android 3-based tablets of late, you’d be forgiven for thinking there were no other platforms in the tablet market. This is far more than a two-horse race, however, and the latest to the starting gate is none other than RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook.

On the outside, it’s typical BlackBerry fare, expertly built with a flat back finished in matte, soft-touch plastic. With a 7in screen it’s smaller than most tablets we’ve seen recently, but this means it’s a lot more portable too – just 10.4mm thick and weighing 425g, it won’t quite fit in a jacket pocket but it’s not far off.

It might not look luxurious, but it’s much nicer to hold than the plasticky 7in Samsung Galaxy Tab. The quality is just what we’d expect from a manufacturer so well-versed in the art of producing corporate hardware.

Around the edges of the PlayBook you’ll find volume, playback and power controls and a 3.5mm headphone socket on the top edge, with a docking connector, micro USB and Micro HDMI sockets at the bottom. On the rear panel is a 5-megapixel camera, and there’s a 3-megapixel unit up front.

Under the hood there’s the now-customary dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of storage. A six-axis gyroscope handles motion sensing duties, and you get GPS plus dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for connectivity. Initially, RIM will be launching the PlayBook as a Wi-Fi-only device, with a 3G version promised further down the track.

Performance

Turn it on and the screen impresses immediately. It’s an IPS panel, just like the iPad 2’s, and with a resolution of 1,024 x 600 it’s only slightly down on pixel count. Impressively, though, it’s brighter.

Using a colorimeter, we measured a pure white screen and recorded a maximum brightness of 600cd/m2; to compare, the iPad 2 gained 411cd/m2, while the best Android 3 device we’ve seen – the Asus Eee Pad Transformer – came in at 328cd/m2.

The PlayBook’s screen does have a weakness, however: colour reproduction. Whites look slightly yellow, and reds and blues take on what we can only describe as a slightly “off” tone. This is a very small complaint, though, and otherwise the display is superb.

The main camera, meanwhile, shoots excellent 1080p video, but the 5-megapixel stills are considerably more iffy, with a noticeable grain and soft focus. Battery life is good but not stellar: playing a low-resolution video on loop, the PlayBook lasted 7hrs 43mins – a long way behind the iPad 2, the Xoom and others.

BlackBerry Tablet OS

The most interesting aspect of the PlayBook isn’t the hardware, but the platform. BlackBerry Tablet OS is what sets the PlayBook apart, and RIM looks to have done a very nice job with it indeed.

The key here is its simplicity. When you fire up the PlayBook, the first screen you come to is a vertically scrolling iOS-esque app launch grid. Above sits a list of four categories – All, Favourites, Media and Games – and at the top of the screen is a status bar, complete with clock and date. You can swipe left and right to navigate to the different categories, drag a finger down from the top to pull down the settings, and that’s about it. It takes a matter of moments to get to grips with.

Only when you start to fire up apps do the fireworks start, however. Within any app, drag a finger up from the below the screen (the screen bezel is touch sensitive, not just the surface of the display), and the multitasking view appears, with thumbnails of each running app displayed in a scrollable carousel across the middle of the screen.

Switching between tasks is then a simple matter of swiping to the one you want and tapping it. You can launch new apps using the minimized app launch menu at the bottom, and end any running app with a dismissive upwards flick of a digit. It’s an approach very similar to Palm smartphones running webOS, and it works just as well here on the big(ish) screen.

Other elements of the UI are equally successful: the keyboard, though small, feels wonderfully responsive under the finger. We were typing away as accurately as we’ve managed on any of the larger-screened tablets we’ve used recently. Accessing and, crucially, understanding the device’s settings is as easy as pie.

The browser is excellent too, with support out of the box for Flash 10.1, quick load times and smooth panning and zooming. The full BBC homepage loaded in an average of eight seconds, and the PlayBook completed the SunSpider test in two seconds, backing up our initial impressions.

A Bridge too far?

The biggest difference between the PlayBook and the army of other tablets, however, is that it isn’t intended to be used to be used as a standalone device at all. You can only unleash its full potential by partnering it with a BlackBerry handset.

In fact, at least with the current software, you won’t be able access your BlackBerry email, calendars, contacts and tasks at all unless you first install BlackBerry Bridge on a compatible BlackBerry smartphone and pair the two over Bluetooth. Once this is set up, emails and messages are delivered as they would be on your phone, but through apps enhanced for display on the larger screen of the PlayBook. You can also tether your PlayBook to your BlackBerry handset, piggybacking on its 3G internet connection.

To many users, particularly security-conscious corporates, bridging will make a lot of sense, with email and sensitive data stored only on one device, making it easier to manage and secure in the event of loss or theft. But the need for the Bridge connection will restrict its appeal initially – native apps are coming to the platform in a future software update, but RIM has given no firm timescale as to when.

It’s a similar situation with apps. The numbers are on the thin side right now, but that has the potential to grow rapidly, and the reason for this is that RIM has built into its new Tablet OS compatibility with Android apps.

The PlayBook won’t run the Android Market in the same way as a native Android tablet or smartphone can, but after repackaging their apps and submitting them to RIM, developers can have them hosted on BlackBerry App World too. That should mean the numbers ramp up pretty quickly.

Verdict

Coupled with its fabulous screen, superb new UI and performance, and a compact, lightweight form factor, that means the PlayBook has serious potential. The messaging and BlackBerry Bridge worked well on the Wi-Fi version we had to test, and its corporate credentials mean it will certainly be very popular among the pinstriped types.

That business focus means it won’t appeal to everyone, but if its price mirrors the reasonable US tag (nothing official has been announced for the UK just yet) and the 3G version doesn’t take too long to arrive, we see no reason why it can’t challenge the best tablets on the market.

Detail
Warranty	1 yr return to base
Physical
Dimensions	194 x 10.4 x 130mm (WDH)
Weight	425g
Display
Primary keyboard	On-screen
Screen size	7.0in
Resolution screen horizontal	1,024
Resolution screen vertical	600
Display type	IPS
Panel technology	IPS
Core specifications
CPU frequency, MHz	1,000MHz
Integrated memory	16.0GB
RAM capacity	1,000MB
Camera
Camera megapixel rating	5.0mp
Focus type	Autofocus
Built-in flash?	no
Built-in flash type	N/A
Front-facing camera?	yes
Video capture?	yes
Other
WiFi standard	802.11n
Bluetooth support	yes
Integrated GPS	yes
Accessories supplied	Neoprene slip case
Upstream USB ports	0
HDMI output?	yes
Video/TV output?	no
Software
Mobile operating system	BlackBerry Tablet OS